Has anyone here ever found any ‘proper’ wide roadie drop bars? I have 44cm wide (outer edge to outer edge – is that how they are normally measured, or is it centre to centre?) bars on my Boardman, and frankly i find them seriously restrictive..i have 710mm bars on all my mtbs and find hem much better for getting the lungs opened up. I dont expect 710mm road bars to be about, but has anyone seen any greater than than 46cm, which is the widest i can currently see.

They are normally measured C2C, so a 46cm will be a decent amount larger than what you have.

You could look at something like a Salsa Woodchipper. Designed for off-road use, I find it’s OK on a tourer too.

You need to consider why you’re not finding lots of wider bars though. Is it that you are so unique, or that they are simply not required?

I imagine midge bars are wider on the drops, but funny shaped too

I’m sure roadieing is all about low frontal area or something, though 😕

46s IME feel wider than they ought to.

if they are 44cm they shouldn’t in any way be restrictive, most likely a bike fit issue?

I’ve got a set of 46cm Salsa Bell Lap on my CX. They feel great and the drops flare out by 12 degrees I think. Previously the bike 42’s which never felt right, but then I’m used to 700mm bars on both my MTB’s

Cheers all..i am slightly freakishly wide across the shoulders, thanks to my old rugby days (front row), and i still enjoy my weight training, so the current bars have me confined like a straight jacket, i may well to try some 46cm to see how much they help…the bike fits perfect otherwise.

I’m from a road background (in cycling terms) but came to that from triathlon and to that from swimming. I look like a swimmer with v wide shoulders. You can get used to it.

There was a period a while back where I didn’t touch the road bike for 3 or 4 months with lots of wide barred mtbing and even with years of roadie riding previously it felt flipping weird on the first ride back. You can do it though – you have just got to do enough of it to get used to it although your current 42cm (measured the right way) are quite narrow for a big unit.

Salsa bell laps as mentioned above are very good though and worth looking at if you like things slightly wider than normal without looking daft.

You need to consider why you’re not finding lots of wider bars though. Is it that you are so unique, or that they are simply not required?

Its because in UCI rules the maximum width is 46cm, to allow skinny pro cyclists to ride in peletons. Unfortunately in real life a lot of people ride for fun and are not built like pro cyclists and find that width restrictive.
Its common to roughly match handlebar width to shoulder width, my shoulder width measure at 52cm, I have got used to 46cm bars, but it does feel like its constraining my breathing at times, something that really improved with the advent of wider bars on the mtb.

I’m much more sensitive to road bar width than MTB, chances are you’d notice a fair difference between your current 42’s and 44’s (also be aware some manufacturers like FSA measure the c2c at the end of the drops which flare out on some models so even then a 44 might actually be a 42 on the tops/hoods).

i am slightly freakishly wide across the shoulders, thanks to my old rugby days

Interesting. I’m sitting here with a busted shoulder and any exercise which made my collarbones longer would be useful.

Oh, and my arms have hinges halfway down them. Elbows, they’re called. Bend them and it’s like having wider bars. But I ride 36.5cm road bars, so maybe I need to do that more.