Help with Handlebars, rise, no rise, big sweep, small sweep

[psyber_0ptix]

What do you guys prefer? i ran a Profile design tenacious-D on my norco
712mm wide, 50mm rise and 8° sweep

however with my new frame i'm havin difficulty choosing new bars.

its 31.8 clamp now and i'm wondering whether or not to go flat bar or riser bar.

and also how big a deal is seep and comfort? the simtra and echo riser bars are 5 degrees, the flat echos are 9.

anyone prefer one over the other, or does it not make that large a difference.

i'm now using an adamant a1 (+55bb) with a 145x20° stem

advice, personal experience, and recomendations greatly appreciated. i just want to collect as much data before making a choice. the bars i have now are killing my wrists (race face evolve dh 26" wide)

[goose]

play with the angle of your risers to see if it helps at all. If you tip them way forward, they start to simulate flat bars with a longer stem:)

It seems to me that with the longer bikes, more of your weight is over your wrists/hands while on two wheels, which could be why they're hurtin more than the much shorter streetish bike you used to have.

[aki]

With +55, you might want to go with 25° or even 30°. I was running 20° stem on my +20mm BB Pitbull.

[psyber_0ptix]

any recomendations on length with 25° stem?

also what is everyones preferences on bars. rise or no rise, big sweep or little

[aki]

Little rise & sweep. I think I found it to be the most comfortable. It's probably because my arms are shorter. The big sweet like the BT bars wasn't as comfortable.

The more angle, the longer you want the stem to be. 25°, I would say at least 130mm if not 140mm. It all depends on your physique & what's comfortable for you.

[trialsin usa]

Quick note on bars.

You will have the most efficient use of muscles if your bars are approx. the width of your shoulders+width of two fists. While bars that are a mile wide might be the latest rage (it was 12 years ago as well...what comes around, unfortunatly, usually comes around more than once).... it is really just a Napoleon complex that perpetuates people using this size bar.

Wider bar does make easier balance, it also (if too wide) makes more effort the pull the front end up. Strike a balance, don't feed an ego.

Also, if you were at Big Bear Lake WV comp last weekend.... you know why ridiculously wide bars can be a hinderance!

[johnglazer]

Also, if you were at Big Bear Lake WV comp last weekend.... you know why ridiculously wide bars can be a hinderance!

You mean bars over 10" wide? :momaru:

[MultiRider]

Hey, Tim, speaking of stems and bars and comfort and control, did you see my reply to you on the "Nats" thread? Or get my emails? Or vmail? I haven't received a reply from you.

I'm somewhat reluctant to order the System Ex stem from Tarty after the folks at Cyclesense said System Ex stems are not made for trials. I submitted a query on the Tarty web site, but they haven't answered. I can't seem to find a home page for a company that claims to make System Ex.

Have you heard of System Ex before? Do they make durable stems? Suitable for trials?

Obviously, trials is hard on bike parts and I'd hate to have a stem crack or break. That would be bad. Could be very bad.

Please advise.

[trialsin usa]

Hey, Tim, speaking of stems and bars and comfort and control, did you see my reply to you on the "Nats" thread? Or get my emails? Or vmail? I haven't received a reply from you.

I'm somewhat reluctant to order the System Ex stem from Tarty after the folks at Cyclesense said System Ex stems are not made for trials. I submitted a query on the Tarty web site, but they haven't answered. I can't seem to find a home page for a company that claims to make System Ex.

Have you heard of System Ex before? Do they make durable stems? Suitable for trials?

Obviously, trials is hard on bike parts and I'd hate to have a stem crack or break. That would be bad. Could be very bad.

Please advise.

Yes, returned e-mail regarding this. Do not get adjustable stems....very, very bad idea. Any stem that does not list trials is probably not a good idea. 140-150 I really think is going to be way too long. TMS has a 130x30, hopefully will get small parts order from them in not too long....but surprisingly that size has become very scarce here in the states... if not non existant at the moment.

[trialsin usa]

You mean bars over 10" wide? :momaru:

Ha, ha!..... *cough* Monty bar *cough* *cough*

[psyber_0ptix]

well the rough guestimate of my shoudler + 2 fists come to about 28"

then again its kinda hard to do by ones self with a wall and measuring tape.

i think i want to get something similar to the bar i had before (which was 712mm wide )

between the echo and the zhi, the zhi has more rise, but what are the differences in sweep?

[MultiRider]

Yes, returned e-mail regarding this. Do not get adjustable stems....very, very bad idea. Any stem that does not list trials is probably not a good idea. 140-150 I really think is going to be way too long. TMS has a 130x30, hopefully will get small parts order from them in not too long....but surprisingly that size has become very scarce here in the states... if not non existant at the moment.
I haven't received an email from you, Tim. Did you hit "Reply" or did you type in the addresss? "Reply" should work.

Since this has been on my mind since January when we first talked about it, I decided to try to make a visual aid so I can better picture the differences. Check this out -- shows my current 120x20 stem, then shows that a 130x30 puts the bars about the same distance in front of the frame but 23mm higher, and shows that a 150x30 would put the bars 20mm farther forward and 37mm higher. Perhaps you were already aware, but I thought it interesting that a 130x30 puts the bars the same distance forward, only higher. I haven't tried different stems on other bikes, but I've read about the effects of stem lenth - too long and the bike gets twitchy plus your weight is farther forward. Anyway, I though others might find the visual interesting as well.