Surly SunRise Bar

A little over a year ago, I switched the bars on my 29+ Surly Krampus from a low riser mountain bike handlebar to a set of Jones Loop Bars. The long-term net result was that I grew to marginally dislike riding that bike. This is the same bike that I had raved about in a review back in July of 2013 (when it had mountain bike bars). Last winter, I was ready to sell it off but just recently, I purchased a set of Surly Sunrise Bars and installed them on my Krampus. I think that these bars might have saved me from making a big mistake.

I’m not knocking Jones Loop bars. They just weren’t the right thing for me. I don’t suffer from wrist pain or have any difficulties with more traditional mountain bike bars. I think I gave them a fair shake by riding them for a year. But enough about the old bars, let’s talk about the new Sunrise Klunker Bars!

The Sunrise Bars are Black, made of steel and are wide AF! Here are the full factory spec’s.

Material: Chromoly steel
Clamp Diameter: 22.2mm; Includes shims for 31.8mm clamp
Width: 820mm, can be cut to 720mm
Rise: 83mm
Sweep Angle: 14.7 degree backsweep, 6.7 degree upsweep
Weight: 778g including shims
Color: Black

I tried to use a parts bin BMX stem when I first installed the bars, but the stem’s bar clamp wouldn’t hold them tight, so I tried a paul components stem with the shims provided and that seemed a little too high and long. Then I hit the jackpot with an FSA stubby stem flopped over to run a negative rise. Initially, I tried a new set of SQ Lab Grips but when I trimmed the bars I switched them out for the same set of Ergons that I run on most of my bikes. At first, I rode the bar at the 820mm width and they felt too wide for me. I measured the bars on my Asylum Hank and trimmed off about 3/4″ on each side of the Sunrise bars to match the width of Hank’s Bars and that was that.

It took a bit of fiddling to get the bars low enough to feel good, but once I got them in the right place, they really made me fall back in love with the Krampus. It was a mountain bike again! Back to its old tricks of luring me to the outside of every line at speed and providing me with my daily recommended dose of self-induced fear!

One thing that I’ve noticed is that my hands go numb on longer rides with my current setup. I probably have some micro-adjusting to do with the grips and/or bar tilt. (or I can usually benefit from a quick review of Rule #5). The bottom line is…The Surly Sunrise Handlebars saved my relationship with my Surly Krampus. I’m not sure that the Krampus needs the extra stack height that the Sunrise brings to the table, but I could see lots of legacy mountain bikes benefiting from what bicycle pubes calls “Klunky Butt Sauce”. The real important thing is that my Krampus is back from riding like a Dutch commuter bike to riding like a mountain bike again! I’m probably going to go back to a more traditional rise bar and see if I can return to a lower stack height for riding in the dirt but in no way am I unhappy that I purchased a set of these Sunrise handlebars. I’ll find another fun bike project for these bad mama-jamas!

You can find Surly Sunrise Bars at better bicycle retailers all across ‘merica – MSRP = $60

For more information about Surly Bikes visit – www.surlybikes.com

About Gomez 2576 Articles
Just an old cat that rides bikes, herds pixels, ropes gnomes and sometimes writes stories. I love a good story.

3 Comments

  1. I LOVE THESE BARS! I slapped a pair on my ’11 KM last fall, road them for a couple of months at full width, knocked a few trees, but my hands found their natural happy spot and I cut an inch from each endo, now it’s all good in the hood.

    I like the height on them, puts me more upright, but I’m weird like that. I also liked the way they felt on the ICT, just comfortable. If I didn’t have my OddSheep bars, I’d fo sho have a set of the Sundowners on my ICT.

    Nice Review G-man! Cheers!

  2. Any chance they might join the 2000’s and increase the bar diameter to a reasonable 31.8mm? No shimmy shimmy required.

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