Can you be too short to effectively ride a DJ/street MTB?

PB Forum :: Dirt Jumping & Street
Can you be too short to effectively ride a DJ/street MTB?
Author Message
flag ricar
Posted: May 14, 2015 at 11:42 Quote
I was never really good at manuals but I (back in the day) could do three street lights (in my neighborhood) consistently, so maybe a football field...... on a nice street with a little hill. I know guys that can jump on my bike and manual for days. The cruiser I just built runs S&M 5" race bars and they sit about the same as my MTB with a upside down stem and 1" rise bar. Also back in the day I could bunny hop anything that was about handlebar height, I could get on picnic tables without touching the edge. I don't feel the need for a high bar but I always run short chain stays. I rode an S&M Widow-maker for a few years and it had a long rear end, yes the low bar was a pain on the back.

IMO there is nothing you can do with a higher bar that you can't with a low bar BUT that will also depend on you ( body weight ect) frame of choice, and what terrain you ride most as well as your own style. Then personal preference comes in with a big opinion.

Still, IMO you are not a tall guy I think you should consider that when choosing a bar. Should you go for the bars aimed at the tallest guys? Then I get off on width and we'll be here for another week.
flag cmc4130
Posted: May 14, 2015 at 13:40 Quote
ricar wrote:
. . . I rode an S&M Widow-maker for a few years and it had a long rear end, yes the low bar was a pain on the back.
.

where is it now?!

i still have mine.... http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/sandm/58630
flag ricar
Posted: May 14, 2015 at 18:29 Quote
Man I don't even like telling the story. I had a green one, still had the stickers and all but the old 1" steerer tube. i could not get a new fork for it so it sat for years in my garage. Finally sold it with a bunch of other parts to a guy (Clayton from Backpedaling) for (I hang my head in shame) $75 built with cheap parts just to pedal it around and some other parts I had. I didn't know Clay then and he didn't know or trust me and the frame had these silly stickers on it I swore were original. Finally one day he is speaking to Moller on the phone and says "a guy brought in a frame he swears is a Widow-maker with some weird stickers on it, is it legit?" Moller asks what color, he says green and Moller offers to buy it off him right there. It's the only frame S&M made he does not have one of.

Now it's in for Clay's bike museum, he wouldn't sell it.

Mine was a few years older I think. On the TT it's sticker was I WANNA ROCK if memory serves. And the Dee Snider Rock Legend Series sticker was on the head tube.

Ever see teh old SnM video with Dee in it? That was awesome.
flag ridelikeacat
Posted: May 23, 2015 at 14:16 Quote
ricar wrote:
I was never really good at manuals but I (back in the day) could do three street lights (in my neighborhood) consistently, so maybe a football field...... on a nice street with a little hill. I know guys that can jump on my bike and manual for days. The cruiser I just built runs S&M 5" race bars and they sit about the same as my MTB with a upside down stem and 1" rise bar. Also back in the day I could bunny hop anything that was about handlebar height, I could get on picnic tables without touching the edge. I don't feel the need for a high bar but I always run short chain stays. I rode an S&M Widow-maker for a few years and it had a long rear end, yes the low bar was a pain on the back.

IMO there is nothing you can do with a higher bar that you can't with a low bar BUT that will also depend on you ( body weight ect) frame of choice, and what terrain you ride most as well as your own style. Then personal preference comes in with a big opinion.

Still, IMO you are not a tall guy I think you should consider that when choosing a bar. Should you go for the bars aimed at the tallest guys? Then I get off on width and we'll be here for another week.

Are you saying that shorter rise are for shorter people and higher rise are for taller people? That is, if both those people are using say my exact setup and riding mostly level street and small skateparks? I thought that high rise would be for shorter people to get the bar cliser to them but i could be wrong. So far its kinda sounding like i might do better with a bar that isnt like 100mm+ rise haha just sucks not many companies make a cromoly riser that low. I dont have the money to rebuild a new front wheel on 20mm hub and get a quality sus fork. And i really like the feel of rigid when your bikes all quiet and dialed
flag ricar
Posted: May 23, 2015 at 18:33 Quote
Well, all things shouldn't be equal... kind of. A shorter guy arguably should be on a shorter bike, shorter stays, shorter TT ect to achieve the "same" measurements. That unfortunately is subject to personal preference so it is not so mathematically perfect. Not to mention maybe you have a short guy with big feet who likes a long TT whatever, so those generalizations don't always work.

Still, higher bars may make it easier to pull up but you also lose an amount of pull because your bar is that much closer. Shorter chain stays make it easier to pull up as well, so do you go with higher bar or shorter stays? IMO shorter stays are the better option.

If you take it the size thing to the extreme a guy 6'4" on an 18" BMX will be goofy and he probably won't ride very well. Over the bars or looping out all over. Take a guy 4'6" and put him on a 26" wheeled bike with 16" stays and 10" stand over he probably won't ride any better. That is pretty unrealistic admittedly but it does show some limited amount of truth.


Yes, it does suck about the limited small diameter low rise bar options.
flag ridelikeacat
Posted: May 25, 2015 at 20:41 Quote
Leafcycles bondage bars look great but im having a hell of a time finding them except on dirtybikes. Theyre heat treated cromo bars that come in 2" 2.5" and 3.5" rise.

I am a short guy with big feet, if i dont watch foot position my foot jams the tire lol -.- just another thing makes me want to ride 24" again but all these switches are priceyyyy Razz i wish i lived on the east coast sometimes where theres a better mtbmx scene
flag ricar
Posted: May 26, 2015 at 5:52 Quote
I do buzz with 24" wheels and my feet are only 9.5. I could not imagine trying to ride 26" wheels, they are just too in the way.
flag ridelikeacat
Posted: May 26, 2015 at 14:05 Quote
I dont buzz with 26" and my feet are 44.5 euro or 11 US. I ride on the balls of my feet tho. I like how 26 feels compared to 24 just it sucks when the tire bounces off my foot haha
flag cmc4130
Posted: May 27, 2015 at 8:46 Quote
ridelikeacat wrote:
Are you saying that shorter rise are for shorter people and higher rise are for taller people? That is, if both those people are using say my exact setup and riding mostly level street and small skateparks? I thought that high rise would be for shorter people to get the bar cliser to them but i could be wrong. So far its kinda sounding like i might do better with a bar that isnt like 100mm+ rise haha just sucks not many companies make a cromoly riser that low. I dont have the money to rebuild a new front wheel on 20mm hub and get a quality sus fork. And i really like the feel of rigid when your bikes all quiet and dialed

Yeah, in general, a shorter person might like a shorter rise bar and a taller person a taller rise bar. It's about how much you have to hunch over.

If you are trying to bring your bars closer to you, then get a shorter stem (or shorter frame). It looks like your stem is already short (maybe 40mm ish?). But they go as short as 26mm http://flatlandfuel.com/sandmredneckfltstem.aspx or even zero: https://www.danscomp.com/products/370310/Crupi_I-Beam_No_Offset_Stem.html
flag ridelikeacat
Posted: May 28, 2015 at 17:59 Quote
cmc4130 wrote:
ridelikeacat wrote:
Are you saying that shorter rise are for shorter people and higher rise are for taller people? That is, if both those people are using say my exact setup and riding mostly level street and small skateparks? I thought that high rise would be for shorter people to get the bar cliser to them but i could be wrong. So far its kinda sounding like i might do better with a bar that isnt like 100mm+ rise haha just sucks not many companies make a cromoly riser that low. I dont have the money to rebuild a new front wheel on 20mm hub and get a quality sus fork. And i really like the feel of rigid when your bikes all quiet and dialed

Yeah, in general, a shorter person might like a shorter rise bar and a taller person a taller rise bar. It's about how much you have to hunch over.

If you are trying to bring your bars closer to you, then get a shorter stem (or shorter frame). It looks like your stem is already short (maybe 40mm ish?). But they go as short as 26mm http://flatlandfuel.com/sandmredneckfltstem.aspx or even zero: https://www.danscomp.com/products/370310/Crupi_I-Beam_No_Offset_Stem.html

That zero offset stem is retarded lol not to mention im double the 90lb weight limit on that stem. I like the khe mvp flatland stem and the dartmoor micron DJ stem which is 30mm offset. At the moment im using an ns quantum 25.7bore stem so its 37mm offset i believe which is pretty short. Its sounding like i might be ordering some Blackmarket Molly Hatchet bars in 2" rise and seeing how that feels Smile cuz i definately would like to feel a cromo lowrise bar Smile at five foot five and a half, its hard to dial in my bike for my size lol
flag ricar
Posted: May 28, 2015 at 18:11 Quote
Actually the zero offset stem is about the best handling stem for this type of riding. Unfortunately they raise your bars quite a bit and tend to be aimed at kids, still the reasoning behind it is not all about reach, but about true steering. If you need to run a long stem then your frame is too short.
flag ridelikeacat
Posted: May 28, 2015 at 18:33 Quote
ricar wrote:
Actually the zero offset stem is about the best handling stem for this type of riding. Unfortunately they raise your bars quite a bit and tend to be aimed at kids, still the reasoning behind it is not all about reach, but about true steering. If you need to run a long stem then your frame is too short.

37mm is super short as far as im concerned. I cant see myself going shorter than 30, i like a slight steering offset. i read about those moly hatchet bars snapping... Thats brutal! I think im gonna go for some Pridestreet Profit bars in medium, what do you think? Light strong cromo bars Smile
flag cmc4130
Posted: May 28, 2015 at 19:54 Quote
I wasn't necessarily recommending a zero offset stem, just pointing out that they exist.

I'm pretty loyal to 50-ish mm as my default for DJ and bmx, although I do have 40mm on a flatland bmx bike and 70mm on a 4x/trail bike.
flag ricar
Posted: May 28, 2015 at 20:04 Quote
Trail bikes do seem to like the longer stems. I don't ride them enough to figure it out but riding down MT. Carlton with no trail was more fun on my wife's Gary Fisher XC than my DJ. To hit a jump with that Fisher would make me poop in my shorts. I run a ALab 42mm on my cruiser and another A lab on the MTB that I think may be shorter but I can't remember... 50mm seems to be about the norm in the BMX world and most people don't seem to have much of an issue with it. Wink
flag cmc4130
Posted: May 28, 2015 at 20:28 Quote
ricar wrote:
Trail bikes do seem to like the longer stems. I don't ride them enough to figure it out but riding down MT. Carlton with no trail was more fun on my wife's Gary Fisher XC than my DJ. To hit a jump with that Fisher would make me poop in my shorts. I run a ALab 42mm on my cruiser and another A lab on the MTB that I think may be shorter but I can't remember... 50mm seems to be about the norm in the BMX world and most people don't seem to have much of an issue with it. Wink

Yeah, for real. It's interesting how the old dirt roadie XC setup of a super long low stem, flat bar, and short fork is starting to evolve. . . A lot more riders are doing the All Mountain / Enduro setup. I got to ride this demo Specialized Carbo Enduro 650b last year at Winter Park, and it was pretty amazing. Very easy to climb, but also seemed to handle correctly going down declines and through berms, over tables, etc.

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