[TLud]

I don't want to distract anyone for too long from Cedar Tree Classification 101 or e-debates about how my buddy can school you with his mad skillz on _____ trail, but I have one more question regarding my Flux build currently in progress. Everyone here has provided much appreciated advice and suggestions, so I'm looking for some ideas one more time.

The Flux will serve dual duty as my every day trail bike and XC racer, so I want a lo-rise bar for comfort, but I'd like to shave a little off the ends to get them narrower for racing. I'm going with the Easton EC70 Carbon Monkeylite (31.8 mm diameter clamp area), which are 685 mm wide. The handlebars on my current ride are 630 mm, which I find just a bit too wide when trying to thread narrow sections of the wooded trails around here. I know the flat Easton XC bars are only 580 mm wide, which is probably just a bit narrower than I want to go. My question is how much to shave off ends of the Monkeylite for the Flux build? What negative effects would cutting off a total of, say, 60 mm (2.36 in.) have? Would I be better off going with the flat bar and raising it by 0.75 inches with spacers?

 

[cactuscorn]

squish and i are sittin here, beers in hand and thinkin on this. 1st me:

if yer not already usein lock on grips, do so. they allow for nearly unlimited positioning of yer controls on the bars. do this maybe about 1/4" at a time till ya find the perfect place for yer hands, then trim for terrain. beats buyin a new bar when ya get it wrong. and lemme know if yer not totally, positively, absolutely sure how to cut a carbon bar.

now the squisher:

For me the biggest thing would be not to get so short that you don't have any room for you controls and stuff. Risers just don't have a lot of room for controls and such unless your talking a really wide bar around the 28" width and OS bars can be a bit worse. I like cactus' idea of just moving your grips in 1/4" at a time to find your hand position and trim from there. The nice wide risers give an added bit of stability to the front end and also make it less work to steer the bike. It's all in what you want.

happy trails...

squish

2 2 two for the price of 1! yer a lucky man tlud!

 

[TLud]

Thanks guys. While I have you both here, let me pop the top off another couple cold ones and take this one step further. I decided to have Competitive Cyclist build this one up for me instead of doing it myself, so I'd like to have them get as close as possible to the best bar width for me before I get my mitts of death on them. Unfortunately, I'm not around to test it out to get it just right. I'm thinking it will be pretty safe for them to take off 3/4 inch off both sides (total of 1.5 inches/38.1 mm), which would drop the total width to 647 mm. If this isn't enough, I can go with your excellent suggestion of trying 1/4 inch at a time before I start cutting. Will this work? If I have to do any cutting, I'm definitely asking some more questions because I've never had to do this myself before.

P.S. Seriously, if I run into any of you in person, beers are on me.

 

[cactuscorn]

1 1/2"... hard sayin not knowin. its all a matter of preference and terrain. personally im a wide bar guy, so is squish. his suggestion which ill back up is to start with 1/2" on each end then go from there. iffin ya go more and yer wrong, well, thats bad. iffin yer wrong and ya need more, all yer out is some time and not a new bar. gettin thirsty here so hurry yer ass up and bring those beers!

 

[turnerbikes]

trim

Hate to have someone else trim your bar and cut too much off the top, kinda like a long distance hair cut cept the bars won't grow back.

Cutting carbon is easy, use a very fine tooth hack saw and fire away.Use sand paper or cloth to chamfer the edges inside and out when you are done. If you have a couple extra Lock On grip clamps you can use those as a saw guide for a perfect cut.

 

[cactuscorn]

ooohhhh! nice call with the lock on clamp! and here i was about to tell him to have a shop use a park steerer cutting guide. even with a new clamp the cap will cover up any blade scratches.

im a long time user of electrical tape on carbon cuts. 2 or 3 rounds at mid cut go a long way to keep the fibers from lookin like the head of a ear of corn at harvest time. 2 rounds shoud be able to fit under dt's clamp idea too. beats the crap outta return trips and extra labor. 1/4" max at a time to dial it in. much less and the carbon might not take the cut without splinterin.

 

[S-Works]

Simpy amazing!

squish and i are sittin here, beers in hand and thinkin on this. 1st me:

if yer not already usein lock on grips, do so. they allow for nearly unlimited positioning of yer controls on the bars. do this maybe about 1/4" at a time till ya find the perfect place for yer hands, then trim for terrain. beats buyin a new bar when ya get it wrong. and lemme know if yer not totally, positively, absolutely sure how to cut a carbon bar.

now the squisher:

For me the biggest thing would be not to get so short that you don't have any room for you controls and stuff. Risers just don't have a lot of room for controls and such unless your talking a really wide bar around the 28" width and OS bars can be a bit worse. I like cactus' idea of just moving your grips in 1/4" at a time to find your hand position and trim from there. The nice wide risers give an added bit of stability to the front end and also make it less work to steer the bike. It's all in what you want.

happy trails...

squish

2 2 two for the price of 1! yer a lucky man tlud!

I could not tell the two of you apart. ut:

Has anyone seen squish and CC in the same room together?

 

[TLud]

To avoid the Monkeylite backorder, which is the only thing holding up the Flux's build-up and delivery, I'm switching bars to the Race Face Next SL. Since this bar is a couple of inches narrower to start off with, I'm keeping it stock until I get it. I probably won't have to cut anything off, but if I do need to take off 1/4 inch, I feel pretty comfortable doing it myself with the tips you guys have given me.

The good news is that there's a good possibility the Flux will get here on or before the weekend, so I might be able to break her in properly on an out-of-town ride.

Squish and CC, can't deliver those beers at the moment, but they're collecting interest until I can (Syllamo ride in the future?). Squish, you have my condolences re: your recent loss.

 

[cactuscorn]

I could not tell the two of you apart. ut:

Has anyone seen squish and CC in the same room together?

candycorn, odus and his folks. most of them arent talkin so yer gonna have to trust us.

 

[PSI]

squish and i are sittin here, beers in hand

at home?!? why isnt youre wife tellin you to stop screwing around with your stupid bike buddies?? not fair

 

[cactuscorn]

im a lucky, lucky man.

 

[rockinrod35]

TLUD check these Titec Pluto bars out, they have a 9 deg backsweep which I find a lot more comfy than the 8 deg. It is only 1 deg but it makes a diff, for me anyway. These are 1.5 inch rise I think they are 660 wide. I have the 1 inch rise as well, they are narrower. I can muscle the Burner around a bit more with the 1.5 bars and I like the lock on grips as well, both were worth the coin.

 

[TLud]

TLUD check these Titec Pluto bars out, they have a 9 deg backsweep which I find a lot more comfy than the 8 deg. It is only 1 deg but it makes a diff, for me anyway. These are 1.5 inch rise I think they are 660 wide. I have the 1 inch rise as well, they are narrower. I can muscle the Burner around a bit more with the 1.5 bars and I like the lock on grips as well, both were worth the coin.

Those bars look sweet. The 1 inch rise version is 640 mm in width, which is still a tad wider than the race face, and they're about the same weight. The increased backsweep (4 degrees) is intriguing though and could make a big difference. How do you feel steering is affected by the greater backsweep?

 

[[email protected]]

Those bars look sweet. The 1 inch rise version is 640 mm in width, which is still a tad wider than the race face, and they're about the same weight. The increased backsweep (4 degrees) is intriguing though and could make a big difference. How do you feel steering is affected by the greater backsweep?

TLud, this is Eric from Competitive Cyclist. We can trim your bars down to perfect fit, you just tell us where you want them cut. As to the question about the increased backsweep, on the handlebars, it leads to more handlebar input needed to steer the bike, also quite a bit more ergonomic. Makes the front end feel less twitchy. I recently swapped out my Truvativ bars for some EA70's and they have about 2 degrees more backsweep, and feel tons more stable than the TV's did. your bike is in the build Q right now, should ship tomorrow, let us know if you want us to trim the bars. ride On-E2 [email protected]

 

[TLud]

TLud, this is Eric from Competitive Cyclist. We can trim your bars down to perfect fit, you just tell us where you want them cut. As to the question about the increased backsweep, on the handlebars, it leads to more handlebar input needed to steer the bike, also quite a bit more ergonomic. Makes the front end feel less twitchy. I recently swapped out my Truvativ bars for some EA70's and they have about 2 degrees more backsweep, and feel tons more stable than the TV's did. your bike is in the build Q right now, should ship tomorrow, let us know if you want us to trim the bars. ride On-E2 [email protected]

The Race Face Next SL only has about 5 degrees of backsweep, which might take a little adjustment, but I'll give it a try. If I don't like it, I can switch it out for the Bontrager handlebar on my HT, which has the same width and rise, but more sweep. Also, don't worry about cutting the handlebars; I'll have to do a little real world testing to see where I want to go with it. My one concern is getting a setup pretty close to the one on the Flux that I demoed, in terms of handlebar height and cockpit length. Is that going to be the case with the 100 degree X4 and the Next SL?

Drew was saying on the phone that you guys could most likely get it shipped out today. I vote we keep him there late until he finishes it himself. Give me a call before you guys ship it. I'm impatient enough to get this bad boy in my hands by the weekend that I may pay extra for the express shipping...