Why Handlebars With Alternative Shapes Make Sense

MOTO! MOTO! MOTO!

From suspension to brakes and, of course, fashion, there is no question of the influence that moto, MX, dirt biking, etc. has had on mountain biking back to the earliest days of using motorcycle levers to actuate rim brakes. But, where outfits like Fox Racing Shox, Bell, Troy Lee Designs, Öhlins, Fast House, Kali, and so on shift seamlessly between full-motor, no-motor, and the muddled middle markets of pedal-assisted-motoring and motor-assisted-pedaling, we are still missing out on one of the key takeaways from the world of throttle-twisting.

Mountain bikes, like motorbikes, come with a wide range of geometries for a wide range of usages. Yet, while your head tube angle could easily vary some 6° between use cases, and the same rider could own bikes with Reach numbers that range through a difference of 10, 20, and 30mm plus in difference, there is almost no chance that your bar – OE or aftermarket – has a backsweep (grip angle) bigger than 7-9°. Further, within a brand, there will be almost zero variation regardless of the use case or price point for a product.

I am going to throw Renthal under the bus here as they make some of my favourite riding mountain bike bars – the 31.8mm FatBar – in four rises and exactly one geometry set that doesn’t work well for me for most applications. They use a 7° backsweep and 5° upsweep across their lineup.

For a comparison, check out the wide range of dimensions that Renthal makes in their moto FatBar . There are twenty-two different geometry options just in this model. Here Renthal notes the OE applications for handlebar geometry. For example, the 849 bar is a direct replacement for 2021+ Austrian-made KTM, Husqvarna, and GasGas 65 motocross bikes, but nothing is stopping a rider from looking at the dimensions and adapting it to another rig.

Different Bikes; Different Bars

I have had a couple of folks ask about my Chromag FU40 bar on the Secondhand Postilions Spire . No, sadly, I have still not managed to talk Chromag into doing a limited run of 15°-ish backsweep alt-bars. It is not for lack of teasing, umm, I mean, trying. I do truly believe that if Chromag was onboard with some alternate options their status and cool innovators would open a lot of minds that are closed to options like SQlab, Salsa, and Soma.

It just happens that, chopped to 770mm, Chromag’s 8° backsweep and 5° upsweep work better for my wrists and elbows on this bike than other bars I had on hand when building it. Therein lies the most important part of the alt-bar message. Different riders, different bikes, different bars. It is not saying that more backsweep is universally better, only that more options are universally better. Or more accurately, the greater ridership does not benefit from two dozen brands selling handlebars with essentially identical geometries, even if those geometries are ideal for ¾ of mountain bikers.

Groad & Commuting

I am done with curly bars, and I am not the only one. Yes, I have tried different amounts of flare. Thank you, but you can keep your currently on-trend riser-drop bar. But coming to the groad (gravel road) and errand-running/commuter riding that I do around town, where I seem to regularly find my way onto short, tame, sections of single-track, I am very thankful for a more Andrew-centric wrist angle from bars in the 15-25° backsweep range. More trail I tend toward the former, more pavement I tend toward the latter.

I have been commuting on the same 780mm -16° mid-rise bar that I ran when my current ATB* was my go-to mountain bike and wanting a little different body, and wrist, position without overly impacting the fit or handling. The switch to the -20° Soma Dream Lowdown bar is exactly the right amount of difference, and this application is the perfect starting point for folks who are alt-bar curious but maybe not ready to mess with their mountain bike preference.

*{All Terrain Bike / Any Type of Bike / Another Trendy Bike}

If you are already running straight(er)-bar commuter, whether it’s an old mountain bike or a more recent release of essentially an old mountain bike or thinking about converting your curly bars to a more MTB-esque setup then it is the perfect opportunity to play with what amount of backsweep works best for you.

It may be that the standard 7-9° is perfect or, like myself, you may find that somewhere around 16° there is a significant reduction in hand numbness and elbow and wrist discomfort with no erosion of control, on most bicycles. The Spire is an obvious exception in one direction, and my commuter rig in the other.

TING!

When it comes to being open-minded about different ways to enjoy mountain bicycling, I am already trying to maintain multiple drumbeats. Hardtails. Single speeds. Rigid forks. Alt-bars are a different conversation altogether. As changing grips, pedals, or a saddle, changing bar-sweep will not fundamentally change whatever bike you are riding, whether it is a Banshee Legend 29 or a Transition Spur, a Kona Unit, or a Specialized Diverge EVO (or EVO conversion). But, as with those other components, changing out for a handlebar with more sleep could improve any number of fit-and-feel factors. Or you may hate it.

So, rather than beating a drum, think of it as ringing a triangle. It is all about timing. But with all the folks I have talked to in the last few weeks – whether hitting the bike park, doing long tech-c pedals, or parking the car and bicycling their errands – experiencing shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand events I am hoping this will be ‘TING!’ heard by at least a few of my friends.

Soma Dream Bars

I have known Darren of Vancouver’s Dream Cycles since he opened his shop in 2006, selling only steel bicycles assembled in-house from the frame up. A testament to the idea of succeeding in business by knowing what you do not do, if someone told me they had sold the most 1-1/8” Chris King headsets or Phil Wood hubs in Canada over the last 20 years, I could believe that.

I tend to frequent more mountain-bike-focused shops, and the techs at Dream are more likely to be re-oiling a Brooks saddle than a suspension fork, but then if someone is wondering where to find a White Industries freewheel or a Paul Components Thumbie mount I always point them to Dream.

I bring it up, because Soma’s Dream Bar lineup, while available at any Soma dealer or online from the Soma Fab Shop , is a collaboration with Darren’s small service-and-customs shop. The original Dream Riser is based on Darren’s custom Moonmen Ti bars and in turn, it is based on ‘80s mountain bike setups.

I have an extensive amount of riding on the original Dream Riser. Going from my -16° 30X bar it required a longer stem, and the position did not work for me for janky, technical offroad riding. Riding the 20° backsweep on this Lowdown Dream bar have me more offroad curious. I have not mountain biked on bars between the -16° SQlab and the -25° Dream Riser. That said, I would love to see Soma add a 15° Dream bar. I would also love to see higher-rise versions of this -20° Lowdown Dream bar.

Essentially, to blow up Soma’s SKU count, I would love to see 15°, 20°, 25°, and 30° Dream bars in all three of their current rise options – 25mm, 50mm, and 70mm. I will take a pair of 15° x 50mm bars, please!

In the meantime, Soma has three versions of their 780mm wide 6061 aluminium bars, all available in black or silver with 31.8mm bar clamps for US$110.

• Soma Dream Lowdown riser bar – 20° backsweep, 5° upsweep, 25mm rise.
• Soma Original Dream riser bar – 25° backsweep, 5° upsweep, 50mm rise.

Soma Hi-Rise Dream riser bar – 30° backsweep, 5° upsweep, 70mm rise.

When swapping from a standard 7-9° bar to a 14-16° alt-bar I normally do not change my stem length or bar width. At least, not at first. The hand position changes enough that there is not an exact correlation. On some bikes, I do end up running a 1cm longer stem. I brought the same setup concept to my ATB, leaving my 50mm stem in place, when I swapped from my 16° backsweep bar to the 20° Dream Lowdown.

The nature of how we calculate backsweep, rather than rear offset or grip angle, there is a lot more to the attempt at calculating body position than just saying one bar is a -16° and the other is -20° and this is always a challenge when comparing more-backswept bars from different brands. In this case, my body position moved rearward enough that I could have gone to a 1cm longer stem; however, I quite liked the standing position so instead I moved my saddle rearward 1cm for an overall improvement in around-town seated pedaling position.

I have aspirations to do some mountain biking – not just the light(er) single track I find myself on in my regular travels on my commuter bicycle – using the Dream Lowdown bar just so I can say that I have gone beyond my normal, but I imagine that for janky offroad efforts, I will continue to find that ~15° backsweep is my MTB happy place. On the other hand, I am all in on the 20° Dream bar on my ATB bike. As with so many ‘my best’ fit discoveries, swapping saddles or brake lever blades, etc., the challenge is that I have grown accustomed to the Dream bar on my commuter but still have a -16° bar on my fair-weather roadie project, and I would like to be running the Soma on both rigs.

If you are curious about alternate handlebars, or changing up the way your hands, arms, and shoulders are loaded, then consider this the first gentle chime in what will be a less jingoistic recurring theme. I am fully cognizant that what works best for me very likely does not work best for you, and vice-versa, so I am not looking to tell anyone that alt-bars are for them whether the application is on-road or off-road.

But. But, if on one or more of your bikes whether managing an injury, age, or even discomfort that you long ago forced your brain & body to ignore, more backsweep could be an answer looking for an open mind and relatively few bucks to be adopted. In that case, Soma’s Lowdown Dream riser bar may be a good place for you to start.