Everyone is different

Don’t be silly, JCL rule 1 is that everyone MUST ride 884mm bars, and a 10mm stem, anything else is for roadie mincers and if it doesn’t feel right then it’s your bike thats the wrong size not your bars!

Or you could just experiment, try a few different setups and see what works for you, stick with it an ignore anyone who mocks it. I don’t know many people that run wide bars with bar ends as the extra leverage of the wider bar negates the need quite well, but what it doesn’t offer is a variety of hand positions, which may or may not be important to you, only you can decide!

FWIW, I’ve ‘settled’ at 700-720mm on MTB’s now, having tried various degrees of wider over the years, that’s what works for me, on my bikes, with my riding style, and my body proportions.

It’s pretty rare to here of anyone going back to narrower bars. I’ve got 760mm on my bike and they feel great, and still fit through the trees where I ride most, so all good.

There is definitely an attitude thing here as well, having your shoulders opened out a bit and riding with your elbows more out definitely makes you feel more confident.

All in my opinion, of course.

dudeofdoom – Member

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

Per side ..

B… but my little fingers are closer to 15 than 20, and with a 35mm stem, they’ve started to hang off the ends when I’m sat down for a climb 😀

Conversely pro team road cyclists are reducing bar width to around 40cm.=Aero
depends on your shoulder width I guess.-Rach Atherton runs wider bars than Gee