Do One up carbon bars help wrist pain?

PB Forum :: All Mountain, Enduro & Cross-Country
Do One up carbon bars help wrist pain?
Author Message
flag Starsky686
O+
Posted: Nov 4, 2021 at 22:58 Quote
I don’t know if it was more the vertical compliance or going from a 20mm rise (ChromagenBZA carbon bars) to the 35mm rise of the oneup. But I am a very happy customer in the wrist department, now.
flag Weithmobile
O+
Posted: Nov 4, 2021 at 23:44 Quote
Starsky686 wrote:
I don’t know if it was more the vertical compliance or going from a 20mm rise (ChromagenBZA carbon bars) to the 35mm rise of the oneup. But I am a very happy customer in the wrist department, now.

Killer good to know. Thinking that and a 35 mm stem as well
flag Whistler-whistler
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 6:20 Quote
Weithmobile wrote:
Explodo wrote:
Weithmobile wrote:
It has to be positioning of the bars and wrist alignment. It comes and goes, I notice it more on uphill and flat rather than downhill, maybe because the adrenaline is pumping and it slips my mind. My wrists are already pretty thrashed for being in my late 20s but mostly inner wrist on both hands. Which gives me a clue but don’t know where to look. My last bike I got it dialed without really knowing what did the trick but on this ripmo I’m still working out the kinks

If it's on flats and climbs then I would guess that it's due to your weight being more body-supported instead of more leg-supported. I've seen people say that building core strength helps with that.

If it were my wrists hurting on the inner edge I would look at a few things:
1) handlebars rotated too far forward (creates very little sweep)
2) too wide bars (hands too far apart rotates hands in relative to arms)
3) leaning too hard on your hands
-----a) is your saddle TOO nose down?
-----b) Is your stack height really low?

I’ve recently made a bunch of adjustments and am going to test it out today. My saddle is pretty much neutral, maybe slightly nose up, my stack height is one spacer from the top.

Thinking it’s bar width and bar angle, going to rotate it in slightly to give me more sweet to see if that does the trick

Let us know if anything ends up working!
flag Explodo
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 6:43 Quote
Whistler-whistler wrote:
Let us know if anything ends up working!
Definitely do that. A lot of people run into wrist pains and knowing what helps others can speed up finding solutions.
flag HaggeredShins
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 8:00 Quote
A couple things I didn't see fully mentioned in here:

1. Bars too narrow with too much sweep (or too wide with too little sweep). You've gotta find the wrist angle that works for you. For me 800mm bars with ~5-7* backsweep has erased wrist pain.

2. Lever angle can play a huge factor in descending wrist comfort and especially arm pump. Working the levers affects tons of muscles in your forearm--I've found massive arm pump is a good indicator the levers need to come up, outright wrist pain is a good indicator they need to go down.
flag Weithmobile
O+
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 9:25 Quote
HaggeredShins wrote:
A couple things I didn't see fully mentioned in here:

1. Bars too narrow with too much sweep (or too wide with too little sweep). You've gotta find the wrist angle that works for you. For me 800mm bars with ~5-7* backsweep has erased wrist pain.

2. Lever angle can play a huge factor in descending wrist comfort and especially arm pump. Working the levers affects tons of muscles in your forearm--I've found massive arm pump is a good indicator the levers need to come up, outright wrist pain is a good indicator they need to go down.

800 felt wide for me. Currently at 780 and feel like I could come into 770. Even at 780 I want to choak on up the bars a few mm. That gives me a stronger position on the bars as well.
As far as levers go that could be a good point. I might be riding them a bit high because that’s what I’m used to. I’ll make some adjustments
flag JoshTaylorUSA
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 13:53 Quote
My experience on the subject...

Picked up a new Kona Big Honzo w Kona's own al 780mm bar and Key grips. A half hour out on local rocky and rooty green and blue trail left my fingers numb and my wrists sore. PNW Loam grips helped a little but still found my fingers getting tingly. I read folks were recommending OneUp's carbon bar and saw Steve at Hardtail Party runs them on his own for similar reasons and that sold me. I opted for the 35mm bar and the combo w PNW Loam grips helped immensely. If I'm riding super rooty and rocky stuff I won't notice hand fatigue for a solid hour or longer.

More recently I built up a carbon XC bike and I installed the Kona aluminum bar I took off the Honzo. First ride out I had the same hand numbness in less than 45 minutes on a not-so-rooty green trail. This time I ordered their 20mm rise carbon bar and the same PNW grips. Cut them down to 750mm, installed yesterday evening and had zero numbness during today's ride.

Wrist angle improvement? Material deflection? Magic? All I know is I'll probably purchase a bar for every one of my personal bikes.
flag Whistler-whistler
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 14:07 Quote
JoshTaylorUSA wrote:
My experience on the subject...

Picked up a new Kona Big Honzo w Kona's own al 780mm bar and Key grips. A half hour out on local rocky and rooty green and blue trail left my fingers numb and my wrists sore. PNW Loam grips helped a little but still found my fingers getting tingly. I read folks were recommending OneUp's carbon bar and saw Steve at Hardtail Party runs them on his own for similar reasons and that sold me. I opted for the 35mm bar and the combo w PNW Loam grips helped immensely. If I'm riding super rooty and rocky stuff I won't notice hand fatigue for a solid hour or longer.

More recently I built up a carbon XC bike and I installed the Kona aluminum bar I took off the Honzo. First ride out I had the same hand numbness in less than 45 minutes on a not-so-rooty green trail. This time I ordered their 20mm rise carbon bar and the same PNW grips. Cut them down to 750mm, installed yesterday evening and had zero numbness during today's ride.

Wrist angle improvement? Material deflection? Magic? All I know is I'll probably purchase a bar for every one of my personal bikes.

Is there something unique to the OneUp carbon bar that makes it different from other carbon bars?
flag HaggeredShins
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 14:50 Quote
Whistler-whistler wrote:
Is there something unique to the OneUp carbon bar that makes it different from other carbon bars?

They have an oval cross section that allows more vertical compliance. Most bars are a uniform wall thickness, even if tapered.
flag melanthius
O+
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 14:56 Quote
They have a pretty unique profile. Between the stem clamp area and the control area the bar is ovalized, much thinner vertically than horizontally. Makes it pretty flexible up-and-down for comfort but still very stiff in the steering moment.

It's not a new concept. I have a Salsa Pro Moto 1 bar that goes from the 31.8mm stem clamp area to ~22.2mm in vertical thickness almost immediately, but stays nearly 31.8 wide horizontally until just before the control clamping area starts. It's a super comfortable bar, but at only 680mm wide it lives on my kids' bike now.
flag Weithmobile
O+
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 15:51 Quote
Just raised the stack height to the last shim I had available and helped on climbs and flats, but still got pretty sore on the downhill. Going to lower my levers a bit to see if there’s an improvement. I’m leaning towards a high rise bar and shorter stem, I think that’s going to be the ticket. Might add more sweep but not sure if it I’m going to need it. I’ll see if there’s improvements tomorrow
flag HaggeredShins
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 16:03 Quote
What bike is this? Curious about the geo you're working with
flag Weithmobile
O+
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 16:41 Quote
HaggeredShins wrote:
What bike is this? Curious about the geo you're working with

Ripmo V2
flag Weithmobile
O+
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 16:42 Quote
Weithmobile wrote:
HaggeredShins wrote:
What bike is this? Curious about the geo you're working with

Ripmo V2

Had little to no pains on my Ibis HD4
flag HaggeredShins
Posted: Nov 5, 2021 at 19:28 Quote
Interesting, both bikes have the same ETT, so presumably this is a descending/out of the saddle pain?

 


Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv65 0.011746
Mobile Version of Website