Not long bought my TREK 6500 and found the bars a little too straight (Bontrager crowbar select OS). Seen Truvativ Holzfeller Riser; 5deg upsweep and 8 deg backsweep going cheap. Anyone any knowledge of this? Is this suitable for general XC (Cwm Carn, etc)? If not any other suggestions (on a tight budget!)

£25 pablo esco bars from dialled bikes - nice

Planet X bars eg goliath (light ish) (£15?)or downhill (heavy) (£10?), both come fairly wide, nice. From on one's site.

You may not get on with the shapes that I do though.

I recently bought some Easton EA50's from Cycle Express for £24 delivered. Haven't ridden them yet mind. They do look nice if that helps ?

Haven't the new ones changed shape / angle / rise / summat and not considered to be so "good" now?

Dialled Bikes Pablo Esco bars here too, they're great!

http://www.dialledbikes.com/bars.htm

Bear in mind it's got 31.8mm bars, so you either need a new stem, or need to be careful when buying bars. Easton are gradually introducing OS bars, but they're not particularly easy to get. Truvativ may be a good idea.

Ive had answer pro tapers on mr swork for years and have just bought a set for my new enduro. Great bars, nice high rise, tough as old boots. Ok, bit heavy but hey, whos countin, have a salad :-)

I'd agree with Dave, Answer make some super light, super strong bars. You can't go wrong.

Missed the chanve of those bars ... ebay auction ended same time as I finished work! and they went for £15 ... RRP £45.

Will take a look at some of these other suggestions .. thanks.

The Pablo Esco look like they might do the job for the right price ... the Answer bars are a little more than I (read wife) would like to spend at this point.

I just got em coz they were comfy, but kept them coz theyre fantastic bars, theres a reason theyre a lot of money, worth it if you can swing em.
good luck whatever you get

Cheers, but that will be a future upgrade to look at. Haven't stopped hearing about how much the bike cost in the first place ... let alone all the little 'presents' it needs!

Lol, you need to be a little more " economic " with the prices you relay to her. ;-)

Think you can get Easton EA30 for about £22 and it's a damn good bar. 27" wide, medium rise and medium sweep and only a few grammes heavier than the EA70. I love mine.

'you need to be a little more " economic " with the prices you relay to her. ;-)'

I'm married to an experienced book keeper who's currently training to be a chartered accountant ... no chance!!!

Anyway, got Easton EA50 high rise and they are hell of a lot better. Was introduced to Afan for their maiden outing. The wall and Penny ... still grinning :)

oops, well, it could be worse, she couldve been a copper :-)
Afan eh, nice not been up there yet, was talking about going to night with a few mates.

Go ... it's excellent. The wall was very good. Penny would probably have been even better if it wasn't for the fact that i was bloody knackered!

Think I'm going to try and get a group to go early in the new year....
Lots being said about it recently...

[url]http://www.chainreactioncycles.com//Reviews.aspx?ModelID=1120[/url]

i use race face air alloy xc bars and find them superd just the right amount of rise and very stong with the money imo...