Bar width vs stem length

jamski

Firstly I apologise if this is covered elsewhere but I couldn't quite find an exact answer.

I'm wanting a wider bar for a bit of added control. Currently I have a 680mm wide bar with a 20mm rise on a 70mm stem. The bars I'm looking at are 760mm wide, 20mm rise and the stem is 60mm. Doing a bit of research it looks like reduced by the stem length when widening the bars is a good idea.

I may well cut down from 760mm but what I do t want is for the bike to feel smaller. It's currently pretty comfy considering I have lower back issues.

Any advise welcome.

Thanks.

rockmonkeysc

You will probably make the bike feel bigger. The wider bars will stretch you out by a lot more than the 10mm shorter stem will bring things back.
The same width bar with a shorter stem will make the bike feel shorter. The same length stem with a wider bar will make the bike feel longer. A combination of the two will balance out somewhere.

jamski

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19761421#p19761421]RockmonkeySC[/url] wrote:

You will probably make the bike feel bigger. The wider bars will stretch you out by a lot more than the 10mm shorter stem will bring things back.
The same width bar with a shorter stem will make the bike feel shorter. The same length stem with a wider bar will make the bike feel longer. A combination of the two will balance out somewhere.

Excellent, that's exactly what I thought. Thanks very much for the help.