After spending a week doing a bit of riding (probably close to 100 miles) I have come to the conclusion that my handlebars are definitely too low.

How did I figure this out? Well ... my lower back is quite lame and I can't walk after getting off of the bike. After experimenting around with some wood blocks and duct tape (raising where I have to hold), I narrowed it down to being handlebars that are too low.

When I got the bike, Raleigh M50DX 2004, I had the bike shop raise the handlebars as far as they could and stick "shims" in it. It worked for a few years but not anymore.

Are there any aftermarket handlebars that would work with my bike?

And are they dependent on the front fork? I will be getting a new front fork for it soon.

I don't know what your bars look like, but I changed my nearly straight bars to a 100MM (4") riser bar.
$12 at my LBS.

you might have to go to a stem or handlebars with more rise.

ed rader

There are all sorts of devices for this purpose. In addition to handlebars with a higher "rise", you can install a stem extension. Anything more than a couple of inches may require new cables.

Something like https://www.bikeparts.com/search_resu...p?ID=BPC102172 would work then?

Handlebars are a bit more expensive than that from what I have seen.

A picture of your present setup would help. There doesn't seem to be any easily found pictures of your bike to be found through Google.

But anything that moves the grips up is good. A higher rise angle stem or higher rise bars. Moving the bars in a little closer will help as well.

New forks come with a long steerer which is then usually cut off once the right height is found.

Have your LBS leave it long and put extra spacers in.

Did you also try a longer stem? Maybe the real problem is the frame is too small and you can't get long enough to flatten your back. This can feel like a too low handlebar.

I'm pretty sure the frame is big enough, I just can't bend

Looking at forks is really confusing me enough. Then looking at the handlebars and trying to get the right parts for that is even more confusing ... I think I'll have to make a trip to my lbs and get some help.

You shouldn't need a new fork. You just need to find a stem with enough rise for you. Or possibly an extender and a stem. Take it to where you bought it and get them to solve it for you.

Get some serious riser bars, they can be as high as 14", and a new set of cables.

I'm going to be trying 2'', 4'' and 6 or 8'' when i bring the bike in.

The front fork on my bike went bad so I was shopping for that.