given the fashion in ST for 3 mile wide handlebars, how wide are yours? are my 620mm flats too narrow? would i benefit from wider on a SS, they feel ok though

It's like a fookin' disease I tell ye. I started off with a very old skool pair of 90s bars that were cut down to about 520mm or something stupid like that, then upgraded to a new pair of flats that were uncut at 580mm, now I'm riding a newer modern bike which has 600mm lo-risers. The thing is – the 600mm bars now actually feel too narrow, I'm riding with my hands right on the ends of the bars. Where will it all end?? 😕

My Easton Monkeylite's are 685mm wide and feel really good – but on some downhill segments I wonder if even wider could help!

Started on 660, then to 685 and now on 740, sometimes i feel i should cut the them down a bit but then sometimes they feel perfect.

I ride with 745mm, anything smaller just feels odd now.

I was quite happy with 630mm bars & 100mm stem, until I started playing around with them on the old HT.
dropped the stem to 80mm, then bars up to 750mm, stem down to 50mm & finally lopped the bars off at 700mm and my knuckle still hasn't healed.
Swapped the bars to the FS with the 80mm stem & I'll leave it at that for a while.

got some 711mm monkeylites but I've since trimmed them to 690mm, which is spot on for me.

660mm feels very narrow now, whereas I rode them for ages previously and didn't notice at all.

710mm

Mine are 660mm but with the stock handlebar grips they measure ~680mm and I tend to ride with my hands right on the outside edges. I can see the appeal of wider still but it just wouldn't work in the tight woodland singletrack I normally ride, even this width causes problems!

Would be interesting to ask how wide are your shoulders? Do wider shoulders need wider bars for ergonomic comfort or do wider shoulders usually equal more strength thus less need for wide bars for sufficient leverage?

711 syncros carbon and love them, compared to the old 660's makes me feel much more composed

Too **** wide to be happy through the last third of set2rise course! Built the bike up on the Saturday morning of the event (only sprayed the frame up the day before 😳 )with uncut 710mm Salsa flat bar jobbies. If I'd had a hacksaw to hand I would have trimmed them down a bit. I've also got 710s on my fs so I'm used to the width and whilst they suit my broad shoulders there is a time and a place and the bruises on my forearms tell me it's not in that wood!

770 on my Scandal 😀 It feels like I can finally breathe properly – but I do have simian arms and a great big manly chest!

I could not ride the off piste stuff we do with really wide bars as they would not fit between the trees

710 on my FS and 690 on my HT I think.

HT feels really narrow when you first get on it. I think it depends on your size what feels comfortable, 710 is about right for me i think.

to add – what you have come from makes so much difference to what it will feel like. I remember when I first went from 420 to 440mm bars on my road bike and they felt stupid wide like clown's bars. I've just done 4hrs on the road bike now after 12hrs mincing around off road on the 710s earlier in the weekend and now swapping back to road even with "wide" bars (by road standards) took a good hour or 2 to get used to again.

760mm. Had them since before this latest fad. Came off a trials bike originally. I wouldn't go back now. I do think they are better but hard too describe exactly why other than they make tail whips a doddle. I think they suit me being pretty gangly too.

750mm (29.5") Kodex Strut Bars on my FS 29er with 50mm stem.

The bars have more sweep than normal (11deg) as it follows you need more sweep the wider you go. Very happy with them

for general XC/Trail riding I'm a 685 easton guy… usually with a 70 or 90mm stem. Currently on 685 Monkey Lites on a 90mm thomson on my Fuel EX. Perfect. Tried wider and narrower and the 685 is just right. Even Goldylocks agrees.

Currently building up a SantaCruz bullit play bike with 160mm forks on it. That'll have a 50mm stem and 685s feel far to narrow on that. Tried my pals Transition Bottlerocket out with his 50mm stem and 750 bars and that was spot on, so going with that on the bullit.

Used to have a singlespeed On-One Inbred too which was built with same 90/685 setup as my trek.

i have 720mm funn bars with 60mm rise, but i might go for something a bit lower. definitely notice the difference between that and 600mm bars and lovinmg it.

680mm on one, 685 on the other. Oh and 640mm on the commuter. I've tried 710mm and found it too wide even on the big bike so I'll be sticking at 680mm I reckon. Such a matter of taste and personal shape really.

710mm Spank

why are you asking anyone, other than yourself, if your own bars are wide enough?

737mm Sunlines and I ride with my hands right on the ends of the grips, although I am fairly broad of shoulder.

Have some 640 on the older XC bike and feel way too narrow compared to the ones on my SS they started at 710 but now down to 690 as i kept clipping trees, still wide enough to get some proper swing on em for those steeper climbs on the SS though! 😀

Not really sure about the others, but i guess about 420, 660 and no idea about the Mary's.

685mm on my trail bike, even cut down my new bars to this length as it suits me.
711mm on my BMX.
Did run a set of 760(iirc) Fli xxl flat things on a bike for a while, which felt awesome but at the same time something in my brain just made me giggle everytime i rode it. I knew they were too wide, but felt good.
Bit like the 29" effect. 🙂

710mm – I tried 730mm but found them just a bit too wide

About 630mm or something. Feel too narrow.

660 on the SS
and ~665 on the HT

after a particularly painful crash in the alps with 710s, after they clipped a rock on a step down corner, sending me over the bars and down an 8 foot bank onto a rock, plus the increased difficulty of getting round super tight switchbacks, i chopped them down.

665 feels fine.

Anyone do stats?

Mine are whatever size Easton risers come in….

I got some 700 highrisers with a 50mm stem.

785. Anything else feels too narrow now. Extra width is very noticeable at speed, a lot more stable.

600mm on the xc race bike, don't feel like it needs any more than that – I'm nice and comfy for hours and hours on it at that width (and yes, I've tried wider)

the full suss play bike has 720mm on it at the mo' mostly because it needs manhandling round a bit more

660mm USE carbons on my XC bike, lo-rise, 80mm stem

760mm Burgtecs on my 4X, 38mm rise, 50mm stem.

So what are the ladies running? I've run my 685mm Atlas AMs stock for the past 2 months since new but just cut them down to 650. Running wide bars really help's manhandle a big heavy bike up the hills when you're only little, but I'm not sure it's such a good idea for the smaller rider when it comes to going back down (especially with a burgered shoulder).

just wider than my shoulders…………..which is the correct size to use. 8)

685mm *3 + 600mm *1

I ought to cut the ones on the XC HT down to about 660mm, 640 or less would be better uphill for me I reckon, but I know is a bit too narrow when things get more challenging. I'm not I'd want (much) less than 685mm if I SS it again though

The FS wants to go wider I reckon, to about 710/711mm. It'd benefit when things get really challenging, though as I already find myself putting my hands inboard a bit on smoother climbs, I reckon more techincal climbs that bit harder with my arms forcably splayed* out further over the wide bars

600mm on the commuter (With stubby bar ends) often feels too wide, I very often ride with my hands over the shifters/brake levers)

On the 'play' bike (a sort of 4X/DJ bike) 685mm feels fine I think because the bars are so much lower (and the saddle is right out of the way

I know that when I played with a higher rise stem on the FS (which made my drops/jumps more consitent(ly right)) the bars felt too narrow, I just didn't feel I had the leverage side-to-side with the extra height. I think the height of the bars makes a big difference as to how wide feels right. The higher the bars, the wider the bars seem to need to be to retain the same control/leverage over the bike

*thats not a real word is it?

785mm very low rise on both my bikes. Bit tight through the trees at times but spot on width for me as my hands used to hang over the end of the grips on narrower bars.

600mm on my hardtail.
But today I put new cables on my East Peak and took it for it's first ride in over 3 years. Well I thought as I rode along I reckon these bars are a much better width, think I'll look at changing the bars on the hardtail. So as soon as I got home I measured them to see what I should be looking for. Looks like I should be changing to 600mm. 😳

In my defence I think the real difference was the increased sweep of the bars on the East Peak.

i'm 5ft 8 with shortish arms, 685mm with 70mm stem on the giant trance and 710mm with 50mm stem on the marin quake DH bike.
Was wondering today whether to go for wider bars but i seem to do alright on both bikes and the 685mm easton ea70 bars did feel bloody fantastic (angles as well as width) after the skinny ass things i had before.