My bike came with Salsa Bend2 bars, which from memory are about 23 degree sweep. I think the bars are causing muscle soreness on the outside of my forearm just below the elbow. Picking up a mug of tea the following day makes the soreness particularly noticeable!

Anyone else experienced this? I’ve rotated the bars a couple of times with no improvement, the bike is rigid but I don’t have this pain on my drop bar rigid gravel bike (obv different hand position). It is a singlespeed so potentially heaving on the pedals and bracing the bars at a different angle might exacerbate it.

I’ve given it three weeks without much improvement so I’m probably going to swap the bars with another bike and see what happens.

No similar experience, but there’s a handy tool to compare width and sweep with various bars

HERE

Those bars look similar to On-one Mary bars I used to have on my 2005 Inbred, I liked them but heaving on them out of the saddle (I too rode singlespeed) used to make the bottom of my hands and little fingers hurt, must be the shape. Changed them after a crash to regular riser bars (Easton monkey bars I think) and I didn’t get the pain anymore.

Maybe think about the grips if you have a swept bar? My loop-shaped bar has more sweep than even those yet with grips designed for swept bars (Ergon something) – now I don’t get probs. I did have to rotate them (bars) back quite steeply to get them right. IIRC having them set too shallow an angle (or closer to level) gave me fore-arm and back grief.

Thanks guys…the bike did come with Ergon grips for swept bars but like some other bolts on the bike, they were over tightened and one thread was stripped out. Initially I had them set with a slight up-sweep like normal bars which was obviously wrong once I rode it, they are now angled slightly down so they feel natural to the hands. I might angle them down further as you suggest Malvern, will just need to compensate by moving a spacer under the stem as the brake levers will clout the top top.

Longer term think I will just swap them out anyway as I can see them being a pain when fitting lights etc as nothing will point straight 🙂

OP I had the very same pain with salsa bend 23s. I went back to riser bars, I was still getting pain so decided to try lots of sweep (Jones bars). That seemed to cure all my pain and I wouldn’t go back.

I ran Mary bars upside down for a while – actually quite a comfortable arrangement. Might be worth a try if all else fails.

Are you sure its the bars causing the pain, sounds like it could be tennis elbow, I have got it from using the mouse to intensively at work.

It’s definitely worth playing with the angle – rotating them up/down in the stem, it’ll make much more difference than with a regular bar. You might get comfy on them.

I’ve got some 12degree backsweep bars and I get less elbow pain with them than with regular bars.

If you don’t have any joy, those bars have got their fans and Salsa don’t make them any more, you should get some money for them, at least.

Most people run this style of bar too flat.
Dropping the ends down and raising the stem results in a brilliant comfy “in the bike” feel.

It’s noticeable how my stem needs to be an inch higher than 10 years ago to be comfy now 😉

I was getting wrist and elbow pain on my rigid bike. I went to Salsa 17 deg bend bars which were better but I still felt I wanted more bend. I then got the Ritchey  Kyote bars which are 27.5 deg and combined with ergon grips have been really good.

Another big change was getting a vertical mouse for the computer

Think it was you Brant that advised me to rotate them back much farther. I also now use a silly high stem (like 50 deg rise) which looks foul yet is supremely comfort-making

I can see them being a pain when fitting lights etc as nothing will point straight

Possibly the worst reason to ditch some bars* as nowadays there are endless varieties of light-mount-adaptor available for notalot

*I say this having long ago sold on some Mary bars in the past for the same reason. Loved the bars, yet could never get the light mount right. Now I’d buy something like the Minoura CS-500 or some Garmin-mount gubbins

there are endless varieties of light-mount-adaptor available for notalot

eg:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B016WMNYUW

Same as the candbseen one that’s been recommended on here (and used by me on a Lumenator) and the one hope sell for 60% more. Just bought another for wife’s bikehut jobby.