Handlebar Help

Depends on your priorities. If you are a non techincal rider who loves fire road climbs, you can run your bars three or four inches lower than your seat. This will compromise your descending ability however, putting too much weight over the front.

If you don't care about climbing, are into drops etc you can run your bars higher than your seat.

A sweet spot appears to have the bars level with or just below the seat - allowing you to climb and descend pretty good.

All this assumes of course that your seat height is set correctly.

As far as bar terminology:

Rise - how high the bar rises over the stem height.

Sweep or bend - how much it bends back towards the rider. The right sweep puts your wrists at a comfortable angle.

Width - self explanatory. The wider the bar, the slower the steering response.

up sweep = how much the bars bend up from parallel to the ground.

back sweep = how much the bars bend back from completely perpendicular to the stem.

I have Easton Monkey bars (EA 70) and their back and up sweeps are spot on. Plus, they are one of the lightest aluminum risers around. You can pick them up for less than $50 if you look around (I think I got mine for something like $30).

This seat above the bars business is something you really need to consider. If your seat is well below the bars, then it will be difficult to keep the front end down. You won't be putting enough weight on the front end, and your forks will feel different (the sag will be less and they'll feel stiffer). For XC type riding, it is best to have your seat 1-2" above the bars. You can always drop the seat on descents.