So I’ve bought a new bike (29er) and the bars seem unfeasibly wide. In an effort to roll back the years Id like to doff my cap to the bar ends, I always liked them, but they look odd on 700mm bars.

Is it just fashion? Remember when we used to cut them right down? What gives?

Narrow bars were just fashion.I remember when we ran 1.9″ tyres and 130mm stems….they were crap too.
They started out wide in the beginning

Have you ridden it yet?

Wide bars are great, especially on 29ers.

Try it, ride it for a bit.. then change back to narrow bars and see how weird that feels! 😉

Been riding a hard tail with 740 bars for 6 months. Just bought a 2nd hand full sus with 680 mm bars.

One quick test ride and I ordered some 740 mm bars. 680 just felt odd.

700mm bars are narrow, not wide. I’d consider anything above 780mm as wide. Generally most would consider 750mm+ as wide.

Wide bars are great for control on steep descents, but if you’re riding XC I’m not really sure I see the point.

Getting wider all the time..

my earlier post

yeah 780mm or im not playing these days

My new bike came with 800mm bars. That felt too wide but 760mm feels perfect for everything, and I’m not tall or Mr Tickle.

Why have they gone from wide of 2012, at 710, to nearer 800 now though ?

Cos people are getting fatter?

Genetic increase in the ape index

Nowt to do with me

😆

Why have they gone from wide of 2012, at 710, to nearer 800 now though ?

Motocross bars have been around 800mm for years. It just took us a while to catch up – which wasn’t helped by the stupid roadie influenced geometry era of the late ’80s / early ’90s. The clunkers in the ’70s got so much right!

motocross bikes are much heavier than mountain bikes, they need more leverage

So is 800 reckoned to be optimum ? I think I’d be hitting loads of trees on my local trails if that wide, but could see benefit on trail centre stuff.

750mm for me. I was under the impression that depending on your shoulder width you can go too wide ,compromising your ability to absorb impacts., So there is no ‘right’ answer , it’s dependent on your body and preference… I think…

slacker bikes need shorter stems and wider bars, so it won’t be ‘going back’ to sub 700 any time soon. Not for trail/enduro type bikes anyway. I’ve settled on 750 but then I’m still on a 60 stem and the bike isn’t super slack.

After years of slowly getting wider (21″/23″, 660mm,685mm), my new bike came with a tree twatting 740mm set of h’bars, and a little niggle in me says go 760mm! but I think the trees will contest it. 740mm, for me seems spot on.

iainc – Member
So is 800 reckoned to be optimum ? I think I’d be hitting loads of trees on my local trails if that wide, but could see benefit on trail centre stuff.

Don’t be silly. There is no ‘optimum’, what we have now is something called ‘choice’. Although there is bit of Fashion creeping into some peoples’ choice – I just bought a 2nd hand bike for a 10 yr old lad, it’s a tiny wee thing, still had 760 bars fitted…

I think you’d struggle to find many people using 800mm bars outside a Dh race, and even then they’d be in the minority.

750mm minimum for me, 780mm preferred.

780mm did feel a tad wide for racing XC to be honest, but I don’t have a specific race bike and it’s hardly worth swapping the bar over beforehand.

I have 780s on my 29er and 26er. Tried some of the Superstar heliums on the 29er and they felt really narrow at 750mm! I guess it’s what you get used to. In the FoD there’s definitely some gaps less than bar width, but for the other 99% of the time, I’d rather have the wider bar. Just feels right.

I am one of those gibbon like short legs/long bodied type tho so need somewhere to put all those extra cms!

hmmmm, keep my discounted and not yet used Haven Carbon ones at 711mm, which are same as those on my Soul, which I am well used to having ridden for 2 yrs, or stick with the alloy 730 ones that came with the bike…..(Giant Anthem SX 275)

I dunno…

I’m limited by the narrow tree gaps on our local trails – however I’ve managed to make 750mm bars work on my Spitfire. If my local trails were more open I’d probably be running about 800mm on that bike. My Soul which is 2 degrees steeper and has 26″ vs 27.5″ wheels has a similar steering feel with 711mm bars, so there is definitely a correlation between head angle, wheelsize and optimum bar width (as well as rider size). My armspan is 6’2″ so on the larger side.

I have 785mm on my FS and 760 on my HT, both feel spot on and both 26ers. I have been called a gorilla a few times before as i have short legs, short torso but quite long arms.

hmmmm, keep my discounted and not yet used Haven Carbon ones at 711mm, which are same as those on my Soul, which I am well used to having ridden for 2 yrs, or stick with the alloy 730 ones that came with the bike…..(Giant Anthem SX 275)

Move the grips inboard 10mm each side on the existing bar and see how you like it?

Motocross and enduro riders often work out what bar width they need by simply holding themselves in a press up position on a level surface and finding the most comfortable point then measuring the outside of their hand to hand width – mine is around 780 mm – not exactly scientific but it seems to work

Ive not had a flat barred bike for years. I always liked the option, when climbing that bar ends gave you. Akin to pulling on road hoods.

With the fashion changing from risers back to flats I fancy bar ends again. Does anyone else use wide bars/ bar ends?

oldmanmtb – Member
Motocross and enduro riders often work out what bar width they need by simply holding themselves in a press up position on a level surface and finding the most comfortable point then measuring the outside of their hand to hand width

That’s intersting, I’ve mostly been happy on 760 for a while, but that came out at bang on 800. What a perfect excuse to get new bars!

They started out wide in the beginning

That’s intersting, I’ve mostly been happy on 760 for a while, but that came out at bang on 800. What a perfect excuse to get new bars!

Yeah but that’s only a difference of 20mm or one gloved finger as it were 🙂

Per side ..

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Foot pegs on the front forks?

700 & 711 on my bikes, never needed more.

I was under the impression that bar ends were to increase leverage on narrow bars for climbing.Which you get from wide bars.
I knew I’d got wide enough bars when I stopped riding with the end of the bar in the middle of my palms! (which seems to be 740/750ish).

Foot pegs on the front forks?

Fixie DH freewheeling 🙂

A necessary part of modern slack geometry – steering is floppier at low speed so wider bars help.

Conversely pro team road cyclists are reducing bar width to around 40cm.

I like 44cm road bars not quite Horner territory but just feels right to me.

As has been said above, try it for a while. I run 720s on 3 bikes and 760s on one, need to cut them down by 5 or 10 mm though. After 9 months of riding it, I find I clip the bars on things, but not my fingers, so I’m naturally running my hands just in from the bar’s ends. Everyone is different

epicyclo – Member

A necessary part of modern slack geometry – steering is floppier at low speed so wider bars help.

I prefer a wider bar on any bike, not just slack ones. I was quite surprised about this, to be fair.

depends on your shoulder width I guess.