More than once I oversteered in a corner and almost tucked the front wheel in underneath me. I found myself having to dial back my steering inputs. I wouldn’t quite say it was twitchy, but the steering was much faster than I’m used to. I didn’t notice the rearward shift once I started going downhill, however. I felt very upright on the bike, especially while climbing. The short stem kept my weight a little more off the back, especially without the wide bars to counteract the rearward shift. It felt like my elbows were tucked in and my stance on the bike didn’t feel very stable. Initially it felt extremely weird and didn’t give me much confidence dropping into some of the downhill sections.įit – The combination of the short stem and wide bars made the bike feel very small.

I haven’t used bars this narrow for about as long as I can remember. This is a great combination for aggressive all-mountain riding. The body position was the most centered of all the setups. The steering didn’t feel twitchy and it certainly wasn’t slow. Ride Feel – The bike felt neutral with the short steam and wide handlebar combo. They afford you a little more leverage to oppose those forces and keep your front wheel tracking smoothly. The wide bars felt great in rocky sections of trail where the front end tends to get bounced around a bit. It strikes a pretty good balance between steering stability and speed. Conversely, the short stem speeds up the steering keeping it from getting too slow. First, the wide bars provide a lot of stability while slowing down the steering a bit. There are two opposing things happening here. Handling – This combo kept the handling speed pretty close to what I’m used to.

The bars felt roomy but not cumbersome or unmanageable. It also kept the bike from feeling too big. The short stem kept my position from being too forward on the bike. The wider your bars, the closer your chest is going to get to the stem. My riding position both on the climbs and descents felt pretty well centered on the bike. I started with this setup so I could have a good reference point to compare to once I started swapping things out.įit – This setup felt pretty comfortable and neutral on my size XL Transition Spur. Although, I do like my bars a bit narrower than 800mm. I ride something fairly similar to this on most of my personal bikes. Does one setup make the bike feel too small and twitchy? Does another make it big, slow, and sluggish? That’s what I’m going to find out. The things I’m paying attention to are fit, handling, and overall ride feel. There’s a wide variety of terrain there, making it an excellent place for these back-to-back tests. After testing at 800mm, I’ll remove those inserts to bring the width down to 750mm without having to cut the bar.įor the test, I’m going to Trailside Bike Park to run multiple laps with each setup. With both inserts installed, the bar measures 800mm. The Ibis handlebar is unique in that it has two threaded inserts on either end. Both stems have a 31.8mm clamp diameter for the 31.8mm bore Ibis Carbon handlebar I’m using for this test. They can’t really get much shorter, and any longer, they are probably a road stem. For me, that’s the practical range of MTB stems. I have two of the brand new Enve alloy MTB stems here. I want to dive into how each affects handling, fit, and your bike’s overall ride quality. There are so many different stem lengths and bar widths, and everyone seems to have an opinion about which is best. Handlebars are what you hold onto, and stems are what keep the handlebars on your bike - Done. I’m going to break it down into individual parts to start to understand what each of these things does. How we set up the test For the Best MTB Handlebar and Stem ComboĪlright, I’m going to try to make this semi-complex relationship as simple as my little brain can.

Handlebar stem