[cbehnke]

i tooled around a parking lot on a rig with Jones H-bars, the design concept makes sense and they felt very good (but i was just on flat pavement....what fun!)

anyone out there riding colorado front range trails, pretty agressive XC and FR and are using Jones H-bars and can provide some feedback on what they are like under those conditions??? likey them...no likey??

any help appreciated, thanks

 

[DSR]

Craig - How's it going man?!

Hey, I have never ridden the H-Bars but I do know a guy who road them and felt that they were great for fireroad riding and similar because of the different hand positions, but just flat out didn't work when it got remotely steep and technical. Like to the point where he had to just get off and walk, and this is from a pretty strong technical rider. He kind of described like - if I have my @ss hanging off the back of my saddle, I want my grips to be perpendicular to my arms! Or at least that's how I pictured it.

That's obviously just one opinion. There are a fair bit of posts on them on the SS and 29er boards - mostly because they're kinda weird just like SSers and 29ers... like what I ride! I don't recall ever seeing them on an FS bike, but I'm sure someone does.

Anyway, don't know if that helps. I'd just say that if you're thinking of putting em on the X5, make sure that YOU like them first since they're rather spendy. S

 

[cbehnke]

Craig - How's it going man?!

Hey, I have never ridden the H-Bars but I do know a guy who road them and felt that they were great for fireroad riding and similar because of the different hand positions, but just flat out didn't work when it got remotely steep and technical. Like to the point where he had to just get off and walk, and this is from a pretty strong technical rider. He kind of described like - if I have my @ss hanging off the back of my saddle, I want my grips to be perpendicular to my arms! Or at least that's how I pictured it.

That's obviously just one opinion. There are a fair bit of posts on them on the SS and 29er boards - mostly because they're kinda weird just like SSers and 29ers... like what I ride! I don't recall ever seeing them on an FS bike, but I'm sure someone does.

Anyway, don't know if that helps. I'd just say that if you're thinking of putting em on the X5, make sure that YOU like them first since they're rather spendy. S

thanks for the feedback scott, much appreciated. i read quite a bit of the SS/29er posts on them...they seem to love 'em but it's a totally different style of riding....i may just have to give them a try to see for myself. i think they'd sell pretty fast and i wouldn't lose too much $$ if i wanted to unload them.

hope biz is going well, i'll stop in the shop in the future to chat and see how things are going.

 

[Soloracer]

Running them on my ace

I'm running them for endurance racing on my geared ace. I love them, I think they make going down hill easier if they are set up properly. You need to run a pretty long stem to account for the aggressive hand position being so far behind the handlebar clamp. I can see the previous posters reasoning on the sitting way behind the saddle. I was doing the same before I got a longer stem. I still have a tendancy to drift back if my hands are on the backs of the bars. But having your weight a little back on technical downhills is not necessarily a bad thing. I agree that if you hate them, you will have no problem selling them. In fact if you hate them, send me a pm, my back up bike needs a pair now. I'll warn you, they are habit forming, I rode my other bike a few days ago and it took my half a ride to get used to traditional bars and shifting again.

Jim

 

[Walt]

I hated 'em

I think Scott is referring to me... there's a long post I did a while back in the SS forum about these, but I don't remember exactly when. Shouldn't be too hard to find. The gist of it was:
-Super comfy.
-Fine for flat stuff/twisties/climbing.
-Dead awful for steep chute/rock garden/high speed technical.

Weight distribution wasn't the issue for me (used a longer stem to keep the hand position about the same) - instead it was that in situations where the bars are repeatedly and constantly being wrenched out of my hands by rocks/ruts/etc at high speeds, I couldn't keep from being thrown badly offline (MUCH moreso than with conventional bars). I found that I was walking stuff that I normally ride easily.

I think the best argument against them for FR/DH is that in the world of offroad motorcycle racing, bars have evolved the opposite direction (from pretty severe sweep in the 60s and 70s to virtually none today). The demands placed on the rider in an enduro are VERY similar to riding a DH bike - if lots of sweep worked well there, there would be a lot of enduro folks riding something similar, I think.

For what it's worth, though, a lot of people seem to love them. And if you have wrist or arm problems, they're probably a good idea.

 

[DSR]

Yup, that was you Walt. Didn't want to quote you though. Figured you step up if you saw this. (BTW, I have some of your J&B stuff here.)

Craig - Yeah, probably hard to demo them on some real trails. True that you could easily flip em if you didn't like em. And yeah, swing by if you're in the neighborhood. I've got a buddy who's been mulling around a biz idea that you may be interested in.

S