Wide bars

Cookymonster38

What's the advantage of having wider bars ?
At the moment I got 640mm bars on and picked up some bars 780mm
They can be cut down inch or two
What would I benefit from them .

Cooky

allthegearnoidea

possile comfort benefits dependig on your ntural arm stance, Quicker more direct feel to the steering etc. downsides with 70's Super quick direct steering, many graved knuckles an tree strikes!!
640 -780 is a Big jump in sizes!!! ive got some 785 bars onthe singlespeed and compared t the 740's on the main bike they feel quitye a bit different!!!
generally with wider barsyou go wit a shorter stem too to comensate the extra width,
Oh and 780's mean you can ride with the Cool gang! ;-) :-D

DCR00

dont wider bars slow down the streering ? isnt it a shorter stem that speeds up steering ? hence why a shorter stem should be paired with a wider set of bars

as said above, improved comfort, but more control over rough ground as its easier to exert more torque on the bars

MTBUK

In my experience.... Wide bars initially = oversteer, particularly on slower switchbacks, anal tightening may occur during tight woody Sections....But... More stability on fast DH, and jumpy sections..... Obviously a little more weight... Id say best used for DH, Enduro, AM ...... This only my view and may not represent the views of the elite of the Bike Radar club.

Cookymonster38

Cheers guys
Will be mainly enduro and bit of dh , I got shorter stem too so will chuck them on and see
If to wide I will cut em down !

querhoch

i ride with 800mm bars on a DM stem and they feel exactly right for me. I have short arms but broad shoulders so the combo works, but if you have long arms and narrow shoulders it might feel unatural and cramped. then again, it depends on your top tube length a little too.

The oversteer issue MTBUK brought up will be short lived and you'll get used to it pretty quickly, although you will mis-judge a swoopy singletrack at least once before you do. with a slack HA and a long wheelbase, wide bars make perfect sense for me. i cant quantify it, but I feel much more planted and have a more stable platform at speed. narrow ruts that might have had me wrestling for control can be ridden with confidence now, for example, and steep drop offs are a breeze.

The only real disadvantage Ive noticed is that it takes more effort to get the front wheel off the ground if I have to hop something, but on a DH bike thats not much of an issue.

bennett_346

I hated wide bars and short stem and switched back to 660s and a 90mm stem. Just seemed to be a fashion thing rather than an actual benefit as it just felt uncomfortable despite using them for a year and a half. Was much worse for xc and never felt and better for DH either.

DCR00

Ive stuck with my 90mm stem as well, albeit with slightly wider bars (710)

More for reasons of weight distribution. I did try a 70mm stem, but the front end felt too twitchy.

danlightbulb

I went from 600 bars to 700 bars (kept same 90mm stem). Was surprising when I first got on the bike how different it felt (after all its only 2" either side). Still I'm used to it now and feel like I have better control. Wouldn't go bigger on my XC bike.

Northwind

It's a personal taste thing... I've ended up pretty much settled on 710mm, tried some longer ones and always ended up cutting them down. But there's no right answer because it'd down to your bike, your body shape, your riding position, and then just plain old personal preference on top of all of that.

snoopsmydogg

I went from 620 - 680 quite recently but kept the 100mm stem I was already using. I had tried 720 but found them a bit wide.

Benefits seem to be more leverage and a more comfortable fit but it does feel like it slows steering response compared to the the smaller bars.

Cookymonster38

Well I've tryed them and I like it but I will be taking a inch off each side

lostboysaint

Who said "quicker, more direct feel to the steering"? Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

They slow the steering down nicely (longer levers, d'oh!), provide a better feel of stability (wider triangles of contact points) and, when used with a shorter stem - which is preferable to keep the reach about the same - give a shorter effective length whilst still being nicely stable.

ilovedirt

What this guy ^ said. Wider bars slow down the steering, effectively giving you more control, as you have more leverage. I run 750mm on both my bikes, anything skinnier than that feels way too twitchy to me.

lawman

I run 750mm Easton havocs on both bikes and they feel spot on, in terms of both shape and width for me. I also have haven stems, a 70mm on the HD and a 55mm on the 456 just to keep the reach the same and they are both great combos. Anything narrower than 730ish now feels weird and I lose a lot of confidence, but it's just what you're used to

angry_bird

I'm running 640 with a 90mm stem on the XC bike I believe, 760 with 45mm stem on the 456. To be honest, I'm used to them both, and they both seem right on each of the bikes. I can see the orange not being the average person's cup of tea though, 71 degree unsagged head angle, nice and lively handling, which I love about it. Most would call it twitchy and unstable I'd imagine

Anyway, 456 is a barge when it gets slow and really loses out to the orange in tighter, twistier stuff, but the stability at speed is poles apart.

bartimaeus

I have been riding 745 on a 65mm stem on my Avalanche all year - and it feels 'right'.

When I went back to my Anthem which had 680 on 110mm it felt 'all wrong' so now I am doing some trial and error to get it feeling 'right' again. At the moment it is on 730 / 80mm which is close... last change was to lose a spacer, after that it's probably a shorter stem or maybe another bit off the bars.

I think it is all down to experimentation, and you need to give each set-up a bit of time... unfortunately.

anj132

from 680/90 to 745/50 and I much prefer it and I couldn't see myself going back.

allthegearnoidea

Twas Mee who said it speeds the steering up, in Direct comparison of Botj my biikes, the Soul's on 740/80 the SS is on 785/100, the SS is a lot quicker on the steering, both have the same headsets, etc.
Yes Narrow bars will maje it twitchier, riding the folder commuter about on its 500mm bars is a right laugh to begin with, but steering wise, the wider bars certainly feel quicker on the steering! From a leverage point of view the longer the lever the easier it is!

Thewaylander

lawman wrote:

I run 750mm Easton havocs on both bikes and they feel spot on, in terms of both shape and width for me. I also have haven stems, a 70mm on the HD and a 55mm on the 456 just to keep the reach the same and they are both great combos. Anything narrower than 730ish now feels weird and I lose a lot of confidence, but it's just what you're used to

Indeed i get on narrower bars now and the whole bike feels twitchy and unstable.

Its easier to hold a line over really rocky terain with wider bars by a mile

supersonic

Wide nowadays just means 'wider than what was average'. Average nowadays is about 700mm it seems.

But the answer is, as has been mentioned, whatever feels right. I run 635/90 on the Zaskar, 660/80 on the Spesh.

lostboysaint

allthegearnoidea wrote:

Twas Mee who said it speeds the steering up, in Direct comparison of Botj my biikes, the Soul's on 740/80 the SS is on 785/100, the SS is a lot quicker on the steering, both have the same headsets, etc.
Yes Narrow bars will maje it twitchier, riding the folder commuter about on its 500mm bars is a right laugh to begin with, but steering wise, the wider bars certainly feel quicker on the steering! From a leverage point of view the longer the lever the easier it is!

No it isn't. You may FEEL that it is but in reality you have wider bards and and longer stem so that makes the steering much slower. Levers make things FEEL easier, because of leverage, not because they speed things up. You have to move a longer lever a lot further to move the object, hence why steering on wider bars is SLOWER!

Perhaps your forum name is a little more appropriate than you suspected............

querhoch

Apart from anything else, your bars cant really be considered as a lever.

Northwind

lostboysaint wrote:

You have to move a longer lever a lot further to move the object, hence why steering on wider bars is SLOWER!

Only if it takes perceptibly longer to move the lever- and the difference in time to move your hand 15cm vs 20cm is bugger all. Your steering moves at the speed of your brain.

lostboysaint

Northwind wrote:

lostboysaint wrote:

You have to move a longer lever a lot further to move the object, hence why steering on wider bars is SLOWER!

Only if it takes perceptibly longer to move the lever- and the difference in time to move your hand 15cm vs 20cm is bugger all. Your steering moves at the speed of your brain.

Doesn't matter how long it takes, the fact is that it is slower. It's basic physics.

querhoch

^ further to that, regardless of how you percieve it, the fact is that if I have to turn fast to get out of trouble, it will take longer with my 800mm wide bars than it would with 680mm bars. The wider bars give me a more stable platform but Im under no illusion that i am turning faster because of it, and i have to compensate with either more force or quicker reactions.

Northwind

lostboysaint wrote:

Doesn't matter how long it takes, the fact is that it is slower. It's basic physics.

Inconsequentially and irrelevantly slower. A difference that makes no difference, is no difference.

supersonic

It is the reason I have narrow bars though. It feels faster and more direct to me.

bennett_346

+potato. Love the snappier feeling and i noticed the difference going from 700 to 660 so it must be a fairly sizeable difference.

Northwind

supersonic wrote:

It is the reason I have narrow bars though. It feels faster and more direct to me.

Absolutely- but for other people, the wide bar feels faster and more direct, because the most important factor in driving the wheel around isn't the length of your lever, it's how you're moving it. So if the stability of the bike is helping you feel comfortable in pushing the bike hard, you may steer faster (and if you're nervous of putting strong inputs into an unstable bike, you'll probably steer slower)

lawman

Northwind wrote:

supersonic wrote:

It is the reason I have narrow bars though. It feels faster and more direct to me.

Absolutely- but for other people, the wide bar feels faster and more direct, because the most important factor in driving the wheel around isn't the length of your lever, it's how you're moving it. So if the stability of the bike is helping you feel comfortable in pushing the bike hard, you may steer faster (and if you're nervous of putting strong inputs into an unstable bike, you'll probably steer slower)

Very much this. I feel much, much more comfortable with a wider bar, and this gives me the confidence to ride how I like and know how the bikes going to react and deal with it, and the more control and less twitchy steering is a benefit imo. I can see why people prefer the faster steering, and even the geometry unrelated to bars, steep head angles, short wheelbase etc. Imo if the bike feels stable at speed I can push it as much as I like and know I can handle whatever the trails throw up because I feel comfortable and confident, so for me 750mm bars, a nice long wheelbase and slack angles are the way forward