Been looking for a S/H bar and stem for a while now rarely find anyone selling normal bar/stems.

if you do use oversize bars, why?

I went that way as all new bikes were coming in OS and it was clear that was the way the industry was moving – rightly or wrongly – so it would make any future changes easier.

Non-oversized is popular with the rigid fork crew, a comfort thing as it supposedly gives a slightly less harsh/stiff ride.

Genesis ship the iO with non-oversized bars.

It's (a lot!) stiffer!

Back when I rode arround with z1's etc and front wheel direction was largely a guess they were fine, but mordern forks are soo much stiffer, why spend £200-£1000 on a set of forks then ruin it by only having a vague sense of controll over their direction?

druidh

I went that way as all new bikes were coming in OS and it was clear that was the way the industry was moving – rightly or wrongly – so it would make any future changes easier.

^basically what Druidh says. I have a mixture though; OS on the singlespeed, 25.4 on the geared HT. Mrs Fascist has OS on her Yeti and 25.4 on her Blizzard. My LBS doesn't stock anything in 25.4 any more though so as I replace parts it tends to be OS stuff. With a supple fork on I'm not sure I notice a trailbuzz difference (although with rigid I can see the logic) Yanking on the OS bars on the SS though they do feel like they bend less than the 25.4 bars they replaced. Could just be mental though.

Regular bars and stem here. Got a spare 80mm 10degree stem and EA30 low rise bar if you're interested GW…

thisisnotaspoon – Member

mordern forks are soo much stiffer, why spend £200-£1000 on a set of forks then ruin it by only having a vague sense of control over their direction?

That's utter pish.

Kit – How much do you want for the EA30s? are they full length or cut? unfortunately it's a 0deg. 45-50mm stem I'm after, 55mm at a push.
you're edinburgh(ish) too aren't you?

That's utter pish.

It really isn't, sorry. I swapped my bars and stem to OS recently and noticed an immediate improvement. Same bike, no other changes. 🙂

I run normal bars on my hardtail, and would do on my full susser if that's what was available but sadly it's all big stuff these days.

I defy anyone to tell the difference in stiffness with 140mm travel and a 2.2" balloon between it and the ground.

26.0mm on the road bike, 31.8 on the trail bike, 25.4 on the DH bike and 22.2 on the BMX of course, nice and consistent…

It makes chuff all difference but provides yet another thing for pedants and toss bandits to get all divisive over if you already have a 25.4 stem that works and your happy then don’t waste money changing it, if it’s a whole new steering setup then consider 31.8 because it is become the new “standard”…

GW – Member

thisisnotaspoon – Member

mordern forks are soo much stiffer, why spend £200-£1000 on a set of forks then ruin it by only having a vague sense of control over their direction?

That's utter pish.

No, that's utter pish.

if there's no difference in the performance, why are you against buying them if so many are available?

PeterPoddy (and t.i.n.s.), you may be right (and intuitively you are) that OS is stiffer than 25.4, but that doesn't make it a fair statement to say that anyone using 25.4 can only have a "vague sense of control over their direction" which is the bit I suggest GW was calling pish … and in that I agree with him.

I still have 25.4 on my Evil Sov, which wears pikes up front and gets muscled and bullied on singletrack etc just as much as I can muscle and bully it. I've never felt less than in direct control if my direction on that bike, if I did I'd change the stem and bars out immediately.

Peter – I'm not saying oversize bars can't be made quite a bit stiffer (but usually no lighter), I'm saying there are plenty non-oversized bars out there that are plenty stiff enough.. and as for the bar causing vague handling, GTF! 😛

spokes – I do notice differences in bar/stem flex between bikes, especially as there is more often than not thin air between it and the ground. But I don't need my bars oversized to be happy.

My head knows that the stiffness of a tube increases with diam.^4 so, for a typical wall thickness, 31.8mm is about ~2x stiffer than 25.4 mm…… BUT, the bar is only oversized at the clamp (so most of the bar is still the same diameter) and the stem is torsionally stiff to start with so most of the flex will still occur over most of length of the bars where the controls/grips attach.

As others have said, I've mostly moved to 31.8mm so there is consistency across all bikes – road and MTB. On the road bike the difference is noticable…. on a fat tyred bike in mud, hmmmm, there's plenty of other places that flex more!

I have been using OS on my road bikes for several years now and I do find it noticeably stiffer presumably because there's that much less mushy tyre/suspension between you and the ground.

On my mtbs, I've recently started swapping mainly because most new stuff is OS rather than for any functional benefit. I can't say that it's anywhere near as noticeable if at all on the mtbs I've swapped over.

I've been running 31.8 stuff on bikes for 4 years..
it certainly made an xc hardtail feel more confidence inspiring..
Having just got some mary bars that are 25.4 they feel possitively spaghetti like compared to my full sussers raceface bars .

I hate OS bars as an unneeded duplication of standards and the first thing I did with a new bike that came with OS bars was change them. Anyone want two brand new OS bars and stems? I don't

I took the OS bars & stem off my bighit and replaced with a normal Thomthom thtem and Funn bars, couldnt tell any difference flexin wise.

GW

I have two 25.4 Easton EA70 bars (one cut one not), 25.4 Sunline Carbons, an Easton Vice and a Race Face stem not sure of lenghts/rise.

I need to keep one of each but rest is surplus if interested.

Cheers

I still use 25.4. Why, well I have a rather old raceface turbine stem that used to be the same age than the frame(like most of the components) and lets face it, stem was good and so was bar. So why change. On the HJ, same, I built it on a budget and therefore/hence (can't remember which on is correct) I looked for cheap stuff of ebay. I needed to change the bar, but once again I got for 25.4, why change again the stem?

If your LBS don't store/can't have 25.4 diameter bars, maybe you need to change LBS. Mine doesn't currently store bars and stem. However, when I needed one, it was in the shop in less than 10 days. There is plenty of brand from whom one could choose to order 25.4 bars/stems.

As for the consistency excuse how often do you use your drops on your mtb? Or your risers on your carbon exotica. THAT is utter pish. I'd rather have someone to tell me that he change for the same on all bike so he/she could feed his/hers buying habit 😉

The whole point of oversized bars is so that you can have the same, or improved stiffness, at lower weights, due to the increased diameter (bigger diameter = thinner tubing). So you may not notice a big difference in stiffness, but in terms of stiffness/weight ratio it is an improvement over the old system.

I hate OS bars as an unneeded duplication of standards and the first thing I did with a new bike that came with OS bars was change them. Anyone want two brand new OS bars and stems? I don't

The phrase "cutting your nose off to spite your face" seems appropriate here.

The phrase "cutting your nose off to spite your face" seems appropriate here

I thought that too 😉 One of the reasons for the introduction of 31.8 was have a common standard between road and MTB; 'Standard' diam. for MTB is 25.4mm across the board, but on the road it may be 25.4mm (ITM), 25.8mm (Ritchey et al) or 26.0mm (Oval and some others I think….). And yes, that 0.6mm range does make a difference, in the same way it does for seat posts.

Mikey – it means all my bikes are interchangable – and my lights fit standard not OS bars

FWIW, in reality, the OS bars and stems are usually heavier (say if you compare the same brand/model OS and non-OS version) though they typically are better in stiffness/weight.

I run both on different bikes.

I have standard clamp bars on my DH bike (can't really see anything wrong with the stem and bars TBH, they do the job and they don't feel that flexible). I wouldn't bother putting oversize on unless I actually bent/broke my bars and there was nothing suitable in SC.

I used to run standard clamp unbranded bars on my Hardtail (640), but I wanted something wider and was offered some more appropriate-width bars (oversized). I have to admit I really can't tell the difference (other than width, so I have more control) between my EA50 and the unbranded bars. I'm not against oversize bars, I just don't think the benefits are that big.

Mikey – it means all my bikes are interchangable – and my lights fit standard not OS bars

Well perhaps that should have been your argument rather than coming across all reactionary.

FWIW, in reality, the OS bars and stems are usually heavier (say if you compare the same brand/model OS and non-OS version) though they typically are better in stiffness/weight.

Is that not a remnant of the fact that OS bars were first introduced to mtb as FR and DH equipment?

Kit – How much do you want for the EA30s? are they full length or cut?

They're full length, and I have two spare sets – you can have them both for a tenner, if you're able to collect (yes I'm in Edinburgh).

Mikey – no, that's very much the case for road kit. In fact, Oval were still (may even still be now) putting non OS kit on the pro teams' bikes for the mountain stages because they're lighter.

took the OS bars & stem off my bighit and replaced with a normal Thomthom thtem and Funn bars, couldnt tell any difference flexin wise.

thats a bad lisp you've got there fella.

putting non OS kit on the pro teams' bikes for the mountain stages because they're lighter.

Which is entirely believable and bonkers really, when you consider how easy it is for the the pro teams to build a bike below the UCI weight limit – you'd think they'd be more than happy to add the weight/stiffness to the bars/stem, rather than using lightweight kit and then hiding lead around the frame. Maybe Oval are supplying teams with particularly porky frames 😉

All my bikes have 31.8 bars now, more from the compatibility nonsense than performance differences ( good 25.4/26mm carbon bars aren't noticably less stiff than oversize) but I kind of think the oversize standard is a bit of a pointless size; I mean, the bar diameter is bigger than the steerer diameter- thats like a tree with thicker brances than trunk!
I think that 31.7/8 became the standard simply because the early adopters such as Dedacciai could draw the tubing to that size cheaply, not any optimum engineering considerations.

Kipper – (prepare to possibly suck eggs – sorry) 31.8 is metric 1.25",as 25.4mm is metric 1", so yes it was probably the next die size up on their existing machines 😉

We've been over the steerer diam/vs bar diam argument before…. but to use you're tree analogy – you are right….. except to be truly comparable the tree would have very short trunk compared to very long branches. (EDIT: oh, and the trunk would be ring-reinforced by a, er, bloody great wooden "stem", where as the branches wouldn't be… I think I've broken the analogy)

I've got a mix of O/S and non O/S on my bikes, including cases where I have the same bars (EA70's) in O/S and standard versions. I have noticed the O/S bars being slightly more harsh but it's not a big difference and could be mostly psychological.

Kit & Grumpystevo- I'll mail you both later tonight. (Kit I'll def take both bars)

I ride XC hard and fast, oversize bars and stem just make so much more sense for this sort of thing

…except for the fact that plenty of pro riders were riding XC harder and faster than you (or me) for years before, and I dont think it was bar diameter that was holding them back.