Wide Bars

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  • bike-a-swan
    bike-a-swan Posts: 1,235
    Ok, first ride with the 800mm bars. Felt a bit weird at first, having jumped straight off my commuter which has wide flats, but settled in nicely. Feel a little odd on the climbs but the only time I had a problem was fitting between a couple of rather closeish trees- had to stick a foot down and bounce the bar off one to get through. One to go back to and work out if there's a clean line through. Give the bars a proper test on some faster, swoopier stuff at the weekend, see how they do.
    Rock Lobster 853, Trek 1200 and a very old, tired and loved Apollo Javelin.
  • martincashman
    martincashman Posts: 116
    First time out, yesterday, on new mountain bike on my regular trail. Didn't take any notice of bar width. Had my only big crash on that trail last year when my bars clipped a tree at speed in a narrow gap. Anyway the stock tires on the new bike seem to be teflon coated, so I couldn't trust them at speed but I felt I was closer on the turns to the trees than normal but just blamed bad turning on the slippy tires.

    Then clang, a narrow steel railed bridge near the end that's always tricky with not much room. Had to walk it across, about 1/2 inch to spare on either side for handlebars. Measure when I got home, old bike 660mm, new bike 700mm. Swopped them over today and scavenged the Maxxis Ignitors too for better grip.

    Wider bars are no good if you can't fit through the gaps.
    MTB HardTail: GT Aggressor XC2 '09
    Road Summer(s): Kuota Kharma '10
    Road Winter(w): Carrera Virtuoso '10
    Full Suspension: Trek Fuel Ex 8 '11

    http://app.strava.com/athletes/130161
  • milfredo
    milfredo Posts: 322
    I've gone from 660 to 720 and I rode it yesterday and I can see what the fuss is about. Any wider though and I think it would be too much for trail riding.
  • captainfly
    captainfly Posts: 1,001
    My shouders are almost 2 feet wide (about four inches wider than average) so I need a wide bar, a 765mm on the little HT and 808mm on the FS but the 808mm are just on the line of too wide but maybe something wider with 130mm grips would work :wink:
    As fort fitting through the trees with the narrower 710mm etc my ebow stuck out a coupe of inches either side so it makes no difference.
    -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
    Mongoose Teocali
    Giant STP0

    Why are MTB economics; spend twice as much as you intended, but only half as much as you wish you could afford? :roll:

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