Author Topic: Taller bars or longer stem make Karl Kruisers easier?  (Read 1519 times)

Offline dcochran4

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Taller bars or longer stem make Karl Kruisers easier?
« on: December 22, 2016, 08:51:39 AM »
I am currently running some old Suelo handlebars and they are very short rise. I have recently begun rolling Karl Kruisers, but after a few of them I am left with debilitating wrist pain in the hand and arm that hold the bars, and this pain ruins my whole session. I have even stepped into some short half-hikers, so I don't want to give up this trick and progression. I am currently running 15mm offset forks as I have heard that will make it easier to hold this position for longer. Would getting taller bars give me more leverage and alleviate some of the pressure on my bar-hand?

Apart from new bars, I have tried placing my thumb on the grip, like I have seen some tutorials suggest for things like hang 5's. Should I maybe get a longer stem to produce more leverage? Looking for some thoughtful advice.

Offline DaddyCool

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Re: Taller bars or longer stem make Karl Kruisers easier?
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2016, 01:02:30 AM »
Hello dcochran4,
the first question from my side would be: Do you practise the karl kruiser with reverse bar position or regular?
I would say with reverse bar position an offset fork might stabilise these positions, but with regular bar position it can be even more difficult.
In general I would not change my setup for a certain trick because you might loose the feeling for many others.
I can imagine that your wrist hurts. Do not practise it too much! Take your time... When I learned karl kruisers I also felt a lot of forces on my arm. For me this became less when I felt more comfortable with the position after some time. My personal opinion is that the idea of placing your thumb on the grip is not really helpful, but it may depend on the rider.
I would try wider bars instead of higher bars. For this specific trick more width is better than more height, at least this is my experience. A little more height might also help, but the width is more important here from my point of view.
I also would not use a longer stem because when you learn this trick it won't take much time until you want to use it with the bar flipped to explore more options and then it is even worse. For example more width of the bar helps in both positions...
I hope this helps.