Want bars lower – flat bars or negative stem?

My 29er is a bit high at the front for climbing. I’m struggling a bit to get over the front while out of the saddle and put the power down. I’m using 100mm forks with a -6deg 60mm stem. My bars are 9° Back sweep, 4° up sweep.

What’s the difference between getting a -12deg stem or -17deg stem or ‘flatter’ bars?

Flat bars first, then try with your current stem. Large amounts of stem drop with risers is a bit two-steps-forward-one-step-back.

Edit – you haven’t got risers 😳 🙂 Roll back the bars you have now then until they are flat, then you’ll know, although you’ll be a bit far back, then decide what you need.

Yeah get some flat bars first. Going to look silly with risers and a very negative stem and you risk hitting the top tube.

You might be able to remove the top cap from your headset and run the stem directly on top of the split ring but that is really getting extreme and you need to watch the bearings and clean them regularly.

Edit: just saw the above edit. If not flat, just some upwards rise then as above, not much point in wasting money on new bars for that much gain.