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Your handlebars greatly effect the feel of you bike and how you bike handles. Sometimes bars that are comfortable for long rides aren't the best for bike handling. Mountain Bike Handlebars with a lot of back sweep (back sweep is how the handlebars point slightly back towards you, all mtb handlebars have some back sweep but most ae between 3 and 9 degrees, these bars are 11 to 37 degrees) hurt your bike handling! Have your ever ridden an old 3 speed with bars that bend straight back towards you? They are very twitchy. These new bars are similar. The more back sweep a bar has the more it moves your elbows in, towards your body. This puts you in an nonathletic position (elbows in) where you can not resist side to side bar movement nor can you move quickly or efficiently. If you were thinking these type bars might be an upgrade, they are not! As we have stated before, look for a wide bar, 720mm to 810mm and a short stem, 30-70mm long and you will have much more control (assuming you understand and ride in proper body position). Create you most in control ride yet!
It has been an amazing year so far and I am feeling more fortunate than ever to have such great coaches working for BetterRide and to meet and help so many riders improve and reach their goals. Here is a quick update on life at BetterRide. Coaches: Checkout this thread: http://www.bikemojo.com/speak/showthread.php?92241-Betterride-net I love what they [...]
Maybe I should just let our certified coaches do all the coaching! I did my best to only invite riders who I felt were friendly, patient and good communicators to go through our certification process but they all continue to impress me with comments from their students. Checkout these two comments on facebook from Andy's camp last weekend: ... The camp far exceeded my expectations. Learned so much. Time to practice. ... Andy, thanks so much! Me, my dad, Cole, and Chase had so much fun! I'm so much more ready to tackle the race season and put all my new techniques to use on the courses up here! Defiantly the best coach I've ever had in any sport and the most I've ever learned in 3 days.
MTB upgrades and components such as pedals, shoes, handlebars, tires, stem and wheel set can have a huge positive or negative effect on your riding! Choose the components and equipment for you, the conditions and your purpose that day. On a technically easy course like the 24 hours of old Pueblo a racer will be concerned more about rolling resistance than control so she runs a semi-slick tire front and rear. The same racer on a more technical course would likely run a knobbier tire that rolled a little slower but gave her more control. Some things to look out for: 1. Light weight components, light bars, light wheel sets, light tires, light cranks etc.. Our obsession with shaving weight off our bikes needs to end. Yes, given the exact same performance I would rather have a 22 pound bike than a 32 pound mountain bike but right now that doesn't exist.
