Raising Handlebars?

stevemac

Is it hard?

Fiddled about with the seat and found it was more comfortable a bit higher then before(legs extending fully now and not bent). But now I'm finding the handle bars are too low and would like to raise them.

I have a trek 1.1.
Is it hard to raise them on your own. I want to be able to do all these things myself and not have to go to bike shop for everything.

Anyone done this?

Or, would tilting the saddle a but forward sort it. Looking at my bike now the saddle is almost straight across. Back of saddle is about a centimeter higher then front. Would changing the angle of the saddle be an option?

mp31

stevemac wrote: »

Is it hard?

Fiddled about with the seat and found it was more comfortable a bit higher then before(legs extending fully now and not bent). But now I'm finding the handle bars are too low and would like to raise them.

I'm not sure your legs should extend fully at the bottom of the downstroke i.e. with the pedal at the bottom of the stroke... there should be some angle at the knee.
How much did you raise the saddle by in the first place?

I would only make small changes e.g 3 - 5mm and then try the new height for a few rides before making another change. You'd be surprised at how much 5mm in saddle height can make.

I'm no expert but I'd suggest get the saddle height and the fore-aft position correct before moving onto handle bars... I'm sure others here will give you a better guide.

Chips Lovell

Whether you can raise your handlebars depends on how much of your steerer tube is cut.

I'm assuming you're new to this, so I'll explain the basics. Your bars are clamped to your stem, which in turn is clamped to your steerer tube, which runs inside the head tube from the top of the forks to the headset cap. In some cases the steerer tube is cut slightly longer than needed, and spacers (little metal or carbon rings are inserted either below or above the stem.

For example, in the picture below, there are three spacers below the stem and one above it.



If you have spacers above the stem, then you can raise the bars. If not, you're out of luck and either need to get new forks or a bigger bike.

Tilting the saddle is rarely the answer to bike fit issues.

triggermortis

If the stem has an angle to it, it is usually possible to flip this over to get a rise on the bars, if it's not already flipped. You can get different angled stems, 10 degree or so and adjustable stems, where you can set your own angle.

Seaswimmer

or you can get something like this...

http://www.rei.com/product/700227/delta-cycle-threadless-stem-riser

assuming you have enough slack in your brake/gear cables...

kuro_man

If you neeed a new stem, decide by how much you would like to adjust the handlebar height/reach ideally and then use this tool to work out which stem to buy.

Stems can be bought in most bike shops, eBay etc., make sure you order correct size clamps to match your fork/handlebars.

stevemac

cheers for the replies lads. Looking too complicated for me at the mo. Will let a bike shop do it for me and try figure out what they did afterwards.