Bar Width

sheepsteeth

Having just taken receipt of some new bars, i am interested in modern interpretation of what is a suitable bar size.

the new bars are 780mm wide and this makes them too wide to actually fit through my front door. i appreciate they are actually for DH but it still seems incredibly massive:



they actually feel pretty good but i think they will be difficult to weave through trees and whatnot. Im going to cut them down and am looking around to see what's a sensible size (a lot of things have changed since i stopped riding a couple of years ago). I was previously running a bitch stick at 700mm and didnt have any particular issue with them but they were 25.4mm so i wanted some fatter bars.

I think i have previously run bars around 710 and perhaps 740 so am going to look at going to 760 as that only requires lopping 10mm off each side.

so 2 questions:

1: what size are you running on your bike

B: For those of you with more than one bike: Do you run different widths on your different bikes?

cooldad

Mine range from about 500mm (retro type bikes) to 760mm (gnarly #enduro type bike) with a random dozen or so in between.

But I have manly man type shoulders. A skinny pigeon chested runt like you should probably have 450mm.

ps. enjoy what riding you get in before a lifetime of nappy changing misery.

rockmonkeysc

Both my XC bike and DH bike have 780 bars. I like them both to feel the same.
For me they feel right but I'm over six foot and have broad shoulders.

Stevo_666

660 on the XC bike, 710 on the all mountain/light DH bike and 780 on the DH bike. All are OK for the intended usage. I'm 5'10" with fairly broad shoulders bur tbh you can adapt to a pretty broad range if I'm anything to go by.

BloggingFit

I found 760mm works well for me. You could use some lock on grips and adjust the width to what is most comfortable and then cut the bar to suit.

rockmonkeysc

After my incident last weekend I wouldn't recommend moving grips in and leaving exposed bar ends. I had a fairly innocent fall, no different to hundreds of times before but landed on the bike with the vertical bar straight in my belly. Two days in hospital on a drip with suspected ruptured spleen and some dodgy looking fluid being drained out. The surgeon was convinced bar end caps saved me from life changing injuries or worse.
I used to moan about race commissaires checking bar ends, now I know why.

BloggingFit

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19635683#p19635683]RockmonkeySC[/url] wrote:

After my incident last weekend I wouldn't recommend moving grips in and leaving exposed bar ends. I had a fairly innocent fall, no different to hundreds of times before but landed on the bike with the vertical bar straight in my belly. Two days in hospital on a drip with suspected ruptured spleen and some dodgy looking fluid being drained out. The surgeon was convinced bar end caps saved me from life changing injuries or worse.
I used to moan about race commissaires checking bar ends, now I know why.

Sounds like you need a little more muscle on your belly
Good to hear you're relatively ok considering.
I had a similar low impact fall last month and managed an almost full tear of the Medial Tricep head. Luckily not impacted being able to ride too much, just can't push things in case of another fall and bad landing.

paul.skibum

I run 740's on the Bronson and 710's on the hardtail. I'd actually like to make both bikes the same bar brake and grip wise but not going to spank that amount of cash just for sake of it!

I'm considering a 785mm carbon bar but think I'd chop it down to 750/740 anyway - too many narrow gaps in the trees here.

Maro

My new trail bike has 760mm bars, that's wider than previous bikes but I've had no issues, I'm skinny shouldered and stand at 5'8"

Herdwick

I run 785 bars on my L sized hardtail and used to run them on my fs but being a M sized it felt akward, thing is you may run diferent sized bars on diferent bikes, a shorty friend of mine had a spin on my bike and after 15 minutes complained that he could not steere the damn thing because the bars where to wide so he gave up.
fit depends on the intentended usage, geometry etc.
I am 6,1 by the way and broad shouldered.

Thewaylander

Tried a few and settled with 760 myself, seems to fit my shoulder width and doesn't scare the pap out of me trying to get through all the tree's on the local trails, though there are parts on cafle where it gets a little close...

lostboysaint

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19636536#p19636536]Thewaylander[/url] wrote:

Tried a few and settled with 760 myself, seems to fit my shoulder width and doesn't scare the pap out of me trying to get through all the tree's on the local trails, though there are parts on cafle where it gets a little close...

That.

After much experimentation on both ht and fs bikes I have ended up with 760 wide bars and 60mm stems (different rises because of the geo) on both. I find this the best combination of quicker response, reach and comfort but I would suggest to anyone to keep begging/borrowing/scouring bargain bins etc. to try a variety of sizes and combinations before settling on the one that is the most comfortable.

The Rookie

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19635683#p19635683]RockmonkeySC[/url] wrote:

After my incident last weekend I wouldn't recommend moving grips in and leaving exposed bar ends.

The surgeon was convinced bar end caps saved me from life changing injuries or worse.

Moving the grips in would surely have no effect, as long as full sized bar end caps are in place still?

For that sort of incident the Renthal ones are good, a big flat ended cap and held securely in place.

poah

I just ordered some 800mm bars

plugp7

762mm on L Cotic Soul.
I'm 6ft.

rubyhorse2

think i have 760's on my Orange five, mostly doing technical XC these days so they feel perfect.

JaseHawk

Why not cut 0.5cm's off the bars each side until they feel right?

You could loosen your headset to fit them through your door!

sheepsteeth

took the bike out today and the bars at 780 feel ace. i had to squeeze through a couple of narrow gaps but forthe most part, they were trouble free. I think i will keep them as they are now.

look how modern and cool i am with wide bars.

cooldad

You'd be cooler with bar ends and team lycra.

Honestly really.