what does this do to your riding? Force you to ride 'straight up'? move your weight forward? and how far is too far? I've been advised to move my bars well forward of the tripleclamp on my '03 Sherco250. I'm not comfortable with this but have been told this is the better to set up a newer bike.

Moving the bars forward of the clamps, makes for better trick riding and also makes the bike more 'Twitchy' but more useable.

It moves your bodies weight further forward from centre.

It's a difficult one to explain in writing.

Easy thing is try it in different positions. You will see what i mean.

Go extreme, start with them really far back, then move them forward a few cm's at a time. This will give you a good idea of how it effects the bike.

Set a pretty easy section up, with tight turns and a semi decent sized rock to try get up and over. Make sure you ride the same route with each alteration.

I hope someone else can explain better.

Pros it makes the front end lite,makes steering the rear wheel easier,gives you more room on the bike. Cons drop offs are harder, steering is quicker, harder on forearms may cause pump, I would put them straight up and down ride for awhile then mess with it till you find your grove. The cool thing about trials is we all have our own grove the trouble is finding it.

Straight up and down for the first portion of the bars (the lower curve) sets you up on the bike for a comfortable stance. Then try it a little forward and then back to experiment.

A good rule of thumb on the Sherco is to rock the bars forward, place a straight allen wrench into the front bar clamp bolt, then bring the crossbar back to just toutch the allen wrench and cinch it down there. This will place the crossbar near verticle as you ride the bike.

Another advantage is that you can easily find and repeat the same exact setting quickly and easily any time the bars are moved for any reason using the wrench as a guage.

I cannot take credit for this tip, as it came directly from Ryan Young and is the same as he rides and instructs every student. Some advanced riders may move them further forward, yet not back. Other types of bikes may vary on the bolt positions and the tip may not work, yet the verticle positioning(or just past when just standing the bike) w/ riding is the same for most.

Edited September 5, 201015 yr by copemech

thanks, I have been wondering about the arm pump, I may have the bars too far forward. On the TY250a I had the main 'upright' part of teh bars in line with the forks, comfy and usable too. I may go back to that and try again.