The front of my bike just feels wrong these days. For real life, all round trail riding (involving woods and narrow bridleways) what is an acceptable bar width and what length stem would you pair it with? I think it is currently 700mm wide with a 70mm stem – this makes me too forward for really steep drops but has a nice reach for general riding around.

I’m on 720mm bars and 90mm stems, one is a fat bike the other a 29’er XC fs

I’m running 760mm low rise 20mm bars with a nice sweep and 50mm stem on hardtail and FS, 800/20/50 stem on a trail built fatbike and 440 compact with 80mm on the CX.

700 feels very hunched to me these days. The 70mm stem probably suits that sort of bar width though.

Probably the biggest thing to understand in current thinking on mountainbike sizing is that wide bars and short stems taken together increase reach while also placing you in a more aggressive position for descending. If you intend to ride sat down most of the time, the wide and short thing is probably going to make a mess of frame sizing for you and may well be a bad idea. Wider bars and longer stems are going to be a bit twitchy and you will probably hate such a combination.

750 bars, between 50 and 70 depending on the length of the TT

Not sure what width the FS is, whatever they put on a Five, but I swapped the std 60mm x 5deg stem for a 70mm x 25deg & it’s a lot better. Looks a bit phalic though.

Olde worlde 685mm non O/S with a 50mm stem on the SS. I did try some super swept back Genesis bars but wasn’t keen. No plans to change it, but looks a bit old fashioned.

I prefer comprimising stem length for the downhill – in other words when things get a bit hairy I wish my stem was a 50 mm but I don’t like the look and – feel of a cramped cockpit whilst on the flat or climbing – so I run a 90 – thinking of trying a 70mm ..

Was running 810mm bars at 18degrees and a 35mm stem with 30mm of spacers

Now running 800mm bars at 25 degrees and a 50mm stem with 20mm of spacers

Feels completely different – like I’m higher up and the bike is a size smaller, even tho the stem is longer. So in answer to your question, a small change can make a big difference so just play around

If things feel too steep then try getting your weight back. A 60mm stem might help but if you move a spacer above the stem with the current set-up then you might notice a difference

Whatever works for you as your body shape, flexibility, ape index and riding style will be different to others.

I’m on 90mm stems with 730-760 bars or various back sweeps up to Jones loops

Personally i can’t do short stems as for the bikes I ride its too cramped for my breathing when pushing hard, and massive bars don’t fit some of our single track (even with a funky bar wiggle)

Both bikes (hardtail and DH bike) are on 50mm stems with 780mm bars.

I’ve got Renthal bars (780mm, 7° backsweep and 5° upsweep) and 70mm stem on an Alpine (22.25″ top tube) and it suts me.

I swapped a 50mm stem out as it was just too cramped. It feels just right now – it’s amazing what a difference 2cm on a stem makes to the feel of a bike.

The bars felt absolutely stupid for the first 45 minutes but having just ridden my wife’s bike with 680mm bars, I realised I could never go back.

I’m 5’8 and fairly normally proportioned and wouldn’t want wider bars. I can understand why abnorally ( 🙂 ) tall(er) people may want to go even wider though.

As Tazzy said, the most important thing is you – your body and its proportions. Havinh said that, I’d urge people to try wider bars than feel ‘comfortable’ for a ride or two as they become normal and then you feel the benefit.