Not many people running bar ends but those who do how wide are your bars?

And how wide is too wide? – not in a fashion police way, more of a what’s sensible/not adopting the classic jesus pose while you’re climbing way.

BITD I liked using bar ends, but then we got shorter stems riser bars and a shitload more control, which was nice. Just built myself up a xcish bike and got flat bars so figured I’d give ends a go again. Bars are ~730 which is too long for me, but even if I move everything in to use around 690 with my hands on the bar ends they feel very far apart – but I guess this could just be because I’m used to 44cm drops, so I might get used to it within a few rides…?

I stopped using bar ends when the flats I was using got above about 680mm I think.

If the bar-ends are further apart than your shoulders I’m not sure they really help much.

As above.

I run bar ends on a 700mm flat bar but wouldn’t consider running them on anything wider.

In part the only reason for running them on the 700mm bar is that its not quite wide enough …. 😳

I ran 760 with bar ends for a while. Changing positions was useful because I had wrist pain from work (chef) but clipping trees on narrow trails eventually persuaded me to get rid.

Yeah pretty sure I’ll be running sub 700, put my old race face ones on yesterday and they felt right on their own, they are ~660 so 690 will give me the same grip width with room for ends aswell.

like I said just wondering how wide others go, sounds like 690 isn’t ridiculously wide

I had them on a set of 710s for a couple of events. Not much use for pulling up and bad for control but still useful for a second hand position.

I keep meaning to find a set with fully split clamps so I can try and fit them inboard of the controls, without having to remove everything.

I have no idea how wide any of my bars are.
It always surprsies me the lengths you folk go to

PS well done OP another bike……you have have been lean for a few months and I was at almost half your number with a mere 5 😉

PPS YGM

I think I’d like a minimal tri-bar of some sort sometimes.

🙂

I keep meaning to find a set with fully split clamps so I can try and fit them inboard of the controls,

I was wondering about that on the ride in this morning but figured at 30cm (space between L&R controls on my bars) they would be closer to tri bars – as BD says. Between grips and controls is probably the best spot width wise but all sorts of clearance issues.

I seem to recall steve worland suggesting hydro brake levers being sculpted for just such a use, ala road STIs, seems no-one took him up on the idea.

I’ve got no photos, but my current ‘bar centre’ arrangement can be seen on this video. I like them; maybe a little narrow for maximum control at slow speeds, but I still use them on steep climbs. Most use on road and canal towpath sections, though, obviously. As others have said, they make a comfortable additional hand position. Aerodynamic effects are there, but very secondary.

I also use bar ends on all my bikes (the bike in the vid has had them added since) and still use them a lot. Bar widths are ~700-720mm. From a practical PoV, I’ve found that for me the big thing is that wider hands cause the natural angle of the palm to turn in more, if that makes any sense? So having a good inward bend on the bar ends becomes more important – this is made more extreme by the tendency for wide bars to have more back sweep, of course.