XC 29ers with riser bars

Just looks a bit wrong, doesn’t it?

Convince me otherwise.

Not sure about looks, but it’s hard to climb a very steep slope when your weight is so far back. Lovely on the flat though when pootling along looking at the view

just came to the same conclusion and bought a pair of 710 flats to replace my risers. Will be adding bar ends too for another hand position and for more single ring climbing grunt.

whether it looks wrong or right i don’t care, but i recently bought some pretty flat ones and they fit lovely.

I have a lovely Easton carbon riser from back in the days of 26. It’s 660mm wide which I think would be a good width for the bike, but it’s quite a lot of rise. Because the front of the bike is so high anyway it just looks a bit wrong.

But the saddle and bars are both really high anyway, I guess steep angles, 100mm of travel and 29″ wheels mean it’s always going to be high.

bought a pair of 710 flats

What did you get? Quite tempted to get some nice light not too wide flats since the contents of my parts bin are quite porky – except the Eastons mentioned above.

I only bought cheap, see if i like the change, and if I do will then probably upgrade

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/funn-flame-on-flat-bar/rp-prod109349

plus they were orange to match the frame 😳
210g for 710mm isn’t too bad though

I have an EA50 on at the moment, which I cut down for a previous project and it’s still hefty. The EA70 is light though and only £25.

Fashions change but fashion is always a load of toss. If it feels good then ride it. If it feels shit then fix it or change it.

I think it’s too high of a rise. A low riser might work.

fashion is always a load of toss

It is. When I say ‘looks wrong’ I mean functionally, as in ‘looks like it won’t ride nicely’. Sort of intuition.

Although that and fashion are linked.

Hmmm, I’ve got the stem slammed and a pair with 1″ or so of rise, it’s about right.

Had considered putting the stem a bit higher and going for flat bars though. And I suppose it’s a trail bike more than an XC bike, but I’ve raced XC on it.

5 deg rise stem, 1″ rise riser, very short steerer tube on an old fisher 29er. works fine for me.

Other 29ers though I’ve inverted the stem.

on my 29’er (Giant XTC Advanced 2017) I use a Zipp SC +/-25 stem run in the minus position, and 3T 740mm flat bars to get the saddle/bar drop right

bars look weird but work great

Do people really believe 40mm of rise will slow them down significantly? Or even measurably?

Gotcha!

‘looks like it won’t ride nicely’. Sort of intuition.

^ Was now going to change into Sid James mode but decided against it.

*Edit. sort of.

Do people really believe 40mm of rise will slow them down significantly?

has to be, now that I’ve ruled out age, weight, fitness and lack of talent then equipment is the only remaining reason.

#posttruth #lieswhatlies?

Do people really believe 40mm of rise will slow them down significantly? Or even measurably?

Kryton’s HT has risers……….Let’s hope he reads this! :lol:.

I finished building a “new” xc bike using no new parts at all- a used frame and forks, and otherwise stuff I had lying around. Then I looked at the 18mm rise bars and went nope and went and bought new flat ones. No-name chinese frame, bald tyres and ancient ugly wheels I had no problem with but ever-so-slightly-the-wrong-shape, quality carbon bars? They can **** off.

Do people really believe 40mm of rise will slow them down significantly? Or even measurably?

No. Since when is everything about speed?

It’s about riding position, which is about comfort and to an extent muscle activiation. Comfort is pretty important no?

My 20mm rise is negated by my natural slouch caused by damaged vertebrae earlier in my life. my head is probably more out the wind than most.

🙂

No-name chinese frame, bald tyres and ancient ugly wheels I had no problem with but ever-so-slightly-the-wrong-shape, quality carbon bars? They can **** off.

Heh. I’m currently researching if I can paint the inner part of a Hope floating rotor to match the one on the front of the bike.. 🙂

Northwind did you sell the 18mm rise carbon bars?

If it’s about position, then there are a whole load of other factors than rise.

It’s just about looks/fashion, no matter how you dress it up.

If it’s about position, then there are a whole load of other factors than rise.

Of course. I’m also addressing those as part of my bike fettling process.

Why are you so keen to be unpleasant? Why do you even give a shit?

molgrips – Member

Northwind did you sell the 18mm rise carbon bars?

Nah, I’ve kept them for spares

I might be interested if you were to sell.

Funnily enough I’ve just replaced the 20mm rise bars with some 40mm rise ones on my Smuggler, which is a short travel 29er, if not exactly XC. Jury is still out, but I wanted to try higher bars, didn’t have much steerer to plat with and the stem is only 35mm long so not much room to play with there either.

The bike is on the small side for me – I think 70mm stem is too short with 640mm bars so I flipped the stem to lower the bars. It handled and rode ok with an XC orienated position, but I had too much pressure on my hands. I might go up to 90mm stem flipped back again, OR I might try a 740mm flat bar with the 70mm flipped.

Not quite sure yet on the relationship between stem length and bar width. 740mm feels ridiculous on that bike in the garage. I will have to ride it on the trail.

Currently thinking about +ve rise 90mm stem with about 700mm flat bar width.

Just trying to myth-bust molly, apologies for my tone.

What myth would you like to bust? That a riser is not right for my bike? Not really a myth, is it? Thread is intended to provoke a discussion about bars that give extra height on bikes that are likely to have already high front ends. Was hoping for pics too!

My son has a fairly XC HT (100mm forks, steepish HA, 29er and a stem that is ether 70 or 75mm iirc) but he has riser bars on it (720mm) although he doesn’t really ride it much as an XC bike either but it hasn’t held him back at all, he pretty much monsters everything but then is exceptionally fit.

On my xc bike (again with old school angles) I have 750mm flat bars, but have recently been trying out an 80mm stem (it came with a 100mm) but I’m still split on what felt better if being honest, along with old fashioned too. In fact my recent rides have been more about over analysis than a RoverPig ride 😆 😉 Sorry RP, I couldn’t resist! I am worse than you I know!

cynic-al – Member

If it’s about position, then there are a whole load of other factors than rise.

It’s just about looks/fashion, no matter how you dress it up.

Ridiculous. I prefer the look of the risers, but i wanted a lower position/feel on the front end. I only have 2 ways of managing that, 1 stem, 2 bars. If you can tell me anohter way i’m happy to listen. (assuming my bars have no spacers below the stem here, which is the case).
I bought them for a specfic geometry reason… they do exactly that.

29er, wide riser bars, with bar ends – I’m going to burn in hell 😉

Popped into Evans at lunch. All the trail/XC MTBs had enormously wide bars with a slight rise, and yet the one I sat on felt very comfortable.

I was thinking that wider bars neeed a shorter stem, but these had 70 or 90mm stems on. I think the difference is that they aren’t low – the bars are quite high. So I think I might try the wide bar, the long stem AND put it up as high as I can.

Everyone suggested risers on a 29er would be hell. I normally ride low-rise 15-20mm so I thought I’d take a punt on what I already had, and it seems to be working out just fine. I can see that higher rises like the old Easton Monkeybars etc would possibly be a problem, but low rise seems to work for me.

I’ve got a beautiful and seriously light low rise carbon bar. Problem is it’s only 610mm wide and has a 25.4mm clamp!

Answer ProTaper 720mm half-inch riser on my Giant XTC 29-er. Not a big difference from the previous OEM Giant flat bars (695mm width), but I do prefer the angles (backsweep and upsweep of the Answer). I don’t race though, just use the XTC for trail riding/touring

I fitted the 740mm flats with a 90mm stem. Felt comfortable, but really just too wide. Might’ve been better with the 70mm.

Fitted the lovely bling old style carbon risers, and they looked wrong because they WERE wrong. Very wrong, hilarously so in fact. I reckon 700 is about right. May either trim the 740s or get something else.

I like risers. Even low risers because of the position they move my elbows to. Current fannying around with position on a 29er, 100mm, 70deg ha. 70mm, 0deg and 740 Thomson trail bars seems to feel ok. Probably won’t next week as another idea comes my way…

Is there a right answer?

Low risers look good, but the ones I tried are 10 years old and have a really high rise, and the flat parts rise up at an angle too. So my hands felt really close together, high up and out in front. And at a funny angle.

I think I’m going to trim the El Guapos down to 720 or maybe even 700 and use the 90mm stem at +5 deg.

Right. Trimmed by feel, ended up with about 690mm.