Sorry chaps silly question time again.

[southern andy]

How do you measure the height of your bars, is it to the cross bar or in line with the top where the grips are.

These are my bars, i think they are too small for me height wise. Length wise they are about 26.5"

They just dont feel comfortable and i struggle to pull them up to wheelie a speed jump.









They sort of show about 8" high, or would they be 7" to the cross bar.





Any help would be appreciated then i know what size i'm looking for. Cheers guys.

[SaMAlex]

forget about the crossbar, the handlebar height is the vertical height from the center of the stem clamp bar to the center of the grip bar. Its best to measure it when the bars are off the bike. Put them on the floor, grips down, and measure from the floor upto the stem area. Remember, its center to center, so knock off half the dia of the bar tube to get from the floor to the center of the grip.

[profile]

...so knock off half the dia of the bar tube to get from the floor to the center of the grip.

Hmmm, if it's center to center ya must have to knock off  the full diametre, no?  ie two times the radius at the bottom and the top...

[SaMAlex]

...so knock off half the dia of the bar tube to get from the floor to the center of the grip.

Hmmm, if it's center to center ya must have to knock off  the full diametre, no?  ie two times the radius at the bottom and the top...

Yes, your right if you measured to the very top of the stem tube (or is that the bottom? Its upside down). I was thinking that you would measure to the center of the stem tube, making one extra radius extra to the floor.

[profile]

Yuss, I thought that's prob what you meant - half a second after I pressed 'send', lol...oops

[SaMAlex]

About a week ago I was reading an old magazine with an advert for S&M bars, right when they first started making their own. The add showed all the height and width measurements in a "blueprint" style, along with the dual radius bends they started doing, and the upsweep and back sweep angles. I thought that it would be worth scanning in, for just this kind of question. I wish I had now.

I'll see if I can find it again.

[southern andy]

cheers guys, excellent info there.

Just been out and remeasured and they are 7.5" from the middle of the stem bar to the middle of the grip bar.

so i reckon i need some 9" bars then.

[SaMAlex]

8" is a high bar, not sure you will get much bigger than that. Maybe 8.5". Your stem is a front loader, which looses some height. Get a top loader stem and that will take it up maybe an inch. You could just turn the stem the other way up, but front loaders always look awful upside down. Might be worth it to see how it feels, then it wont cost you a penny to try it

[southern andy]

Good idea in changing the stem, cheers mate. On my old 80's race bike i had JMC Darryll Young bars, they were a fantastic height for me, do you know what size they were ? although it may have been because i had top loader stem then though.

[Gary72]

Got any room under the stem for spacers?
The new 4down catalouge has a S&M bar guide with heights, widths and up and backsweeps. No idea how the scanner on the desk here works been there over a year and then ink ran out 6 months ago