When it comes to bike setup, few things are more personal than the feel of the handlebars. The rise, sweep, roll and stack each contribute to what a rider prefers, but the course being ridden and the type of bike they're going onto are also parts to consider. So how do some of the world's best have their cockpits setup for the Lenzerheide DH World Cup? Read on below to see
Troy Brosnan Bar Width: 740mm
Rise: 38mm
Stem Length: 45mm
Stack: 10mm under the stem, generally 5mm but changed for Andorra and have kept that way for the first run in Lenzerheide.
Brakes: Bite point in the middle.
• Grip tape on the shifter.
• No reach adjust/angle headset, tried the -1-degree but too slack.
Gee Atherton Bar Width: 790mm
Rise: 10mm
Stem Length: 50mm Stem
Stack: 10mm under the stem, if it's steep they use stem spacers to raise the front end.
Brakes: Reach set somewhere in the middle, custom bent levers—comfort preference.
Tahnée Seagrave Bar Width: 760mm
Rise: 20mm
Stem Length: 45mm
Stack: 0mm (Was running that on the old bike too.)
Brakes: Euro/American-style even though she's from the UK, reach all the way in, bite point adjusted to remain effective. Likes the brakes to be 'grabby' and levers at 47 degrees.
Miranda Miller Bar Width: 770mm
Rise: 20mm
Stem Length: 50mm
Stack: 15mm
• Changes between +1,1.5, 2-degree angle headsets.
• Basic setup comes from base setting made pre-season and using past track experience.
• Grip tape on the shifter.
Adam Brayton Bar Width: 760mm
Rise: 20mm
Stem Length: 50mm
Stack: 5mm (Never changes.)
Bite point all the way in, reach all the way out
• Set at the start of the year and "get on with it"
Laurie Greenland Bar Width: 760mm
Rise: 30mm
Stem Length: 50mm
Stack: 12mm
• Far back on the reach and bite point around halfway.
• Extra 6mm frame reach from headset cups.
• Tends to stay the same, sometimes changes 5mm of height at the bars.
Mick Hannah Bar Width: 780mm
Rise: 30mm
Stem Length: 50mm
Stack: 20mm under stem, 10mm stem spacer.
• Doesn't tend to change much apart from Innsbruck Crankworx, slid stanchions down 10mm for slow track nature.
• Added grip tape on brake levers.
Emilie Siegenthaler Bar width: 760mm
Rise: 10mm
Stem Length: 50mm
Stack: 0mm under the crown which stays pretty constant.
Brakes: Reach quite far in, as close as she can get it because she has small hands. Sands brake pads down too. The levers are quite loose so she can adjust them as she wants.
We need a chart showing rider height and bar width to see what the correlation is.
Minnaar's surely on 800mm at least, right? Many of these riders aren't tall.
I'm 6'1" and my 800mm bar doesn't feel wide in the least. Perfectly comfortable. Anything under 780 feels narrow.
Super surprised at Brosnons 740's!
I'm 6'11", but with a 27" inseam, I'm all back and arms yet feel most comfortable on an my old Easton Monkey Lite Carbon 640mm bar with a 160mm stem.
Go figure.
I'm 182cm (6') with a 196cm (6'5") wingspan and wide shoulders and I run 780mm bars comfortably. Had 800mm wide bars on my Reign when I got it. Didn't like it and cut them down to 780 like my DH bike.
Whereas Danny Hart appears to be running reeeeeealy wide bars for his shoulder width and wingspan.
What my bikes are now, although I want to run 780 on the enduro @spinko:
I do crack myself up sometimes.
They wouldn't cut the bars because of resale value and their favorite rider rides them 800mm. f*ck comfort. lol
Other than that, I liked that Mondraker saying 'forward geometry' while everyone was running 45 or 50mm stems...including their team riders.
Forget about resale value. Care about setting your bike up properly!
How many runs do Pros do on one set of Break-Pads?
It appears to me that i has a lot influence how much wear pads have on the contact point an lever-clearence when fully pulled. My contact point adjustment on my Codes always drove me crazy because it never really delivered what i was hoping for.
I was pretty happy with my simple Avid exlir Rs without that gadget though.
Contact point and bite point adjusters shouldnt really have much effect on pad wear at all, as the pads should not contact the rotor unless you are pulling the lever no matter what settings you run.
They won't cut them either for re-sale value. Any cutting of parts will destroy your resale value, e.g. Cut steer tubes, cut seat posts and cut handlebars.
So, it's common in the PH to see 5'5" (160cm) people riding 800mm bars and 20 pieces of 10mm spacers on top of the stems.
And a "never been opened before" fork sells better than a fork that has been in and out of a service center.
Even if it means you never re-lubed or have the fork serviced... ever...
Weird huh?
What most people don't know is that mechanics are pumping excess fluid into brakes like the saint M820 at least once per ride day, but sometimes as often as once per run to keep the throw from getting excessive. It's certainly not a realistic thing to do for the average rider, nor technically ideal/correct from a mechanical point of view (the excess fluid just leaks out of the reservoir area slowly, those seals are designed to not allow pressure buildup - which means the throw gets long again in a matter of runs). But the mechanics do it because it's the only way to cut down on the excessive throw which brakes like the M820 have.
Excess throw is a problem with many modern brakes and is something that should be addressed (hopefully in the future), because the current situation is that you have to run the lever REACH quite far out (further out than ideal) to stop the lever engaging right at the grip.
then I saw that Syncros one piece bar and stem on the new Scott Genius, which is 290g for the whole thing and looks like an extra from Alien.
That's going on my Christmas list now.
*playing dive bars/same venue every week to 10 ppl
The lower crown can only go so low due to fork travel. If the bike has a tall head tube the upper crown won't reach the stanchions. This is why there is an optional tall (drop) crown for most forks.
£40 for grips! Ha!
what ever that means lol. /s
But if you're trying to convert to paleolithic units, he's 0.00934341074 furlongs tall.