Short stem / wide bars - does it work on a retro MTB?

[Nigeyy]

I don't mind admitting when I find I've changed my ways.....

In the past I was a narrow handlebar/long stem kind of person, but the purchase of a new FS about 5 year ago with a riser and short stem changed my opinion completely. I immediately found that I was more comfortable -and yes, while it now is slightly more difficult going uphill, it was nothing I couldn't deal with and had the added bonus of better handling over obstacles. So much so, that when I reinvigorated my old hardtail ("Oldies but goodies") I went with a riser bar and short stem for the same effect (so yes, risers and short stem do work on old mtbs as far as I'm concerned!).

The only thing I wasn't willing to give up were my Profile Stubby bar ends -I just find them so comfortable (particularly going uphill), and I'm confident enough not to take notice of the mtb fashion police. I mean, if they work, they work, and I really don't care what they look like. Mind you, I am a bit older and I do wear Crocs too Once you get a bit older, you just realize you can't give a toss so long as it works for you.

My first impression was that aesthetically I don't like them as much as the old ones (my beloved bar ends had to go)...

 

[ChrisEyles]

Thanks @3narf! I do rather like the way the bike looks now, in a different-than-usual way (to me, the most beautiful MTB ever is the old head down arse up GT zaskar).

I don't think bar ends are going to work for me on these bars, being forward and with arms outstretched feels weird! Maybe a pair of the little stubby ones would be good for longer days riding, but the cow horns are definitely out. I joked that the only way to keep them would be to mount them inboard of the brakes/shifters, but I think the shape of the riser bar would interfere (and it would look stoopid!).

When I get out to the trails I'm going to have a play with saddle height too. Previously I've always preferred the seat up high (pretty much optimum pedalling efficiency minus a smidge) and couldn't find much benefit from dropping it, but leaning the bike more seems natural with the wider bars... will be interesting to see how it changes things around.

 

[ChrisEyles]

Took the bike out for it's first proper outing at the local trail centre today. It was awesome We had some rather unusual snow mixed in with the hail down here in Devon so the woods were looking really beautiful, it was a cracking (cold!) winter's day.

The new cockpit set-up worked out really nicely, I managed to get some really nice flow through the bends at slightly faster speeds than usual - leaning into the corners seems to take a bit less "grunt" than with the narrow bars and feels really natural.

I did have one knuckle-rapping moment going through a speed control chicane, probably lucky that it came early on in the ride to remind me and not at high speed on a tree trunk! I've definitely still got a bit of work to do on that little shimmy to get the bars through a narrow gap.

So the answer seems to be a definite yes - wide bars work nicely on an old-school bike, and make for a correspondingly wide grin on the way around the trails

 

[ChrisEyles]

I did have a bit of a mechanical along the way... one of the jockey wheels fell out my derailleur (not a problem I've come across before, and I *thought* the screw was done up tight). I thought I'd just dropped a chain so sailed all the way down the downhill section thinking I'd pick it up at the bottom - cue a long walk to the top! Fortunately the bike hire shop at the centre were really helpful and dug out an old STX mech with a matching jockey wheel. Besides that I didn't drop a single chain in over 20 miles including some rough stuff, which I'm really pleased about, so the front mech will be staying off.

 

[Kajjal]

Bar ends and narrow bars are no use to anyone on a mountain bike. My old orange xc hardtail (1996) had both

It now has a wider riser bar and rides really well considering, very smooth gear changes and the vbrakes do stop you after a bit. I took it up into the mountains by the coast in Ireland and it was a very different ride to modern bikes

 

[Hugh Manatee]

Do you mean they sell something other than 21" flat bars and 150mm stems now? Those crazy kids....

It'll explain why so many end up wrapped around trees on the Chase. They can't fit through the gaps!

 

[ChrisEyles]

Haha, yes, I'm going to have to watch it squeezing between some of the gaps on the trails I regularly ride and *used to* fit through fine!

Much as I love the new set-up on this bike, I think I'll be keeping the 580mm bars and long stem on my other (rigid) MTB, since it's nice to be able to pick from two quite different bikes... I'm always faintly suspicious of trends like this (they sometimes seem more about form than function) but I'm convinced that the wide bar/short stem set-up does make for an easier life on the trails.

One modern trend I'm not quite so convinced by is the oval chainring I fitted to the bike - I honestly couldn't tell the difference from a regular round one! It's a nice idea but doesn't seem to make much difference out in the real world.

 

[ChrisEyles]

I guess the next thing I should experiment with is a lower seat height for descending. At the moment it just feels dead wrong and I end up popping the seat up to near optimum pedalling height after a few minutes. I'd love to have a go on a dropper post but they seem a bit pricey for what they are.

 

[Jody]

Try riding with the seat marginally under optimum height. It will leave you enough to manoeuvre without having to keep adjusting the seat. You should only need to drop it right down if you are doing really steep runs of techy stuff with big hits. I had a dropper but got rid of it when it developed a fault. I only used it a small percentage of time so don't really miss it.

 

[ChrisEyles]

I've currently got the seat about an inch and a half under optimum pedalling height. This seems to be a pretty good compromise for pedalling and handling. The bike's got a high-ish bottom bracket when the rear suspension isn't compressed/sagging, so if I set it up right at optimum height it's a bit of a hop to get on/off the seat!

 

[Nigeyy]

I had that happen to me once as well. After getting home I put a replacement in -and if I remember rightly -couldn't tighten it too much without causing friction on the jockey wheel and ended up putting some threadlock on the bolt. Strangely it was just that one derailleur and many derailleurs later never had it happen again, so I suppose take the threadlock comment with a large grain of salt.

Really nice to see the pictures, have fun!

I did have a bit of a mechanical along the way... one of the jockey wheels fell out my derailleur (not a problem I've come across before, and I *thought* the screw was done up tight). I thought I'd just dropped a chain so sailed all the way down the downhill section thinking I'd pick it up at the bottom - cue a long walk to the top! Fortunately the bike hire shop at the centre were really helpful and dug out an old STX mech with a matching jockey wheel. Besides that I didn't drop a single chain in over 20 miles including some rough stuff, which I'm really pleased about, so the front mech will be staying off.

 

[Celticdog]

I changed over from standard bars to charge straws- big mistake, no control whatsoever. My thinking was that I could ride straight through those A frame metal gates you find on many bridlepaths and trails they put up to discourage the off road motorcyclists. I've been keeping it simple too, no bar ends and I've lopped a bit off either end to about 580mm, it seems to work for me.

 

[Drago]

Shorter stems can be good. Google "the tiller effect".