Raising your handle bars
Simple quality of life upgrade
Enough of back pain and sitting hunched over my mountain bike - I decided to perform this very simple upgrade. I considered 3 routes to accomplish this: 1) fork stem extender, 2) replacement stem, 3) riser bar.
Fork stem extender
At first this solution piqued my interest because it would enable me to achieve maximum height. But after looking at the review photos I had second thoughts about stability, particularly on rocky downhill sections, for instance. Plus (IMO) it made the bike fork stems look a bit too long. Although I'm sure it works just fine, I decided to go another route.
New stem
This was also a viable choice. However, because stems with steeper angles raise AND move the handlebar forward (depending on the specifications), I was concerned about skewing the bike's geometry. Specifically, if the handlebar was moved too far forward, I felt it might negate gains in height and would not help alleviate my posture issues.
Riser bar
Ultimately this was the only viable option for me. I wanted a substantial rise, but not one reminiscent of a kid's bike. I ended up going with this 'corki' aluminum alloy riser bar:
Overall, I'm happy with it as it definitely helped with my posture. I took the opportunity to insert another headset spacer while replacing the bar to gain few additional millimeters. Climbs are more comfortable and I feel more stable on downhill sections. As an added bonus, I opted for the 780mm length, making it a bit wider than my stock handle bar. Although small, this increase in width is noticeable. I can't yet comment on durability or reliability on very rocky sections, but I will update this post once I get a chance to ride rougher terrain (and will definitely update if it splits in two while riding).
A few photos of the final installed product:
