Jimmy said...
Quoted message said:OK, I can accept that, but he did say it's out of fashion and people laugh at cyclists with bar
ends and straight bars.
I have heard that putting bar ends on riser bars is a major fashion faux pas, but not bar ends on
flat bars. Yet some people do it anyway. I don't use bar ends, but I would assume they would have
many of the same benefits on riser bars that they do on flat bars. Bear in mind though, that I'm
just a recreational rider and not part of the hip crowd.
Quoted message said:What's the advantage of riser bars, besides putting you in a more upright position which some
people may find more comfortable?
Here are some of the advantages that I know of. Others could probably tell you more than me:
1) Your position is better balanced going downhill
2) Related to #1, since your center of gravity is further back, you have less chance of doing an
endo or going over the bars.
3) It takes pressure off the hands--going back to the original intention of this thread. I would
add, and this is just something that has occurred to me and is not necessarily part of biking
wisdom, that if you have less weight on your hands, then they are more free to do their primary
jobs of steering the bike and operating the levers.
4) You are in a better position for pulling up on the bars to help clear obstacles.
5) Less weight on the front wheel with all the good and bad that goes with it--probably a good
thing on slippery patches where the front wheel is in danger of sliding out.
6) Riser bars let you make subtle adjustments to riding position depending on how you place them.
Disadvantages:
7) Not as good going uphill.
8) Less aerodynamic.
9) As you said, it places more weight to the seat.
10) Less room for all the stuff that must be mounted on the bars: levers, grips, bar ends.
11) Substantially higher weight.
