Stem Length and Handlebar Comparison - Let’s Go Racing Season 2, Episode 4 14

One of the most overlooked parts of mountain bike setup is the cockpit. Variations in handlebar rise, bends, width, compliance, and stem length can drastically affect where your body weight is positioned over your bike. For Brian Cahal, adjusting cockpit components is an affordable and effective performance upgrade that can help maximize traction and balance.

Brian has no component sponsors this season and is in a unique position as a professional rider to test and evaluate critical parts he will put on his Forbidden Dreadnaught for the EWS race season. In this video, Brian tries three different stem lengths and handlebars from Renthal, OneUp, PNW Components, and Nukeproof.
Credit: Brian Cahal
Related:
Nukeproof
Renthal
OneUp Components
Handlebars
Stems
PNW Components
Let's Go Racing
14 comments

View replies to: Stem Length and Handlebar Comparison - Let’s Go Racing Season 2, Episode 4

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a-line_sloot
2 years ago
so many folks running bars way too wide for them. especially with more bikes coming stock with 800s
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Remymac
2 years ago
Thanks for the interesting video. I'm relatively new to MTB, but I've ridden dirt bikes for years. The "stem" length on my current dirt bikes works out to about 18mm. I started running 30mm stems on both my mountain bikes simply because it made it feel more natural (i.e. like the dirt bike) to me. I never thought about the understeer vs oversteer behavior, but now that you mention it the rear end is definitely more planted on my Ripmo with the 30mm stem. It would step out unexpectedly before. I thought I was just finally getting accustomed to the bike, but looking back it was definitely after I installed the stem. Makes me want to experiment.
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Milton 26"
2 years ago
funn fatboy dh has been my favorite bar for years. since it wasn't available in 31.8 I went with nuke proof sam hill, and it feels exactly the same. with odi long neck lock on grips no arm pump. nuke proof horizon stem is great too.

pretty sure the comfort of pnw bar is not due to different alloy since whatever alumium alloy this might be, the difference in youngs's modulus (basically elasticity of material) is only a couple percent maximum.
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thejake
2 years ago
A friend of mine has those PNW bars and they are really noodley. Riding his bike in the driveway I could feel them flex, even see it a little. I’m a bigger dude and it seemed scary to me but I could see how they help with arm pump.
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Remymac
2 years ago
I have the PNW on one bike and the Renthal on my other. You can tell the PNW is more flexy on a smooth surface if you are really putting weight on them. Out on the rocky trails we have around here, I'm not aware of the flex I guess because the front end is moving around so much anyway, but it definitely seems to take the edge off of the chatter. Ergonomically, I think my body likes the extra back sweep too. I'm not as tight through the shoulders after a ride. I plan to get another to replace the Renthal.
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Primoz
2 years ago
It's 73-ish GPA vs. 72 GPA of 7005 - aluminium is generally around 70 GPA, so yeah, no difference basically.

I bet any production variation (shape, thickness, something in the raw material) will cause more of an influence between different units of the same product than this difference in the modulus will compared to using a different aluminium grade.
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dirty booger
2 years ago
Good to see more anti "goon bar" content. It's always a cringe when seeing smaller females and little kids on massively wide bars flailing down the trail

I have found the WAO bar/stem seem to be pretty good on the hands as well. The back sweep is weird in where it starts, it seems like they have to be rolled forward to get it correct.
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mamath7
2 years ago
About the fact to match stem length with fork offset I say this is total BS as you don't talk about stem angle, back sweep, bar width and fork angle and so on. 45 could be perfect with a setup and awful with an other, no way to say "match stem with offset is perfect".
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kcr138
2 years ago
Exactly - a longer stem with short rise bars and a stack of headset spacers could put your bars in the same position as a shorter stem, higher rise bars, and no headset spacers.
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easton
2 years ago
Came to say the same thing, where you set your bar roll has a massive effect on effective stem length too.

Your locating your hands in space. It's a little unintuitive but it doesn't really matter whether you are adjusting the stem or the bars to make changes.
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mossboss
2 years ago
Interesting, so what was it that drove you away from oneup in the end? Was it sweep-weirdnesses you mentioned?