Measured the stem on my hardtail today. Its 120mm which is pretty long by today’s standards. The bars are something like 650mm wide. I’m planning on upgrading the bars to a set of carbon risers at about 740mm and thought I might try a shorter stem to make the bike a little more trail friendly. Any thoughts on what length to go for. Don’t want to go too short so was thinking of something like 75 or 90mm. I’m 6’2″ riding a large Beone hardtail with a 100mm reba up front.

Depends entirely on you, your bike, your bars, your riding position.

Have someone take a picture of you on your bike from the side, and post it up.

Tbh if your bike has 640mm bars and 120mm stem it’s probably 26″ wheels, and I don’t think the wide bar fad works anywhere near as well for 26ers. Don’t expect miracles 🙂

120mm stem x 640mm bars

….Doc called, he wants his flux capacitor back….

@molgrips youre right, 26″ new old stock from Merlin cycles. I’ll try the shorter stem first before I go wide. Ironic as my wifes 650B has wiiiide bars and shorty stem that she cant stand

@sync 😆

They should be about shoulder width apart, measure yours, they’ll be more than 650mm from outside too outside.

Most people would be happy on 700+ bars. Regarding stem length this can comfortably come down to 60mm to start with and then as you play with wider bars you can go to shorter stems too.

It’s trial and error, the 740 you have ordered sound great, there is a rule of diminishing returns where I’ve seen short arse riders blindly following fashion with 800mm bars on a 40mm stem unable to turn their bloody bike!

Short stem and wide bars work just as well on 26 inch wheeled bikes. I have an Orange Alpine with 780mm bars and a 50mm stem and wouldn’t want anything narrower or shorter. None of my bikes (since my 1996 Diamondback Sorento) have had a stem over 70mm. People were running short stems and wide bars for ages on 26ers before 29 and 27.5 took off.
If you haven’t ordered the bars yet I’d suggest going wider, trying them for a bit and then deciding if you’re going to want to go narrower. Even the GF (at 5’6″) runs 750mm bars happily.

I originally went to a 740mm bar several years ago and after liking it and trying wider again ended up having to buy another set at 780mm.
I had a 100mm Hardtail a little while ago and it was awesome with 780mm bars and a short stem. I’m 5’11” for reference and quite broad at the shoulder.

Tom kp

I prefer old fashioned bars/stem lengths (620/100). Have tried 700+ and 50 stem and hated it and just felt splayed out but then I ride XC rather than downhill so don’t find 620 bars limiting

Molgrips is right I had wide bars on my 26″ bike and it exploded….

The bars and stem to match your size, style and bike are what you want. My lbs has a box of cheap stems for trying (if your buying a stem from them) if not ask mates what they have spare. But wider normally means shorter stem.

I don’t like bars over 750 because I ride through woods. Tree trunks can be very unforgiving and some of the can be quite close to each other.

I don’t like bars over 750 because I ride through woods.

Shirley that depends on the trail and the woods? Thankfully locally our trees are a bit more spaced. Though I still do a lot of shoulder tucking

There is no “One” solution that fits all. Directionally, wider bars WITH a shorter stem is the way to go, as it maintains reach, and hence re-centres your torso. Wider bars bring your torso forwards, a shorter stem pushes it back again.

If you only ride XC, fast, on smooth, level tracks, then 650mm/120 is fine (and good for min aero drag!) But the more you ride harder, steeper terrain, the more a wider set of bars will help.

However, wide bars tend to highlight any lack of fork or wheel stiffness. With wide bars, you may find that although you can hold the bike straighter in rougher terrain, it still wanders around as the fork flexes! This is also one of the reasons modern AM forks have got a LOT stiffer than previous XC forks etc.

The good news, is that it’s much much easier to cut a set of wide bars down, than to extend a set of narrow ones, so don’t be put off buying a set you might eventually find too wide! I’d suggest that for anything over ~740mm width, you want to be on perhaps less than 75mm stem (65 to 50mm seems popular at this width).

if you are swapping to riser bars from flat bars then your position is going to change (your torso will be pushed backwards) so that will also make a significant difference to reach.

PS, plenty of very very cheap, s/h ally bars you can buy for a song on Ebay etc, and just try them on! (even if you replace them with some nice shiny new carbon blingy bars once you’re happy with the dimensions etc!) 😉

Really noticed it through the twisty singletrack on the Gorrick race last weekend. Felt too much weight over the front and not able to change direction quick enough. I’ll try out a short stem / wider bar combo and see how it suits. Thanks for all the replies, you lot are great!

I tried 760s then 740s and in Swinley they made the handling so slow that I actually had to slow down – I couldn’t turn the bars fast enough to make the bends at my usual speed! This is on my Patriot which is pretty old, and has old geometry probably not suited to wide bars.