Bar/Brake Position..

The Northern Monkey

Need a bit of help..

On the Canyon, I have the brake levers set so that on gravity rides they're easy to reach.. However I've always suffered from achey hands.

Went to Forest of Dean, which has some steep sections as well as a lot more man made jumps and the positioning was spot on.

However, went to Cwmcarn and my hands were aching about 1 quarter of the way down.

CC is a fair bit steeper than FOD, so I assume that my levers aren't right.... so any tips on how I can set them better or how I should set them?

Either that or my bars aren't the right position for steeper stuff.. should I be leaning onto them or gripping over them when heading downwards?

May consider swapping the bars for a different rise/sweep, but I don't know what combo to try.
Either that or its shorter stem time!

Current setup is Easton Havoc 65mm stem and Easton Havoc 750mm wide with 20mm rise (9deg bend and 5deg upsweep).

Cheers..

nicklouse

Pics?

The Rookie

As Nick says pics from the side with hands on grips and fingers over levers needed!

Simon

benpinnick

Dont think that its necessarily a problem with position, just because FOD is steep in parts, doesn't mean that you'd get arm pump/death grip in the same amounts. Bumpiness, length of flats etc. has a massive effect

The Northern Monkey

Few quick pics before I go out..





As benpinnick says, FOD is smooth compared to CC so that may be the issue.. didn't think of that!

Holyzeus

Shouldn't hands be in a straight line with forearms (if that makes sense?)

386ka

I run my brakes higher, I think it helps with the grip on the downhill sections...

Andy B

Holyzeus wrote:

Shouldn't hands be in a straight line with forearms (if that makes sense?)

Nope, that is based around road bikes. Your wrist will be much higher than the bar in that position & when you hit something on the trail your wrist will want to go over the bar

If you bring the levers up your wrists drop. In this position when you hit something on the trail your wrists will not want to go over the bar, they will push through the bar and your momentum will carry through the bike and not over the top of the bars.

Try walking alongside your bike with your fingers on the brakes as if you were riding and push the bike up a large kerb. With the levers down you'll feel the bike stall on the kerb and your momentum will carry over the bars. Then try it with the levers up and your wrists down, the bike will not stall on the kerb and your momentum will carry the bike over the kerb as if it wasn't there.

Moving the levers up doesn't give wrist ache, having them down can cause it as you may be gripping too tight to stop you going over the bars as you momentum carries you over the top when you hit something

(By 'hit something' I mean an obstacle on the ground, not hitting a jump etc)

Holyzeus

Andy B wrote:

Holyzeus wrote:

Shouldn't hands be in a straight line with forearms (if that makes sense?)

Nope, that is based around road bikes. Your wrist will be much higher than the bar in that position & when you hit something on the trail your wrist will want to go over the bar

If you bring the levers up your wrists drop. In this position when you hit something on the trail your wrists will not want to go over the bar, they will push through the bar and your momentum will carry through the bike and not over the top of the bars.

Try walking alongside your bike with your fingers on the brakes as if you were riding and push the bike up a large kerb. With the levers down you'll feel the bike stall on the kerb and your momentum will carry over the bars. Then try it with the levers up and your wrists down, the bike will not stall on the kerb and your momentum will carry the bike over the kerb as if it wasn't there.

Moving the levers up doesn't give wrist ache, having them down can cause it as you may be gripping too tight to stop you going over the bars as you momentum carries you over the top when you hit something

(By 'hit something' I mean an obstacle on the ground, not hitting a jump etc)

Cheers Andy

tarbot18

What andy said .......

benpinnick

Not what Andy Said. Not saying he's wrong, only its personal choice. I prefer brakes at around 45 degrees, and elbows out, not down.

nicklouse

Andy B wrote:

Holyzeus wrote:

Shouldn't hands be in a straight line with forearms (if that makes sense?)

Nope, that is based around road bikes. Your wrist will be much higher than the bar in that position & when you hit something on the trail your wrist will want to go over the bar

If you bring the levers up your wrists drop. In this position when you hit something on the trail your wrists will not want to go over the bar, they will push through the bar and your momentum will carry through the bike and not over the top of the bars.

Try walking alongside your bike with your fingers on the brakes as if you were riding and push the bike up a large kerb. With the levers down you'll feel the bike stall on the kerb and your momentum will carry over the bars. Then try it with the levers up and your wrists down, the bike will not stall on the kerb and your momentum will carry the bike over the kerb as if it wasn't there.

Moving the levers up doesn't give wrist ache, having them down can cause it as you may be gripping too tight to stop you going over the bars as you momentum carries you over the top when you hit something

(By 'hit something' I mean an obstacle on the ground, not hitting a jump etc)

Plus for me I would hav the levers closer to the grip. But hard to tell as Mr Invisable is riding the bike.

The Rookie

The Beginner wrote:

As Nick says pics from the side with hands on grips and fingers over levers needed!

The MBUK guide suggests fingers in line with arms while resting on levers, the levers look to low (tilted down) to me which will rotate the hands over the bars and could lead to problems getting a stble grip when heading down, but until the Gemini man puts his skin suite back on we won't know.

Simon

1mancity2

I used to get aching hands all the time, moved brake levers a touch higher and it stopped also swapped the grips at the same time.

Your levers do look low.

ricardo_smooth

move levers higher as suggested and see if it works...bit of trial and error really, but for me, they are a tad too low

Anonymous

It's personal preference and dependent on how and what you ride, but to me they're way too low.

Problem is the pointing right down angle is the advice you'll get all over the place, including from shops and in books and magazines, all based on classic roadie position for a racing snake over the bar type riding.

If you ride slack and back, and are going more down than up, higher up levers may work better for you. Can also help in popping over roots and rocks so you're more scooping the front over than ramming the thing hard into an edge and going endo. Works well for single finger breaking too I find, but may need to adjust the lever arrangement for that and easier with all-thumb shifting (depends on the shifters supporting that).

But try it and see how it works for you.