SQlab 30X Bars

In my quest for the perfect handlebar for my imperfect wrist, I purchased a set of SQlab's 30X bars.

While I love pretty much everything about the Surly Sunrise bars, they are a bit extreme. The 30X comes in 40mm narrower and 38mm lower. Sweep comes in at one degree more.

I don't obsess about weight, BUT the 30X comes in at 335 grams, almost a full pound lighter than the Sunrise at an obese 778 grams. Also, the Thomson BMX stem feels like a hand grenade compared to a similar length MTB stem.

Anyway, I will probably put them on the Canfield to see how they feel.

Later.

Sunrise and Evolution

If I have learned anything over the past few months, it's that even after riding bikes my whole life there is always more to learn.

The human body can be both highly specialized and yet hugely adaptable if given a little time. I am a relatively fit cyclist, and I can hold my own against most people my age or even younger. Pit me against runners at a similar fitness level, and I would fail miserably. I simply don't use the same muscle groups or have the built up capillary infrastructure to deliver energy and oxygen to those running muscles.

When I first started riding the Jones, the position changed enough to where I struggled. I felt slow, and my first rides left my muscles feeling sore for about a week. New muscles were being utilized, and my body was trying to adapt. When it did adapt, I felt as fast and sometimes faster on the Jones.

As mountain bikers our genesis and evolution is a complex one. While the origin is often traced back to guys riding old clunkers, the guys who started making the first purpose-built frames had road racing backgrounds. So it's no mystery that the early mountain bikes looked a lot like road bikes. Compare my 1987 Fisher to my LeMond below it:

Short, horizontal top tubes, short head tubes and similar angles. We were forced to use ridiculously long stems to compensate, which made early mountain bikes endo machines. We endured these horrible bikes for quite some time because we didn't know any better.

Eventually someone broke the mold and sloped a top tube. Head tubes lengthened. Top tubes lengthened. Stems shortened. Head tube angles relaxed. The world rejoiced.

Which brings me to my recent experiments, which are all being performed in an effort to relieve some stress on my bad wrist and neck. I never intended for the Surly Sunrise bars to go on a conventional mountain bike. They simply looked cool and I thought they might be fun on my 26-inch travel bike. They sat unused for years.

Pain has a funny way of motivating you, though, especially when you are experiencing that discomfort doing something you love. The success of the Jones has opened my eyes to the "might as well try it" school of thought. I eyed the bars collecting dust in the corner of my office and thought, why not? Even if they are wider, taller and have more sweep than any riser bar I have ever used, why not?

On the first couple test rides around my home, they felt strange but not bad. The cockpit was shorter and much taller, and that alone may have been a deal breaker had the Jones not already prepared me for it. The 15 degree bend was a noticeable improvement, enough to relieve some pressure on my wrist but still feel like a riser bar. They were uncomfortably wide, though.

I used them for a real mountain bike ride today for the first time—23 miles on rolling terrain, mostly singletrack. When I rolled away from the car I actually didn't notice the bars at all. I adapted.



On the trail they were great. The entire ride was so much fun. I was really hauling ass down some descents, probably getting in over my head a couple times. But those big bars just made me feel invincible.

Climbing is certainly more upright, but not altogether horrible. On the few occasions when I felt like going fast I simply bent my elbows a bit and attained a more familiar climbing position. But you can also sit up and take a look around if you want, an option you don't have with a low-rise bar.

In the end my takeaway is this: There are a lot of ways to skin that cat. Striving to be more comfortable doesn't necessarily mean giving up speed and handling. In this case, handling and downhill speed actually improved.

So experiment, try different things, keep an open mind (which hasn't always been the case for me) and have fun.

Later.

The Sun Also Rises

I rode the Salsa with the newly installed Surly Sunrise bars today and it was fantastic. I haven't had so much fun riding in a while.

The bars felt too wide (820mm) and way too tall (83mm), but somehow they just worked.

There are a couple rocky downhills on my local ride and I hit them hard. I really felt like I was flying.

The downside there is climbing feels a bit odd being up so high, but after a while I didn't care anymore. Going fast downhill sometimes outweighs going slow uphill.

Ultimately what I was testing was the 15-degree bend, and that was a success. It wouldn't seem like an extra five degrees would make much difference, but it did. My wrist was pretty happy and I didn't feel like handling was affected at all.

Ultimately something similar but not as wide or tall will probably be my landing spot.

Later.

Hello Moto

I bought these Surly Sunrise bars a while back for my travel bike, almost as a joke, but never got around to taking the bike out of the travel box to install them. I thought maybe they would be good to experiment with since they have a 15 degree bend. The 83mm rise is pretty extreme, though, and probably a bit much.

In the driveway, the riding position feels a bit short and high. The five extra degrees of backsweep is a noticeable improvement over the Deity bars, though. I am anxious to get on the trail to see how they perform.

Later.

Bar None

I rode my Salsa Timberjack this evening for the first time since building the Jones almost four months ago. The main reason for this was because I stole the rear wheel for the Jones build. I finally got around to building a new wheel for the Jones, so the Timberjack was once again intact and ready to ride.

When I hopped on the bike it felt awful. After using the Jones bars with a 45 degree bend, a normal riser bar feels terrible. I immediately felt some tension on the outside of my left (bad) wrist. The bike also felt very long and stretched out.

Up until recently my favorite bar was the Deity CZ38. It's 760mm wide with a 38mm rise and a fairly generous 9.5 degree bend for a riser bar. As I rolled down the driveway, the sensation was that the bars were on backwards. It literally felt like my hands were pointing forward. This never totally went away for the entire ride.

The discomfort from the bars aside, I had a good time. There is no doubt that bashing down a descent with 120mm of travel is a nice change from the rigid Jones. I just need to make some cockpit adjustments so the transition from bike to bike isn't so severe. I don't want Jones bars on my hardtail, but perhaps something with a bend in the high teens will offer the performance and comfort I need.

Later.

Long Term Review - Jones SWB

I guess if you ride a bike enough to wear out a tire and a set of grips, it's time for a review.

I have been riding the Jones almost exclusively for over three months, and for the most part it's been everything I wanted for my everyday bike.

Almost all my rides originate from home, and I utilize my terrible narrow roads, gravel roads, smooth trails and some rocky singletrack. For this purpose the Jones has been pretty good. The upright position and 45-degree bars have virtually eliminated the neck and wrist pain I was experiencing with my other bikes.

This comfortable upright posture may not look like a "performance" position, but once I adapted to it I felt as fast or faster when climbing and almost as fast descending. When climbing, it's really just a matter of moving your hands forward a bit on the long grips, bending your elbows, and letting 'er rip. It's not much different from the classic XC racing position.

Descending so far is a bit different. With the bars so high, and the hands so far back, I don't feel I can attack a technical downhill like I can on a traditional bike. Maybe someday I will get there, but I feel a certain detachment from the bike when picking my way down a rocky trail. Your hands are SO high.

Conversely, on smoother high-speed singletrack the bike is an absolute blast. Too often you hear people say some bike feels like it's on rails, but I don't know any other way to describe it. And there's a good reason for it to handle this way.

While this bike is considered by Jones to be "short wheel base," the chainstays are quite long. Even with the EBB set at 9 o'clock (from the driveside), they come in at 450mm—pretty long by today's standards.

That chainstay length, combined with the low bottom bracket, can be felt when trying to loft the front wheel over obstacles. It doesn't come up as easily as you would think with the bars so high.

Speaking of the bottom bracket, it's low. Really low. Lower than anything I have ever owned before. I have never had an issue with pedal strikes in 36 years of mountain biking, but this bike is giving me fits when trying to ride the occasional rock garden. Granted, Jones specs 170mm cranks, which I refuse to use. I have been running 175s since my BMX days and I am not about to change now. People say you can't tell, but I can. Heck, I can tell if my saddle position changes by a couple millimeters.

Also, until recently I was running smallish 2.8 inch tires that actually came in at about 2.65 inches. Since moving to true 3.0 tires the bottom bracket is noticeably higher. Still, I think the pedal clearance aspect of the bike makes it unreliable as a "true" mountain bike.

The upside of the chainstay/BB combination is super sticky cornering. At high speed this thing just rails corners. It's amazing.

By the numbers, the top tube is relatively short at 23 inches, but when you factor in the bent seat tube and setback post Jones recommends, the reach is actually much longer. It works.

The fork is certainly fun to look at, not so fun to install, and performs just fine. For something so shockingly light, it's actually quite stiff with all the triangulation. If it weren't for the flotation of the plus tires, it would probably be too stiff for me in the dirt. But that same stiffness equates to great handling. You don't really realize how much your rigid fork deflects until you ride one that doesn't. On my Kona and Krampus, you can rub the front disc rotor pretty easily when climbing out of the saddle. I think it would be damn near impossible to do that with the truss fork. The thru axle and 150mm hub also contribute to the stiffness. When you really lean this thing into a corner it does not move.

Now some things I don't like: The water bottle placement is stupid. Two bottles on the down tube was something we were stuck with for a while in the '80s, and I was glad when it went away. Getting either bottle out is a hassle. There was plenty of room on the seat tube to use more traditional bottle placement. Not sure why Jones went that direction.

There are only two derailleur cable guides on the top tube, which leads to some occasional rattling. Every other bike I own has three for good reason. Noises drive me nuts. Using zip ties instead of the plastic clips helped a little.

I am not a big fan of the rear brake mounted on the chainstay. I know, I know, "It's stiffer that way." Well, it's also a pain to get to when installing, setting up or adjusting. Just put the damn brake on the seatstay so I can use my tri-wrench like I can on every other bike.

In the end, the bike has done what I wanted it to. I am more comfortable and putting less stress on my body because I simply believe the position is better. It's made me re-think riding altogether. If I am riding solo, I am no longer bothered by how slow a plus tire is on the road. If my ride takes 10 extra minutes, who cares? I'm not racing anymore. It's just for fun, and being comfortable and pain-free is pretty nice. Hopefully it helps extend my riding for another few decades.

Later.