Originally Posted by
CliffordK
As a lifetime roadie, I'm not convinced many people really "need" super tall bars. However, I have seen a few.
For a given body angle, the optimal hand position will put the line from shoulder to hand about parallel to the line from hip joint to pedal in the pedal forward position. This allows the grip force to oppose the pedal force, which will tend to lift you off the seat. If you sometimes pedal hard (greater than your body weight), this matters.
If you don’t want to pedal that hard, you can get away with higher bars, but there isn’t much benefit to rotating the arms up and farther forward versus lower and closer.
Otto