Great that you taken courses from Keith Code! I have leaned a lot from his books and look forward to taking one of his classes if my schedule ever allows me to.

It is hard to offer advice without actually watching you but three things come to mind. First that 120 stem makes steering floppy and puts you in a non-athletic position. A 40-80mm stem will make the bike handle much better. Second, we don’t have the weight of a motorcycle pushing down on our tires and we don’t have a 9″ wide tire on sticky asphalt so cornering on an mtb requires a completely different body position than on a street bike (we need to stay on top of our bikes). Third, in addition to keeping our weight over our bikes make sure you are centered fore and aft too, with all of your weight on the pedal/s (often we creep back going into corners do to fear). I hope this helps and look forward to seeing you in a camp one day.

Cheers,

Gene

Sorry to hear about the elbow problems. Thanks for sharing your experience and the bio-mechanics of alt bars vs straight bars, nice to get another perspective from a three year user of those bars.

As a biomechanics enthusiast, I’d make a few points about the alt bar, probably the most significant point I could make is how the elbows are allowed to rest inward of where a straight bar would–this disengages the pectorals and anterior deltoids forcing the triceps to carry the rider weight and absorb impact, etc.

Many riders will habitually point their elbows outward when needed despite the steep sweep of the bars. When the wrists are in position with the elbows out, any pulling force is transmitted through a shortened muscle (extensor carpis in this case), an inefficient and compromised orientation for most joints, in this case the elbows and wrists.

Elbow injuries aren’t common for mountain bikers, and I had it thick over the past few off seasons. After careful consideration of my setup, the alt bars have been relegated to the touring and cargo bikes. Much better suited on rec-style bikes and less on sport bikes. Again, I wish we’d had this dialogue a couple years back!

BA

I’m going to try some of the ones with lesser incline seated. When I bought my bike, it came with a offset seat post. I traded it out for a zero offset and that brought be forward about 1 1/2 inches and I get a lot more climbing power being that I’m over my pedals more.

That made such a tremendous difference in my overall power that I wonder why they’d put an offset seat post on an XC or trail bike? I have a 2012 Specialized Camber Comp 29.

Thanks for the great articles and emails. I’m down here in South Florida. I don’t think you make it down this way. Wish you did.

Tom

First, thanks for you’re continued articles and advice. This handlebar and stem article is close to my heart due to my own particular needs and problems. I’ve been wanting to solve my steering problem(s). However, I’m not really sure if it’s bar and stem or rider. I crash too much in corners, losing grip on the front wheel.

I rode motorcycles for many years before taking up mtb. Even taking riding skills with Keith Code and Reg Pridmore and later his son. I also liked to take my sport tourer to track days a few times a year. I mention this due to the moto style of diving deep (late) into the corner and flicking it in.

I should tell you about my bike. It’s a ’06 stumpy S-works FS. I bought the frame in ’09 off the shelf and had it fitted out with a complete XT drivetrain including wheels. The stem is a 120 with I’d guess is 5 or 6 deg rise and about a 640 low rise bar. Ergon grips to fight off the numbness in my hands. Tires are Specialized Captain tubless that I run with 22-24 # frt and 24-26 # rr.

I live and ride mostly in North and central Florida where there always seems to be slippery leaves from oaks and pines. But other folks aren’t losing it like I seem to be doing. Or they’re not telling. I consider myself something of a intermediate non-aggressive 66 year old, in fair shape rider, who falls a little too much in the corners. It’s beginning to unnerve me a bit, to be honest.

Thanks in advance to any advice you can send my way. And, I’m still hoping to fit YOUR school one day into my retired budget.

Ron Wipp

I love reading your tips and advice, and your reply to Eric shows a lot of class. The generosity with which you share your experience and knowledge is a great long-term marketing strategy for your business. I can’t afford your camps now but I am certain that when my cashflow makes it possible, I will jump at the chance to sign up.

That is so true. Often it is body position (not using/knowing proper position) or a mobility issue (example: tight hamstrings not allowing them to hinge forward) or the bike may be too short or long for them.