Steering Riser Options

[H in OH]

Hi Everyone,

I have been commuting with a Quest 451 v1 for several months now. The stock handlebars did not work for me. In the stock position, they were too high, and reversing them into a praying hamster position resulted in serious stability issues for me. For my personal ergonomics, I found that I cannot keep the steering stable if my arms are angled upward beyond a small bit higher than horizontal from my shoulders to the bars. I replaced the stock bars with a WTB Mountain Road handlebar mounted farther down on the riser, and have my arms next to my knees almost right where they would be in a typical USS sidestick setup.

Now it is time to get rid of this extra 5.5 inches of stem riser sticking up above where the stem is currently mounted. I thought about keeping the riser height for holding a headlight with a second stem, but that ends up having to be right in my face at the top of the riser to clear my legs. Just not working for me. I could just cut it off, but has anyone out there tried an alternative riser? It would seem that the Rans crank forward risers might be a more elegant solution.

Thanks.
---H

 

[Doug Burton]

RANS CF risers

... are nicely-made parts that are very useful for changing ergonomics on Cruzbikes - I have 3 of them of various configurations.

The issue you'll come upon is that you still need the Cruzbike steering column, because the longest CF stem is 9" long, and you'll likely need more length than that.

They also have some SWB risers that are too long, but can be shortened. If you shorten one, remember to slot it at the bottom and drill a stress-relief hole at the end of the new slot, so that the clamp will be able to tighten up around the replacement stem (otherwise you'll never get it tight enough and it will rotate when you pedal).

Cheers,

Doug

 

[H in OH]

Rans Riser Height

Thanks Doug. In my case, I have the stem low enough that there are just a touch over 7 inches from the headset to the top of the stem. About 8.5 inches including the height of the angled stem. I thought Rans was offering a 9 inch curved riser, but they now only list a 7 inch curved riser. They tend to list the riser height as the total vertical distance from the bottom to the top of the curved section, not just the vertical section. A total 7 inch height including the curved section would be too low.

I will probably just cut the riser and get a cap with an expander bolt.

Thanks.
---H