Mountain Bike Handlebar Sweep Angle

With your bike upright on flat ground kneel down so that you are at eye level with your handlebar.

Mountain bike handlebar sweep angle. Rise is another factor that plays into handlebar comfort. If the body is. Only then can the 80 cm or more of travel that the human body is capable of providing be effectively added to the 10 20 cm of travel the bike provides. Typically upsweep measurements are roughly 5degrees and only vary slightly between bars.

Mountain bike handlebars are typically configured with zero rise flat bars all the way up to 100mm roughly 4 inches. Many cross country riders use handlebars with no rise whereas downhillers tend to like more rise. Then rotate the bar forward one or two degrees. The most important rule when riding in technical terrain is to remain relaxed.

It refers to how much the bar travels upwards from the clamp area to the hands. Common sweep measurements are in the range of 8 or 9 degrees backsweep. For the most part modern mountain bikes come stocked with relatively wide and straight handlebars typically with a 9 degree sweep or less and a subtle rise at best. There are two different measurements of sweep.

Whilst this style of handlebar may well suit a trail rider s needs they re not necessarily the best option for big backcountry rides and long distance bikepacking. Naturally upsweep measures the angle at which the bars bend up from the stem and backsweep measures how far the bars bend back. Choosing the right amount of rise usually comes down to rider position on the bike. For example if your bike has a 65 degree head angle a quick trigonometry equation shows that for every 10 mm of spacers you add the stem moves 9 06 mm upwards but importantly 4 22 mm rearwards.

Rise has ranged from typically 0mm to 50mm upsweep is usually around 5º back sweep has ranged between roughly 7 10º with most bars landing around 8º while width slowly crept out to 780 800mm and pretty much stayed there. Bars with 100mm rise aren t very common anymore so these days high rise bars are usually in the 40 50mm range about 1 5 2 inches. Adjust the fore aft angle. Mtb handlebar usage how do you hold a mountain bike handlebar properly.

Look at the sweep of your bar and set it so that the ends of the bar are as far back as they ll go.