Hi,

I've tried the handlebars on my rev 3 in all sorts of positions, forward, back or lined up with the forks. I keep finding my weight is too far forward when reaching down to the bars, I feel like I'm crouched over the front. Having ridden a friends beta rev 3 250 and scorpa these bikes felt more comfortable. I'm 5 foot 7.

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried out after market bars and what are you opinions of them? Or should I just stick with the standard bars?

Cheers,

Heather

Standard should be fine as long as they positioned correct, are you riding trial Sunday ?

Standard should be fine as long as they positioned correct, are you riding trial Sunday ?

Here's a pic,

As for the trial, I've been a bit put off by anything with the word 'championship' included. Once I can do the hardest route at the easy trials with ease I'll attempt sportsman in the w.s.w championships. Merthyr was a hard lesson.

At any rate, I'm off to watch the international mx at hawkstone on Sunday, should be good. I wish you well in the trial.

For me I like them a bit more forward, levers slightly down

Your bars look fine, but I agree you always look forward on the bike. You might try shortening the bars, say 12mm on each end. Would give you some arm length back a little.

As above but how tall are you, we have shortened bars for my boys when they were small!

Be careful if you do cut your bars and try 5mm at a time as it does make a big difference and there is a trade off as you loose a bit of leverage on the bars.

I'm 5 foot 7, wouldn't shortening the bars make the bike more twitchy?

I used to shorten my bars all the time until I got the '08 and decided to leave them stock length. Shortening the bars won't make the bike more twitchy but it will reduce your leverage so when you drop into something the front wheel will have a little more leverage on you and it's easier to "tuck under"

If you are having a problem with feeling like you are too far forward roll your bars forward a bit. This is one of those counter intuitive things but it does work. Rolling the bars forward causes you to stick your, er, rear back as you drop your body position to compensate. You also gain forward and back leverage because your arms are more in-line with the bars. This will make the bike more twitchy and faster turning. You will definitely notice on the loop but it will also make the bike feel better on drop-offs as it will be easier to get your weight back and low and will help on uphills as you can pull harder on the bars to weight the back wheel.

As for Renthal vs. stock I was always a big fan of Renthals. There are three main dimensions for bars. Height, sweep and rise. Height can be considered the distance from the triple clamp to the mid point of the grip location of the bars. Sweep is the angle the grips are bent back from the plane of the center of the bars. Rise is the angle the grips are bent up from the center of the bars. Much of this is personal preference but at 5'7" you are pretty much within the norm for the standard bars except for the difference in shoulder width/arm length/torso length because you are a woman. That fact alone can affect your perception of the bikes geometry. There is no one answer and the best recommendation is try different settings for bar position to find what works for you. There are also set back pegs and moving the forks up/down in the triple clamps to fine tune steering response. Play with it all. You seem pretty competent with a spanner.

What bars did your friends' bikes have and did they have accessory pegs?

Edited February 7, 201511 yr by dan williams

At 5 foot 7 your in the range for standard bars, so play with bar position, watch other riders at a trial, infact observe a section and watch and learn body position good and bad, you will be surprised how much you will learn with repeated riders riding the section.

Edited February 8, 201511 yr by jfc

This is the position of my bars, I'm 5'8".

Heather, try dropping your forks through the yolks as you have at least 5mm to be gained there looking at the photo, worth a try.

Those still the original 06 bars Heather?

Hi, thanks for the replies guys, appreciate the help. Just trying to get the bike to 'fit', if you get what I mean.

Dan, Thanks for your help. I think moving the bars is the simplest and cheapest solution to start. I've looked on the renthal website and they do handlebars for this year of rev 3. But if I went down that route the ideal would be to buy in person and have a feel of the bars first. My friends Beta had red anodized bars, so could be renthal or jitsie, all I know is I felt more stable and put less weight to the front on his bike. It might be down to his bars being further forward or a difference in where the clamps were on his forks. As for the pegs, I think they were standard but I'll have a closer look next practice.

Thanks for the advice jfc, I want to observe at a club championship sometime to watch how people ride and choose different lines/ body positioning and so on. You're so busy concentrating on your own game when you compete it's hard to concentrate on others, plus it would be nice to give back by volunteering.

Hi Totty, they are fairly far forward, thanks for posting the photo, gave me a good idea of where to move them. How do you manage to reach the levers on down hills?

Hey Addict, I'll try the handlebars forward this week, I've got a practice planned mid week and I've got a trial on sunday- should be good to test it. I'll change one variable at a time. If it still doesn't feel comfortable I'll leave the positioning the same but adjust the forks as you've suggested. I believe they are original but I'm not 100% sure, would the bars have a number or beta stamped on them somewhere? Believe it or not I had the rear turned the other day and the bike is still on it's original tyres!

This is where I've moved the bars to, I propped the bike up whilst doing so and this felt comfortable. I'll keep the levers almost level so I can reach them on descents. The bars feel higher in this position, we'll see how it goes.

These are the foot pegs, I believe they are standard. If I've got the bike supported and I try to stand in a neutral position with hands off the bars I find the balance forwards and backwards really out if you get what I mean? Maybe it's related to using the bars incorrectly to support weight rather than as a steering tool. I don't have this problem static balancing with the wheel one way or the other. I dunno, all speculation.

There you go, you must change that rear tyre if it's the original, it will be so hard you will really struggle for grip.

If you change the tyre it will feel like a different bike, honestly.

The front could do with changing as well, do you find the front washes out all the time on cambers?

Edited February 9, 201511 yr by jfc