I’ve just got some new, wider bars… going from 720 to 780. The first couple of rides have been, err, different. Yesterday I managed to understeer around a small rock and eat dirt. Also I seem to be struggling to get the front end up as easily as I used to.

So how wide is too wide? Do I need to shorten my stem to compensate?

I’d have a 50mm stem with 780mm bars. 750mm is wide enough for me.

All depends on your shoulder width IMO. If your a skinny wee runt, 780 is ridiculous.

How long is your stem? The good thing about wide bars is you can always cut them down a bit at a time, but before you take a saw to them it might be worth picking up a cheap short stem to see if that makes a difference. I have 780mm bars on the full suss, and 750mm ones on the hard tail. Both feel great.

I think it depends on how stretched out your arms are with the wider bars. I’m thinking mine are a bit too wide and are actually making jumping the bike more difficult.

All depends on how big your hands are. Any more than a handfu……

Oh, hold on. Wrong thread. Sorry.

Have gone from 600 to 685 for the same stem length. New bike will have 740’s but with a 40mm shorter stem (20mm longer top tube). Not sure I’d want to go any wider than that.

I have 780 on the big bike and I can’t fit through all the trees at Cannock 🙁
740 is a nice length I’ve found.

I think 915s might be a little too wide….

2 meters would be too wide. So would 7 feet, and 2600 cm.

I’m tempted to try the 810mm el guapo ones, but I don’t think they’d fit between all the trees.

This is another “marketing” scam.. Me bars is fine Bro !

630mm with bar ends is right – so anything over 631mm… 😉

i find 700 mm bars perfect on both bikes.
One has a 75mm stem one a 90mm, the reason for this is one has a 600mm ETT the other 585.

I don’t find one more twitchy or vague than the other, they just fit me, and I would not change it because a shorter stem or wider bars were in vogue.

was at 680 then 740 now 770 which is nice but can cause issues with trees on some trails.

It’s all pretty messy tbh. I’ve been on 710 and 720 for ages, I prefer how it feels. Borrowed a 750, I don’t really like the feel but I have to admit, it’s often better. So I’ve just picked up a 780 to try.

Not because of leverage or anything, as some think- that’s bobbins, you don’t need this much leverage, I can control 170kg of motorbike travelling at the speed of light with narrower bars. It’s all about posture for me, wide hands set me naturally into a forward-weighted pose that I don’t always manage otherwise. (I can do it on narrower bars but the default position doesn’t do it- hardware fix for a software issue but what the hell)

Think it’s likely I’ll cut the 780s, we’ll see. The 750s haven’t made me want to replace my assorted 720s. I was delighted to hear riders at an innerleithen enduro complaining that part of one of the stages was “too narrow for my bars” though 😆

Dam it, must read titles properly. Had potental if the r was to the left.

Dam it, must read titles properly. Had potental if the r was to the left.

Well you’re in luck…..

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bras-how-wide-is-too-wide

I’ve running 800’s on my main bike. With a 50mm stem.

Can’t get through some trees but the leverage and feel makes up for that!