Specific Handlebar Positions for Downhill Mountain Biking

Video Transcript

"MICKEY DENONCOURT: I can't--how important handlebar position is and the setup of your controls on your handlebar to make it easier to ride your bike. So, depending on how big your hands are--I've got real small hands, you may have to put your shifter which is what changes your gears inboard or outboard of your brake lever. Because the brake lever on this bike is fairly long to get my finger out at the end of the brake lever and still be able to reach my shifter, I have to run my shifter inboard with my brake lever. If I had different hand geometry, I might find it more comfortable to put my shifter over here on the other side of my brake lever just so I don't inadvertently hit it when I'm on the grips. But as you can see here, like even when my hand is fully in the grips, I'm nowhere near the shifter so I can just easily bump it. Another thing, you choose--if you just choose a handlebar that's somewhere in the middle of the road, you can further change your handlebar height by putting spacers above or below your stem. You see here, I've got one spacer below my stem and like three or four above. So lower handlebars put more weight on the front end, makes it a little bit harder to pick the wheel up but makes cornering a little bit better and helps you lower your overall center of gravity. So a higher handlebar position--some beginner riders especially find that they want to move towards a higher handlebar position to like make it more comfortable riding down steep trails and stuff like that but that's--that's really a misnomer, it's a bad idea, it promotes a negative bike handling traits and stuff like that. It's sort of like when you're skiing, when you're skiing down a really steep trail, the natural inclination of a lot of people is to lean back but what you really needed to do is to lean forward to get yourself in the proper position to be centered in the turn and stuff like that. So yeah, just take some time, mess around with a bunch of different handlebar positions and see what works the best for you."