Ritchey WCS Carbon 10D Flat handlebar

Structurally speaking – and not thinking about image for a moment here – a higher stem and a bar with fewer bends is a slightly better way of gaining bar height than a riser bar.

The advantage of the riser bar shape is the angle of the backsweep, but go back to a‘normal’ flat bar and you have to run a longer – and therefore heavier – stem.

At £135 it is quite costly, but Ritchey also offer identical shape aluminium versions of the 10-degree flat bar from just £15.