Why are bars so wide?

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Comments

  • shamrock134
    shamrock134 Posts: 714
    chrisw12 wrote:
    Are you finding any disadvantages with going narrow? I currently have 40 on road bike but fancy going to 36. Is there enough hand room on the top? The geometry of me and my bike I sometimes hit my knee on the bar when standing climbing, do you notice this happening more so with narrower bars?

    Wouldn't that be a frame/bar reach issue rather than bar width?

    The only disadvantage I can think of is less space to fit things on your bars if you like multiple lights etc. My setup now consists of a Cycliq Fly12 as light and camera mounted on their dual out-front mount with a garmin on top so I don't need to have bar mounted lights.
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,106
    I had some FSA fitted while the LBS was doing some other stuff for me. I think they are something like 38cm c2c on top flaring on the drops to 39 or 40. That's on an XL bike which I think came with 43 or 44 cm so a decent reduction in width. The slight flare isn't that noticeable so they look fairly traditional but as the drop is quite shallow it does help use the drops without catching your wrists on the top of the bar.

    I've got a reasonably short stem on and have had no problem catching my knees - as above I think that's more to do with reach and stem length.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • roadrunner20
    roadrunner20 Posts: 40
    Agreed, I've been lucky enough to have 410 on mine and works well, but seen a lot of bikes pushing 460 which mental, especially "aero" ones
  • biggoffy
    biggoffy Posts: 3
    It used to be the other way! 30 or 40 years ago the bars fitted to virtually every stock bike were 40cms, even if the frame was a humungous 25.5 inch.
    The fact that manufacturers are trying to match up bar size to frame size is a big advance.

    The trade generally is far morewilling to fit bikes to customers than it ever was.
  • ThatBikeGuy
    ThatBikeGuy Posts: 394
    Same on my bike which came with 42cm bars as standard, swiftly swapped out for 38cm bars which feel far more comfortable.
    The bike also came with 175mm cranks which was another thing I had to swap out, in favour of 165mm which seem friendlier on the knees.
    This was all on a 54cm Focus. :roll:
    Cannondale SS Evo Team
    Kona Jake CX
    Cervelo P5
  • mrfpb
    mrfpb Posts: 4,569
    I'd have real trouble fitting my basket on 36 cm bars.
  • davidof
    davidof Posts: 3,124
    TimothyW wrote:
    Yeah, it's annoying.

    I'm pretty huge but still like to ride 42cm bars.

    Part of it is the gravel bike trend - off roading it can be beneficial so have somewhat wider bars.

    or not, on my mtb I had to cut 3 cm off each side of the bars as it was impossible to ride the local trails.
    BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
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