However, I pretty much hated them immediately. It felt like my hands were right in my lap and climbing out of the saddle felt terrible. I tried a longer stem but that seemed to make things worse. The grips only felt good in one place, and from there I couldn't comfortably reach the brake levers. I wrote off Jeff Jones as a kook with dumb, curvy bikes.
Years later I bought a pair of loop bars because they seemed to address my issues with the early model: sweeping forward so a normal length stem can be used and more grip area to move around. Still, after purchasing them they sat unused for years.
With my recent neck issues, I thought I would do some experimenting. After all, pain is a great motivator.
I installed them on my Krampus using a ridiculous +17 degree stem I purchased on Amazon. Even with the high-rise stem, they aren't quite as high as Jeff recommends.
After a couple rides I have to say I like them a lot. The bars provide a very comfortable position for the general mixed terrain riding I do most from the house. Because the grip area is at a 45 degree angle, subtle changes in hand placement change the angle of your back and neck so you can change it up. (Mine are the older 660 mm model; the newer 710 mm model even more so.)
At one point today I had a nice tailwind. I grabbed the forward portion of the loop and tucked down to go fast, so you still have the option to get your race on if the spirit moves you.
Anyway, it's only two rides, but so far so good.
Later.
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