c_m_shooter

If you have suspension, flat bars are great. I ride a lot of bikes. On a rigid bike, drops are superior. The hand position makes it easier to soak up bumps with your arms, transfering lees of it to your neck. This does require the drops to be at a reasonable height, about where your grips on your flat bar would be on a well fitting bike.

c_m_shooter

Bolt upright is not the best position on a rigid bike.

c_m_shooter

Good question.

Eric F 

Since all of my current fully-rigid bikes are drop bar, and I haven't ridden a fully-rigid flat bar bike on rough terrain in over 30 years, you might be right for that condition. However, your previous comment was "never". It's the "never" that doesn't match with my experience.

Eric F 

You answered the question here...

It's also about leverage when the conditions get rough.

wolfchild

Very few bikes out there have bars which are completely flat....Most of what people call flat bars have few mm of raise and few degrees of back sweep and they're not really flat. They should really be called riser bars.... Riser bars and more upright riding position are superior to drop bars when it comes to handling and control on pavement, gravel, singlestrack trails and city traffic.

Rolla

Could be, but nobody said "bolt upright." Please do a better job of responding to what is actually said, rather than altering it for your rhetorical purposes.

Ironfish653

I wonder how we did it in the 80s and 90s, before suspension, or when you only had 60mm travel? Imagine how much better we’d have been if we’d just been on drops.

The width of the bar helps with leverage, and the height and reach determine how easily you can adjust your weight distribution between your feet and your hands.
You’re conflating bar shape with a whole bunch of other setup factors. Bar shape is a secondary factor, and a comfort/ preference aspect at that.

Some of these gravel bars are approaching or are exceeding the width of the narrow straight bars we used to use BITD.

Camilo

I won't argue with your point that at some point wider flat bars might well provide the maneuverability needed compared to drop bars. But that has nothing to do with tire size. There's a lot of stuff that's easily ridden with drop bars where nice wide tires are also an advantage. Rough gravel or dirt roads are an example. I regularly ride 35 mm tires as well as 50mm tires on my gravel bike and have all the maneuverability I need and also the tire width that I need.

TheMountBike

There is no definitive answer to this question as it depends on a number of factors, including the type of bike you are riding, the width of your tires, and your personal preference. That said, generally speaking, drop bars offer more clearance for wider tires than flat bars do. So if you are looking to run wider tires on your bike, drop bars may be the way to go.
One key difference between the two types of handlebars is tire clearance. Drop bar bikes typically have less tire clearance than flat bar bikes. This can be an issue if you want to run wider tires, such as 35mm or 40mm tires.

Some drop bar bike frames may only have enough clearance for 28mm tires. If you're considering a drop bar bike, make sure to check the tire clearance before buying. You may need to size up to a larger frame or choose a different model altogether if you want to run wider tires.

Ultimately, it's up to each rider to decide whether the benefits of using drop bars outweigh the drawbacks.

If you're interested in switching to drop handlebars, it's generally possible to do so with some minor modifications. You'll need to purchase new brake levers that are compatible with drop bars, as well as new shifters if your current ones aren't compatible. You may also need to get new cables and housing, depending on the differences between your old setup and the new one.

Kapusta

Will somebody make this bot go away?

Eric F 

Go away, dumb bot.

Reported to Mods.

urbanknight

My question is why did they switch to riser bars and ditch the bar ends? I felt those bar ends were awesome for climbing, but maybe that's just because I was a roadie first and like climbing on the hoods.

wolfchild

I have bar ends on my riser bars and yes they are awesome for getting extra leverage when climbing out of the saddle...I think the main reason why flat bars are not mainstream anymore is because riser bars provide much better handling and are more comfortable.

Eric F 

Who is using riser bars? Looking at the bikes of the top World Cup XC riders, slammed stems and flat bars appears to the typical setup. Here's 9 bikes from one of last year's races... https://www.pinkbike.com/news/9-hard...-cup-2022.html

Nino Shurter takes it to another level...

LesterOfPuppets

Yeah once you get into running 160 mm travel forks, not many riders wanna add bar height with a riser bar.

LesterOfPuppets

Sometime in the mid/late 90s riders decided that maybe 4" saddle to bar drop was a little extreme even for XC, so some went for riser bars.

urbanknight

Ah ok so flat bars it is, but still no love for bar ends.

Eric F 

Not sure how/why they went out of fashion, but they certainly did.

Rolla

Bikepackers often use bar ends, although sometimes they're in the middle of the bar.

badger1

Not for me! Stolen bike () below. Pic from 2015. I've pretty much the same set up on New Bike, but no pic handy at the moment.

wolfchild

One of my bikes is set up with bar ends on the outside and on the inside. The outer bar ends are mostly for extra leverage when climbing hills or just to have a different hand position. The inner bar ends are really great when on a longer distance ride or when it's windy, it's just another extra hand position. Really like that set up and I am thinking of setting up my second bike the same way.,

LesterOfPuppets

One of my favorite barend setups for gravel riding and commuting was with controls on the barends, then I'd use the flat bars for climbing only.
I ditched the 130mm stem, put on a 90mm, put on a wishbone shifter for the front and thumbie for the rear.

79pmooney

I like! Simple, clean. I'll probably never leave drop bars (and dirt's becoming a memory) but if I went there, I'd consider that as a great start.

But. the big question (and to topic) what does that bar setup do to your tire clearances?

Ironfish653

Geometry of the whole bike changed. Fork travel went from 60-80mm to 100-140mm as typical; add in the bigger 27.5/29er wheels, and the whole front of the bike is taller
TT length is longer too, so there’s not the need to “stretch out” like you had on a 26er

Except for hard-core XC racers, the rider position is more upright, with a wider stance. No one runs 540mm bars on 150 stems anymore.
And for whatever reason, a riser on a short stem works better than a straight bar on a taller, angled one, even when the grips end up in the same spot