Handlebar Position: Comfort or Performance?

The touch points on your bike will make the difference between you thoroughly enjoying your time riding versus you utterly despising your setup. Between your feet, your butt and your hands - you better get these areas of the setup right. But getting it right can be subjective and in many instances comes down to the comfort you feel out on the trail. Whether you are building your own bike, assembling one that was shipped complete to you or riding one from your local bike shop - positioning your handlebars can be a very important aspect and shouldn’t be overlooked.

When I talk about handlebar positioning, I will mostly be focused on the “bar roll” as it relates to the positioning within your stem. Obviously the stem itself and width of the handlebars plays into the cockpit setup and your overall posture and comfort. But for the sake of clarity, let’s assume you have a bar width and stem length you’ve grown accustomed to. Leaving the position of the bar itself the variable in question.

Most people, like me, will adjust the roll of the handlebar until it “looks good”. I hope to bring some insight on this topic with some discussion on comfort and performance as it relates to various aspects of your riding. Your handlebars take on different attributes during both descending and climbing. We also live in a time where manufacturers of handlebars are designing “compliance” or “forgiveness” into the bar themselves. Reducing the impact of arm pump and fatigue on longer rides. How do we make the most of these designs?

There are some terms we need to be familiar with that are used within our industry when it comes to the handlebars themselves. For instance, you may see the term “sweep” or “backsweep” describing the amount the bar deviates away from the centerline of the clamp area. (The angle of the grip area of the bar when looking straight down at it relative to the clamping area) There is also “upsweep” or “tip” describing how much the bar rises vertically away from the clamping area of the bar. (The angle of the grip area of the bar when looking straight on at the bar versus the clamp area) Both backsweep and upsweep are not to be confused with “rise” - the physical distance your hands are away from the clamping area of the bar. Both sweeps are usually defined in angular degrees. While the unit of measurement for rise is distance expressed in millimeters.

It’s important to recognize these terms when looking at the bars you use on your bike. Especially if there are specific measurements you know to avoid. The position of your hands will affect the position of your elbows, in turn changing your shoulder position and ultimately your torso and weight over the bike. You can see how easily this can make a cascading impact on your comfort…

Let’s get back to and get laser focused on the handlebar roll. Almost all bars include markings on the face to give you a reference against the stem when installing. These reference marks indicate the roll you’ve placed the bar within the clamp. Again, there really is no “right” way to use these markings. Which is why many of them don’t include any numbers just the lines themselves. In looking at my own bike, I wanted to test the impact of changing the roll position. I honestly haven’t done this for years because it was always good enough for me.

Using a digital level, I measured the angle of the face of my brake levers. This is the easiest reference given most brake levers are a true flat surface. My existing angle was 16 degrees and will be described as my neutral position. I then adjusted the roll of my bars a positive 10 degrees. And then also a negative 10 degrees relative to my neutral position. (Depicted below as a measurement of roll, not the aforementioned sweep).

Some potential benefits of either extreme position could be seen though. With positive 10 degrees, the feeling you have over the front of the bike while pedaling or purposefully keeping the nose of the bike down, felt great. There was increased control and precision. Conversely, in the minus 10 degree position you could tell in all-out downhill cases when squatting low to the bike, I would have equally enhanced control because my torso and frame was better aligned with the combined sweep of the handlebar.

Combined Sweep… is a term I am making up. Really, your bar is going to have some combined effect from both backsweep and upsweep that gives it the curvature or shape you see from the side. Demonstrated as best as I can with the following visual:

In this very informal, ad-hoc science experiment, I learned that comfort is king. Contrary to the title suggesting comfort would be at odds to performance, I think when you can achieve the most comfortable setup of handlebar position - you will perform the best. It’s really that simple. The easier you get along with something, the quicker you forget it’s there, the more you are focused on riding and riding fast. And that’s why most handlebar designs are within a few degrees of each in terms of sweep figures. And mostly let you choose between rise and width overall. Width helping those with wider wingspans. And rise helping make a bike frame feel shorter or longer depending on the reach and stack parameters of your bike.

If there is one thing you take away from this Setup Tips article, please go take a look at your bar position if you haven’t in a while. Especially if you suffer from chronic arm pump or wrist pain. A 5 minute job of tweaking the roll of your handlebars may make a world of difference for you!

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