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The pattern on the outer 2.5cm of my grips has completely worn off, which leaves me thinking if this is a sign that something isn't ergonomically optimal about my setup. I don't have problems with pain, and it's a minor point that in time I'll have to replace these grips well before most of the width has worn down. So this is just out of interest.
I'm running bars with 5 degrees of upsweep, and they're not rolled forward or backwards, so the upsweep is just the upsweep without any component of the backsweep transferred over. Incidentally they have 8 degrees of backsweep, and a couple of months ago replaced my OEM bars which had 9 degrees but the same 5 degrees upsweep. So the most common sweep numbers of mainstream handlebars.
Would the wear pattern indicate too much upsweep? Any similar experiences?
Looking online, it is said that more upsweep puts more weight on the outside of your palms (which makes sense), and Ritchey make bars with 4 or 2 degrees of upsweep claiming reduced pressure on the outside of the hand.
Ha, no.
Mine wear the same, a smooth boy on the top outer edges.
The natural neutral position of your hand/ wrist / arm would be equivalent to a bar with quite a lot of backsweep and downsweep. So if you are running an upswept bar there will naturally be more weight on the upper / outer edge of the grip leading to more wear.
Too much upsweep is very subjective and I think that control and comfort can require different bar positions. My bikes are set up with back and down sweep for comfort.
Mine wear there too the most .
I think when I'm grinding a climb I'll often move my hands around the bar outer so it makes sense to me.
Mine wear there. I think it’s normal and you’re overthinking it, unless you are experiencing discomfort
Grip wear is good - A worthy barometer pertaining to how much riding one is doing...
Comfort vs. control - interesting.
Easy enough to try different upsweep by rolling the bar, but then you affect the backsweep too so can't attribute any improvement/degradation to either. It guess it won't be linear either, i.e. rolling back to reduce upsweep by one degree doesn't increase backsweep by one degree.
Some right angle trigonometry on the vertical rise over the length of a typical 120mm grip for different upsweeps:
5deg - 10.5mm
4deg - 8.4mm
2deg - 4.2mm
We must have collectively settled on 4-5 degrees as the sweet spot for typical MTBs and riding. It seems to be a more settled thing than backsweep, where you get mainstream bars ranging from 7 to 10 degrees.
I remember once fitting a bar and aligning the zero mark with zero on the stem, it was horrible. Turns out the zero mark was zero upsweep, rather than the standard 5 deg upsweep for the bar - for 5deg up you align the 5 mark with zero on the stem.