Riserbars - why?

[OrangeRetro]

In a word, fashion. In a few more words, anything that MBR says is absolutely essential and makes all the difference between a good bike and a bad bike must be bad. They say you can't get your hands in the right position with a flat bar, which makes no sense to me.

The thing that most surprises me is that the riser bar fashion has survived the move to long-travel forks. It's one thing to say you want the front end higher, but with 130mm forks it's high anyway. But some people who find their bars too high would rather flip the stem than fit a flat bar.

Sorry but I can't agree it's just fashion. It makes a massive difference to me with the back pain and I haven't found a stem and flat bar combo to match my risers.

They sweep back and up for a perfect hand position and with a decent 100mm stem I get a good position for my back. Not much rise on the stem either.

It looks nice and is totally functional.

I have to agree, risers aren't about fashion, the upsweep and backsweep do make a difference. Risers offer far great control, especially at speed. I suppose it all depends what kind of riding you are into?

 

[MikeD]

So, why use riser bars when you can achieve the same position via other ends?

You couldn't, for a long time. Even now there aren't that many 26in flat bars with 9 degrees of sweep on the market.

 

[andrewl]

The thing that most surprises me is that the riser bar fashion has survived the move to long-travel forks. It's one thing to say you want the front end higher, but with 130mm forks it's high anyway.

Spoken by a man who doesn't ride a 130mm FS bike?

 

[W W Biffta]

i seem to remember back in the day, late 80s someone explaining to me that risers were better cos if you had head on crash, the bars will rotate in the stem and take some of the shock out of you wrists. anyone else heard that? assume its something like the same reason they use them on off road motorbikes.
point of them now is purely fashion/marketing ie no point. they been around for ages so no reason you would never have wanted them until about 8 years ago.

 

[Anthony]

The thing that most surprises me is that the riser bar fashion has survived the move to long-travel forks. It's one thing to say you want the front end higher, but with 130mm forks it's high anyway.

Spoken by a man who doesn't ride a 130mm FS bike?

Spoken by a man who is several inches shorter than you Andrew! And whose information comes from people who are probably also rather shorter than you. I'm sure you'd agree that the height of the bars relates to the height of the saddle.

 

[Anthony]

Sorry but I can't agree it's just fashion. It makes a massive difference to me with the back pain and I haven't found a stem and flat bar combo to match my risers.
They sweep back and up for a perfect hand position and with a decent 100mm stem I get a good position for my back. Not much rise on the stem either.
It looks nice and is totally functional.

I have to agree, risers aren't about fashion, the upsweep and backsweep do make a difference. Risers offer far great control, especially at speed. I suppose it all depends what kind of riding you are into?

I'm pretty sure Titec for one have been offering wide 9 degree sweep bars since BITD.

Certainly there isn't any fundamental reason why risers should either be wider than flat bars or have more sweep than flat bars. Manufacturers offer what they think there's a market for, that's all.

 

[tintin40]

I've often asked my self this question :? Give me flats every time

 

[gibbleking]

my old raleigh maveric in blue came with risers ....in 1986 ...so did the old clunkers......then came narrow straight bars the length of a used pencil....seems straight bars are not immune to fashion either cos thiswas the worst idea of em all...nearly killd me on a steep downhill section because ihad no leverage to keep the front wheel steady.this is why i have risers still......

 

[Craig Nicholson]

Even the old shopper type bikes had risers - the original 'mounain' bikes used in california were old shoppers and as heavy as hell. They'd razz downhill on them to see who was fastest down the mountain.

So if we are being picky, weight weenies, single track and flat bars are fashions themselves. To be grass roots you need to downhill on a shopper bike with risers and it has to weight a ton!

 

[BarneyRubble]

Even the old shopper type bikes had risers - the original 'mounain' bikes used in california were old shoppers and as heavy as hell. They'd razz downhill on them to see who was fastest down the mountain.

So if we are being picky, weight weenies, single track and flat bars are fashions themselves. To be grass roots you need to downhill on a shopper bike with risers and it has to weight a ton!

I'm inclined to agree that it was straight bars that were fashion driven by weight weenies and XC racers. Risers have been around for longer and offer a more comfortable riding position for all day riding than flats.