To Rise up or to Flat down on the 29er, that is the question?

Just would like some feedback on whether or not to choose a 15mm riser bar for a 29er mtb or to go back to a flat bar.

I mean 15mm rise isn’t that much or is it on a 29er – completely dunno currently.

Anyone care to share what they ride using.

Cotic Solaris, Pike @120 with a flat bar on top of ~10mm spacers. 29ers feel pretty tall up front to be anyways.

So personal preference which I thought might be the case.

thanks for the stats info on what your set up is.

what’s your stack height of head set, head tube length and stem stack height I now wonder

;D

What do you have now? Are the bars too high, too low, or just right? If they’re too low, you need higher rise bars and/or stem. If they’re too high, you need less rise. If they’re just right, stick with what you have.

All my bikes have riser bars of different amounts of rise. But that doesn’t help you because you don’t ride my bikes and are probably not the same height and body proportions.

I had flat bars and moving with a different stem at 50mm stack and 15mm risers would mean 30mm increase in height plus 20mm extra height axle to crown as going to fit 120mm forks.

So overall a 2 inch rise in height which would alleviate any back pain sure and tbh want to trail the bike re build more than xc so that’s my aim.

I understand that it comes down to what is right fit for me, just though thought I’d pose the question as most of this 29er malarkey seems to entail sticking to certain standards i.e. flat bars or is this nonsensical depending on preference and body proportions.

If I was fitting new forks, I would cut the steerer longer than I expected to need and start with the flat bars and the stem flipped, then try to find a comfortable position and cut the steerer to that length. This will let you flip the stem and change to riser bars if you decide you want the bars higher later. If you start with riser bars and cut the steerer too short, you will have less scope for adjustment later if you decide you want to raise the bars.

Personally I have all my bikes with seat and bars level or bars slightly higher.  IMO many folk run their bars too low but what does this ageing bimbler know?  all I know is what works for me and that is usually bars a couple of inches higher than average

Cotic FlareMax pikes at 130mm with 30mm of spacers and 40mm riser bars. It’s all personal preference isn’t it.

When I had 26″ wheeled bike the were considerably lower than my Solaris. But it is purely personal choice.

I just have bars and saddle at same position relative to bottom bracket as other wheel size bikes.  Wheel size shouldnt really make too much difference to bars position.

Be interested to see RoverPigs bike in a picture full frontal to see what that looks like tbh.

ohhhhhhhhhh pretty please 😉

I have 10mm rise bars with 20mm of spacers underneath on the RipMo. I fully expected to slam it and possibly get flat bars but so far not felt the need.

Nice1 Alex! that is pretty much the setup I am going for with a so steerer will be cut at 210mm with a 10mm riser bar with a 0 degree rise stem

thanks 🙂

No probs. Looks like this:

Ibis RipMo. About to get very dirty on its first ride ! by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

Be interested to see RoverPigs bike in a picture full frontal to see what that looks like tbh.

ohhhhhhhhhh pretty please

Sorry, only just seen this. I don’t seem to take many pictures from the front for some reason. This is the best I’ve got for now, but I’ll try to take a proper frontal shot tomorrow.

Is this any help ? If nothing else, at least it shows that I painted the shed 🙂

Depends of a few things:

-Bike dimensions (head tube length, stack height, headtube length/headset setup)

-Rider preference

-What you ride

Enduro – 20mm rise bar, 20mm spacers, 160mm fork

Scout 290 – 20mm ride bar, no spacers, 140mm fork

Stack height is ~10mm lower on the scout, its main task is local xc riding, doesn’t get ridden down anything steep, focus is on keeping the front end lowish for climbing/effiecieny on the pedally bits.

Enduro fluctuates a little bit depending on where I ride, will often go up 5mm if the tracks are a bit steeper.

Personal preference. Assuming you need the bar higher, do you prefer the look of loads of spacers or a riser? I always go with a riser (because it was cool 20 years ago).

AHA yes totally forgot to mention stack height iirc.

thanks for the photos, it’d definitely put me off on my ht 29er build that I am undergoing collecting parts together to use 38mm rise ones but 20mm might be a goer.

Think I’ll leave it to get built then decide to buy bars last of all, unsure? ;-/

Syntace Flatforce stems for the win (not really).

I’ve got a 10mm rise FatBar Lite with a -10deg 60mm stem and no spacers, which seems fine. But then I am mincing round the bridleways on a 100mm travel 29er HT.

Niner used to do a negative rise bar…

Syntace do a negative rise bar:

https://www.syntace.com/index.cfm?pid=3&pk=2734