What's the status of riser road bars in 2026?

[Pistonbroke]

LIGHTCARBON HBR17
This is the one I'd prefere of all riser bars available ATM.

Good bars!

[patliean1]

How are you guys determining both what frame size and riser handlebar size you need when ordering? I need someone to explain it to me like I am 6 years old. Do I just simply measure the cockpit stack and reach in connect with the frame geometry?

Looking at the Avenger R8RS. Not exactly ground breaking stuff but might be a cool an budget gateway bike into the world of riser bars. And could also make for interesting talking points if I bought one in the future.

[Serge_K]

How are you guys determining both what frame size and riser handlebar size you need when ordering? I need someone to explain it to me like I am 6 years old. Do I just simply measure the cockpit stack and reach in connect with the frame geometry?

I've done trigonometry in Fusion 360 because it's easy to draw stack, reach, and angles (seat tube & stem). So it's easy to map a frame, saddle (the offset / no offset seatpost can be confusing), then stem (w angle), spacers, and that gives you coordinates. With riser bars, it's fundamentally just more spacers, so your stem should lengthen as you go higher, w your ass sat on the saddle as the center of a circle.
What idk, is how much stack you can add before the bike itself rides different and you look like a clown (like that guy on that tavelo who got disqualified from that race he won for looking silly).

[Takiyaki]

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the reason of the riser bars appearance in the market, because of the Low Stack of the Chinese frames? If so, is there any point to have a riser bar on a bike with "normal stack"?
Maybe to have the handlebar slammed?

It's just another option for fit. No different than different angle stems or setback vs no setback seatposts for example. These will enable a less aggressive fit on a wider range of frames, vs just having to pick only from endurance frames for example.

Right now I am running 130mm Avro bars. So -10 degrees and no rise. I want to raise my front end. Going to a 0 degree stem would get me ~20mm of rise. Then riser bars could net another 20-30mm. If that's too much rise I can play with different angle stems. Just enables flexibility.

I've done trigonometry in Fusion 360 because it's easy to draw stack, reach, and angles (seat tube & stem). So it's easy to map a frame, saddle (the offset / no offset seatpost can be confusing), then stem (w angle), spacers, and that gives you coordinates. With riser bars, it's fundamentally just more spacers, so your stem should lengthen as you go higher, w your ass sat on the saddle as the center of a circle.
What idk, is how much stack you can add before the bike itself rides different and you look like a clown (like that guy on that tavelo who got disqualified from that race he won for looking silly).

This is a great idea. I have been meaning to document my fit and I do a lot in Fusion 360 for 3D printing. I will get to work on this. Super easy.

[Chiyou]

User xenograft shared this tool they created that does what Serge describes (without needing Fusion): https://bikefitr-3af15.web.app/

On the left, you enter all the dimensions of your current set-up. Then, on the right you a) enter the dimensions of the frame you're considering and b) play mainly with the saddle, cockpit and handlebar dimensions until you get the contact points of your new rig to match those of your current bike.

Serge's clown caveats still apply.

[Samuel BMR]

LIGHTCARBON HBR17
This is the one I'd prefere of all riser bars available ATM.

The rise is minimal. Cannot be compared with the REAL riser bars which are like 2 to 4cm
Higher

[agarabaghi]

Seka now has the gladius Alta.

has anyone ordered one? I have a 375wide 100mm gladius alta coming that i plan on using on my ExAero.

For those wondering the difference:
https://guileless-stardust-f36cd2.netlify.app/

I can achieve my retul targets with far less stack. Plugged in a few bars and a few frames i was looking to buy.

I still want to get some kind of riser bar for my spear to get to the target as well.

[Takiyaki]

I went with this:



Going to be a while until my build is finished but this should be interesting. Im going to run the cables outside of the bars as well.

[agarabaghi]

I think for the Exaero I am just going to get the gladius even though its a bit heavier than the tavelo but at least it will be all the "same" series. For my Spear if I end up enjoying the gladius and like how the position is, the tavelo makes a ton of spacers for different frames which is pretty impressive so i will try that.

[Sander2177]

I'm looking at the Hudu Rider, Rpantha, and Yichord bars for my next Light Cycling RF10 build, all in 380mm.

From what I can tell, the Yichord bar on AliExpress appears to be the same design as the Hudu Rider 25mm Rise. The Hudu/Yichord comes in at 70mm reach, 125mm drop and 25mm rise, while the Rpantha is almost identical with the same 70mm reach and 125mm drop, but with a slightly more conservative 20mm rise.

I'm also contemplating the Tavelo, although I could probably be swayed back towards the Incolor Aerowave. The only issue is that the Aerowave starts getting pretty pricey relative to the cost of the frame itself.

The RF10 uses the FSA ACR system, so I'm looking at rise bars more from a fit perspective than an aero one. The supplied cone spacer and top cover add a fair amount of stack, and a rise bar seems a much cleaner solution than ending up with a tower of spacers under a traditional cockpit.

On another note, what's with all the hate for this style of bar compared to traditional integrated bars? Looking at the geometry, we're only talking about 20-25mm of rise with otherwise very conventional numbers. To me they seem like a sensible way of getting the fit right while keeping the front end clean and integrated.

[agarabaghi]

I really dislike that the yichord comes in 95 and 105 and not 100 lol

Do you have links to the other brands?

Tavelo bars have once nice feature, you can pick custom spacers for your frame

[Bonus79]

On another note, what's with all the hate for this style of bar compared to traditional integrated bars? Looking at the geometry, we're only talking about 20-25mm of rise with otherwise very conventional numbers. To me they seem like a sensible way of getting the fit right while keeping the front end clean and integrated.

I’m also getting interested in riser handlebars...putting ergonomics and geometry aside, what I’d really like to know is whether there’s any difference in terms of feel and bike handling compared to a traditional handlebar...I haven’t read anything about those aspects yet.

[Da11as]

I’m also getting interested in riser handlebars...putting ergonomics and geometry aside, what I’d really like to know is whether there’s any difference in terms of feel and bike handling compared to a traditional handlebar...I haven’t read anything about those aspects yet.

Nothing in the realms of crazy changes, but when considering HTA, you will slightly increase total reach comparing with fork spacers as the latter tends to decrease it from a declared frame geometry chart.

Coming from flat cockpit to LCR017 minus one spacer, I did not notice the difference. On the other hand, the steering and weight balance feels funky when you have to many spacers (in my case - extra 20 mm to the established fit).

[Sander2177]

I really dislike that the yichord comes in 95 and 105 and not 100 lol

Do you have links to the other brands?

Tavelo bars have once nice feature, you can pick custom spacers for your frame

After all that, I ended up going with the Tavelo anyway 😂

The 380 × 120 has around 20mm of rise, which works out pretty much perfectly for me. On the RF10 I'll effectively only need the cone spacer and a 10mm bar spacer to get my fit where I want it.

I was getting fed up waiting on the HUDUD questions on spacers and all the back and forth, so I just pulled the trigger on the Tavelo, did ask HUDUD to send me an invoice as well  , you snooze you lose!

Being a weight weenie probably helped the decision too. Claimed weight is around 280g, which is hard to argue with will see i might attempt to remove the matt finish myself for UD 

Here are the AliExpress links for the other bars if anyone is interested:

Rpantahi
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005013293995702.html?pdp_npi=4%40dis%21GBP%21%EF%BF%A1302.98%21%EF%BF%A1263.59%21%21%21389.84%21339.16%21%40210382de17918184776973001e0fc6%2112000060754057884%21sh%21GB%216406715354%21X&spm=a2g0o.store_pc_allItems_or_groupList.new_all_items_2007523599136.1005013293995702

HUDUD
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005013309537969.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.98ab11b2KdqyqL&algo_pvid=827cd0c4-6035-4134-ae6c-0dc01096d335&algo_exp_id=827cd0c4-6035-4134-ae6c-0dc01096d335-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%222%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21GBP%21256.80%21241.39%21%21%212209.97%212077.37%21%400b0fe78617918186386085271e0c22%2112000060795585308%21sea%21GB%216406715354%21ABX%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29910%3Bd%3A57ebd5c4%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895&curPageLogUid=TLp5u0nfuEAE&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch%7Cquery_from%3A%7Cx_object_id%3A1005013309537969%7C_p_origin_prod%3A&tblci=GiAVopNGx94PfImHdB0QhQ6T_GgBTd1a8RHSIJKeKs0QtiDA9m4orM3p4Ma8qrgaMPi_Rw

YICHORD
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005013314248609.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.similar_items.1.2be5sAvtsAvtUe&utparam-url=scene%3Aimage_search%7Cquery_from%3Adetail_bigimg%7Cx_object_id%3A1005013314248609%7C_p_origin_prod%3A&algo_pvid=31295dc5-c8ef-4281-9458-5dec31f8bb3a&algo_exp_id=31295dc5-c8ef-4281-9458-5dec31f8bb3a&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%2210%22%2C%22fromPage%22%3A%22search%22%7D&pdp_npi=6%40dis%21GBP%21279.19%21209.39%21%21%212402.67%211801.98%21%4021038a9c17918186702783054e0ea5%2112000060778603172%21sea%21GB%216406715354%21ABX%211%210%21n_tag%3A-29910%3Bd%3A57ebd5c4%3Bm03_new_user%3A-29895

[yappy]

As far as I know, the riser handlebars from yichord and rpantahi are manufactured by hudud. It also appears that light-cycling produces riser bars; the price is $150 per set.