As above: bar ends (repeat: bar ends!). They make an amazing difference; properly set up, you can in effect mimic the 'hoods' position of a drop-bar bike. They are a little out of favour with 'trail riders' right now; the trend is/has been to put riser bars on all mtbs, and bar ends do look a little odd on these (though, who cares if it works?). My suggestion (stolen from L. Zinn): switch your bars to flats; use stem rise to get the bar height where you want/need it; set bar reach (stem extension) so that your reach to the grips is roughly = to where you'd have the 'tops' on a road bike, thus setting the 'bar end' position where the 'hoods' would be. This will give you a nice, semi-upright 'controls/traffic' position while allowing you to stretch out/down a little on the ends (this varies your body position [good thing]; makes you a little more aero when you want [good thing]; varied hand/wrist/elbow angles [good thing]; and allows your legs to generate more power). Note: flip through mtb mags -- many (not all, but many) of the top xcountry racers still use exactly this set up -- its been around for ages, and (in my experience, anyway) works really well for those of us who use a mtb as an all around commuting/xcountry/road-going bike.