Riser bar positioning

[hdtvkss]

Gday,

probably a realllyyy dumb newbie question but here goes:

i flipped the stem on my bike last night and as i was putting the handlebars back on it occured to me i was not 100% sure what alignment the handle bars should be. flat bars which ive used inthe past are pretty straight forward but riser bars seem to be different.

do you set it so the rise is at a maximim, hence goving the most sweepback? or perhaps set them forward a little? then again i guess this is somthing thats probably largley subjective? my guess would be that you set them so the bars are parrallel to the ground, could be way off though

any help would be great

g

 

[Dirt Devil]

my guess would be that you set them so the bars are parrallel to the ground

That's how they're designed to be. You can roll them a little but I wouldn't go too far.

 

[dunk]

I set mine so that the bars a parallel to the ground, but it's probably more of a personal choice more than anything

 

[Daver]

I would either have it so the ends (grips) are paralel to the ground or slightly rolled forward (feels more natural when you're going downhill).

 

[bradh]

It depends on the bar. Some have both bend (back) and (up)sweep. Others only have bend. Personally, I can't ride a bar without upsweep. It feels shithouse on my wrists. My housemate's the same, to the extent that he runs riser bars rolled forward quite a lot, so that any bend effectively becomes sweep as well. IMO it looks farkin stupid, but aesthetics isn't his #1 concern, and he loves it. So, in short, it's pretty subjective.

 

[wannabeabighitta]

I run them so the rise is at almost the same angle as the head angle

 

[hdtvkss]

ok lots to think about here! i think ill take it out on the trails on sat and try a few adjustments. either that or ill use penrose WWs to try different setups on different laps. when i set it up and looked at it some forward sweep did look right.

any more suggestions greatly appreciated

 

[Jacko Wacko]

i like to have my bars in line with the forks.

 

[bradh]

In terms of working out what works for you, I'd say: loosen the bar clamp bolt(s), sit on the bike in a neutral position, grip the bars, rotate, grip, rotate, grip, etc., back and forth... your wrists should tell what angle is best. Also, do this with the grips on, as the relative thickness of your grips might affect the outcome.