My mountain bike came with a no rise, flat, straight bar. For the past two years it has worked well enough, sort of. But on long rides my hands and wrist start bugging out. I found myself always shifting my hands around grabbing weird parts of the bar to get more comfortable. Then I remembered I had a great pair of bars on my townie. I grabbed the Ritchey WCS 10D Bars off of my commuter/townie bike and put them on my Specialized Stumpjumper 29er Hard Tail. It’s been about a month now and I don’t know why I wasn’t riding these all along!
Beyond the fact that all pain went away from my hands and wrists the control I have on tech climbs and hairy descents is amazing.
The Ritchey WCS 10D bars sweep forward from the stem and back to give you 10° of bend without changing fit on the bike. This bend is perfect for me.
Looking at the profile in the shot above, you can see it is a flat bar, no rise, which is what I ride on a hard tail.
At the clamp area the finish is knurled/grippy to create a non slip interface for the bars and stem.
I know there is a huge market for “Alt Bars” with sweep crazy in the 25° area. Which is a bit much for this bike. On my snow bike I rock 17° bars and love it. But not something I want on my hard tail bike.
So if you are always moving your hands on your current bar looking for a better more natural hand position check these bars out. these bars provide a more comfortable fit and improved control.
Ritchey offers these in Super Logic, Carbon WCS, Allow WCS and Pro models to meet all budgets. I might put the Carbons on and move these to my snow bike!
Check them out here: http://ritcheylogic.com/mountain/bars/wcs-flat-10d-mountain-bar.html
- Unique shape of the 10 degree bend flat bar preserves the hand position of a 5 degree bend bar without increasing stem length
- Textured stem clamp area reduces risk of bar slippage
- Reinforced internally to accept bar ends and shifter/lever clamp