Riding position feels like Mary Poppins ?

Practically perfect in every way?

What has caused this, the stem? Bar rise or a combination of both? Have I change the geometry on the bike drastically?

Yes, yes and yes.

You’ve moved the bars both up and closer and moved your hands closer together all of which will make you more upright.

You may not actually be in a bad position, it’s just you’ve made such a big change that it may take you some time to get used to it.

If you’re struggling with front wheel grip then you may have gone too far.

Did you change everything all at once?
If so, perhaps go back a bit and maybe put your original bars back on and see how it feels with them first, and just try swapping one bit at a time until it starts to feel comfortable and/or natural.

Surely no.1 has to be success in losing the wrist pain.  Pain on every ride is not weakness leaving the body 🙂 it's a sign something isn't right.

Next is control and that might be adapting technique.

You might have changed more than you need to in one go. That is a lot and shorter stem and narrower bar seems like a weird combo to me as that will speed up the steering feel as well as shortening the reach/effectively raising the front.

I jumped between my 29r FS and 26r HT yesterday (son went off with the FS for a few runs down the skills area).  The HT really strange as it has become my son's main bike.  It felt tiny and low in comparison when I first swung a leg over it. I can be comfy on both but it takes me a few rides to tune in to the HT if the FS is not usable (although never the other way oddly). You may need some more rides.

I'm not entirely sure what Mary Poppins' riding position was, but it made Bert's voice go funny.

Stick with it for a few rides? It's not a huge change after all, or one that's outside normal bike set up range, but it's enough to feel obviously noticeable. Some of the best changes I've made to my bikes over the years felt a bit odd or wrong at first and I think it's often just muscle memory telling you things aren't where they think they should be. 

@jameso

Some of the best changes I’ve made to my bikes over the years felt a bit odd or wrong at first

Indeed, moving to modern geometry made the bike feel too big until I got used to it.

Go down some near vertical stuff and you’ll appreciate it even more!

A vague memory probably isn’t true.

Trying to reply and touch in somethings that has been mentioned but site will not let me quote” annoying.

ok, yup i changed all at once, only been on one test run so far! As stated already I think? I felt stretched out on the previous setup, now I know I liked the feel of the 800mm bars I felt like I was sitting inside the bike.. if that makes any sence lol? But… confidence in handling was not there, it felt like a slug in the turns, like sweeping into tight corner and going wide every time.

on the test ride I did hit some steep stuff and it felt excellent, definitely an improvement on previous setup. It is just the riding position , because handling has improved both in cornering and balance while going slow around tight obstacles.

I have only tried with 2 spacers under the stem which was what I had with previous setup obviously with lower rise and longer stem.

so I’m thinking try one spacer or even none or 5mm instead of 10mm under the stem only as the height and increase is already there with the 40mm bars + 6mm on stem I think??

maybe invert the stem?

any ideas.

Why not just pop the lower rise bars back on and take an inch off either end, just to see if that improves things for you OP?

In hindsight that would have probably been the better option haha!

Already paid out for new bars now.. first major upgrade I’d say so far! Honestly don’t want to go backwards. <br /><br />

I’m going to do a few more runs. I’ve been running two spacer under new set up (same as previous) so I that extra bit higher! <br />mill try playing around with spacers, if that fails flipping the stem to Neg will sort it I’m sure!?