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School me on handlebars


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I feel like my wrist are a little too inward or the bar is too straight..im assuming I need to change my backsweep..here's the specs of what I got know..

 

Specialized Trail, 6061 alloy, 27mm rise, 780mm width, 8[degrees] backsweep, 6[degrees] upsweep, 31.8mm diameter

 

I think about a 1/4" turn of my wrist outward would be good.. Let me know yalls thoughts thanks..

 

Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

 

 

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I've run into this a bit in the past. Try playing with the bars as your current handlebars are pretty much common spec for most offerings, and you'll need something kinda extreme otherwise. Grips like ergon and altering saddle position can help too. 

Thankfully there's lots of vids on YT that break this down

Edited by ATXZJ
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I've run into this a bit in the past. Try playing with the bars as your current handlebars are pretty much common spec for most offerings, and you'll need something kinda extreme otherwise. Grips like ergon and altering saddle position can help too. 
Thankfully there's lots of vids on YT that break this down
Thanks for the feedback..while riding today I tried to pay attention more on what could help with more adjustments.
I'll say that moving my levers helped but could probably move them more...and being more aware of putting my weight on my feet instead of hands has helped a lot. My hands used to fall asleep on me a lot more than now.

Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

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18 hours ago, skinned elbows said:

I feel like my wrist are a little too inward or the bar is too straight

Do you really mean "inward"? Seems the straighter the bar, the more outward your wrist will be positioned. Adding sweep would point your wrist more inward I think. In any case, you should start by rotating your bars as @ATXZJ suggested. Rotating the bar will give you slight adjustments in sweep (up and back), as well as the position of the grips relative to your bottom bracket and saddle. Some bars come with a scale that measures the rotational movement forward or back from neutral. Lightening your grip and keeping from putting too much of your weight on the bars will definitely help as well, to relieve pressure on the nerve endings in the palm of your hand. Using winged grips can help, but personally I have found that to be more of a crutch than a real solution.    

If nothing works, you may have to start looking at bar width and stem length as a possible solution.   

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I use an SQLab 12° bar. feels like the bmx handlebars that I rode when I was younger. a bar with more bend may effectively shorten your reach, so you might want to pair it with a slightly longer stem. in my case, I might use a 50-60mm stem if I had a more straight bar, but I use a 70mm to balance out the reach-negating effect of the bend. some bars with more bend also have a "fowrard wiggle" to compensate, in which case you might not need to change your stem.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/exploring-the-relationship-between-handlebar-vs-stem-length.html

SQLabs has aluminum and carbon bars in 12° and 16°.  There are some super-weird bikepacking bars in there, but also a few conventional mtb bars that just have a bit more shape to them. here are some other examples.

in the end, the angle of your wrists is just a matter of personal preference. you can buy a wide handlebar in just about any height and width you can image these days with all the options on the market. Joy of Bike has attempted to help riders find the ideal sweep for their ride, but I find this approach problematic.

I'm not a fan of "alternative" grips like Ergons. those are probably helpful if you already have dialed in a great fit, including hand position, and you just need extra support for longer miles (bikepacking type stuff) or a medical lack of strength. I try to make my bike as confidence-inspiring as possible with regular old round grips and consider extra support as a last resort. I know some people swear by them, but I think it's highly likely that the weird shapes are covering up some deficiency in how the bike is set up, and serving as a band-aid to cover it up.

lastly, I think many people are using bars that are actually just too wide for their bodies. I suggest riding a bar as wide as you can use them comfortably for the sake of stability, but going too wide for your anatomy is going to hurt your wrists and shoulders. I can't remember where mine are now, but they came stock 780mm and I cut them to 750mm or so. I am 5'9", medium build, for reference. there's no specific, prescriptive way to do this, although Lee McCormack's formula tracks very well with my experience.

Edited by mack_turtle
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11 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

lastly, I think many people are using bars that are actually just too wide for their bodies. I suggest riding a bar as wide as you can use them comfortably for the sake of stability, but going too wide for your anatomy is going to hurt your wrists and shoulders. I can't remember where mine are now, but they came stock 780mm and I cut them to 750mm or so. I am 5'9", medium build, for reference.

That's the biggest change I can think of on a bike. The shoulder and wrist pain I endured before I realized wtf it was from was misery. 

I cut everything to 760 now and no more pain. 

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