29er bar width for xc racing

Just got a new Scott scale 29er it’s awesome, the only thing is Im used to narrow 580mm bars on my scale 26″ race bike, the new ones are like 740!
What width bars are all the xc racers running on their 29er hardtails, is 640 gonna be too narrow?

James

Snap just bought the same. 740 is wide (going from 680 myself) but feels good, better leverage, more stable on the descents, got some mount zoom ones and they are so light anyway I thought I try wide before cutting down (it at all)

Snap +1

Gone from 580mm to 740mm? on the Trek. Already clipped a few trees.

780 all the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

700 here. Slowly going wider, but don’t think I’d go much wider as narrow gaps would be a problem.

The obsession with wide bars does my head in, personally I think it should be about fit for your shoulder width, as the wider you go the more you need the bend to be to not stress your wrists

I ride with 600mm ones and consider them to be wide

To me it is a bit of a fad, wider bars have benefits to a point

for XC racing I reckon 680-700 is the max you’d want but 640 def feels too narrow for me these days. I used to be a narrow bar merchant, thank god for 29ers, made wide bars and no bar ends popular. If you haven’t got the girth, you haven’t got the worth!

Im used to narrow 580mm bars on my scale 26″ race bike, the new ones are like 740

What’s the stem length on your 26er? The Scott 29ers are tending towards wider bars with (relatively) shorter stems so you may need to compensate if you go shorter on the bars.

I’ve got a 680mm bar and 80mm stem on my Scale 29er and it feels quite cramped when returning to it from my 720/50 trail bike.. you get used to it again quickly but even 40mm makes a noticeable difference.

700mm i race with.

What ever your comfortable with wide enough to open your lungs up, increase you control of the bike, better elbow bashing potential :) . Not so wide you get stuck and it makes the bike handle weird or causes you discomfort.

im running a 90 mm on my 26er, the new ones a 70 I think!

the syncros bars have a back sweep to them as well which the truvativ noirs on my 26er doesn’t have! I may trim them to 680 and see how I get on! I suppose its about getting used to it?

The obsession with wide bars does my head in, personally I think it should be about fit for your shoulder width, as the wider you go the more you need the bend to be to not stress your wrists

I ride with 600mm ones and consider them to be wide

To me it is a bit of a fad, wider bars have benefits to a point
Sort of agree (no idea about XC racing but I’m guessing the principle hold across the board)
As wide or as narrow as is comfortable. Try them out do some rides and see, the worst that can happen is you decide they are too wide and either cut them or replace them.
I am at 760 & 745 which feels right for my shoulders which are quite broad. Personally I reckon narrow bars is a fad that is coming to an end…

I’d go for 900mm then place the grips inboard at about 700, then no one will be able to overtake you on the singletrack! 8)

685 here, Easton ea70 which have quite a but of back sweep too. 720 is my limit before things feel too wide, and 660 is starting to feel too narrow.

It depends on the bike, stem and what feels right. I have some 780 bars on my 29er and they feel great, stem could be a bit shoter though. I put the same width on my prophet instead of 685 and it also felt great for big wide turns and sweeping descents but it really thew the handling out for rocky tech descents. So much so i came a real cropper last night. I suppose it felt like you lost a lot of control and probably too easy to over steer. I would recommend not soing anything drastic and just move your controls around until it feels right.

I run 730’s on both my bikes and they felt spot on to be honest.

Might now consider chopping my 740’s on my scale down a bit after some absolute w*nker n*bcheese decided he’d tangle handlebars whilst overtaking me on a 5m wide path 4 hours in to a 12 solo at the bikefest sending me flying at 20mph over the bars, good job he crashed as well but a few metres ahead and jumped swiftly back on his bike before I could grab him!

some git almost had me off on a bike path today with his 2 meter wide bars more than enough room even with his wide bars but he seemed to think they were about 5 meters wide so couldn’t go near anything on his side.

Surely the wider the bars the bigger the bend to maintain correct wrist angles so at some point you can’t go any wider as you will have 90 degree bends and have shopping bike bars?

The Renthals on my Orange were 530 I think…back in the day. It was ace through the trees.

got 780 on mine, and it’s a lovely feel and fit

i got them with the intention of slowly narrowing them to an appropriate fit, and i’m very happy with them at 780, so there we go…

The obsession with wide bars does my head in

Just moved up from 785mm to 800mm, no going back!

OP get a wide set, give them a try, cut them down if you don’t like. Got to 750 if you’re feeling conservative.