Clipped my bars at The Chase about a week ago and it has been gradually hurting more and more. So I went to the hospital to get it checked out and it turns out I have damaged the tendons in my hand. I didn't hit it that hard so I'm blaming the cold.
Now I am sporting this stylish piece.
Wrist brace, tendon damage. by i_ache, on Flickr
Wide bars look cool though, and so do scars.
Well that's your sex life ruined, unless of course you're either left handed or ambidextrous.
Wide bars do look cool as do scars unfortunately I don't even have a scar from this apart from the 1cm sq chunk I took out of my little finger.
It might be more the fault of shit riding than the bars, I have been through that section loads of times and not clipped the bars.
I've whacked my knuckles on a fencepost or two when trying to get through impossible gaps and once hooked a bar-end round a thin tree trunk before doing a (short) superman impression
(on none of these occasions was I looking cool, before or after)
Is this you?
Sometimes you can go too far, I ride 745mm for DH and 720mm for AM, any more than that and it can be a liability, you get more leverage but it might not be a bad idea to simply build up some muscles 
I have 760mm bars and find them great for most things. The only times I have found them a bit tight is at a couple of points around Follow the Dog and on The Monkey,there is enough room but it gets a little close at times. I would rather not comment on the muscle factor. 
760s just sold... 780 Renthals on the way 
They can be silly.
I've since dropped to something much narrower.
I have thought about cutting them down but they feel so good.
Aren't Superstar doing some 900mm wide bars now ?
The Yardstick? its 915.
http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=532
Now that's just silly. But I am sure people will buy it.
hah, i had a very dodgy incident a few rides ago when i clipped my bar ends on a tree, i'd been through the gap loads of times before and never worried, but it turns out i only had about an inch either side...
Yep, called the Yardstick for a reason.
Christ !
widest bars I own are about 720 or so
915 is ludicrous
You need to lever a bike wheel to turn it one way and the other, leverage!
Is that what it is!
Nowt to do with sticking your elbows out for the picture in MBR then to make a more dynamic picture!
Fashion over practically... ...everytime?
it could be me but it seems the wider bars get the further inboard the brakes are mounted. and if so doesn't it kind of defeat the objective ? 
Don't complain but I run 800mm bars on my downhill bike and I find it fine, gets me fairly low so more weight over the front end but still have good control over the bike. And for the post above, my brakes aren't that far in, but I do also have them set up for 1 finger braking.
My first ride with my 762s involved lots of jokey comments about riding into trees, followed by a bit of riding into trees. Didn't like that much, so sold them to a mate who now uses them to ride into trees.
The best thing I've found so far about using wide bars is that when I ride a bike that has what I previously thought had wide bars I clip trees far less than I used to. Sticking with 685s on my xc bike for now, as it results in less time on the floor.
It is a simple inalienable fact of geometry, that all bars are 'wide'.
It's also a fact that I ride quicker with 750mm wide bars than anything narrower. Everyone else is free to make up their own mind since this isn't North Korea.
You do learn to judge gaps after a while. I ride 810's and got knocked off once, but that was over a year ago now.
angryratio - Ae? I think I managed to somehow get through that with 760s without really slowing down. Involved some kind of shape shifting thing going on!
I remember when I first started riding in about '96/97 there was an article in MBUK about how to get through tight gaps with the really wide bars we had back then. IIRC it involved wheelieing and when the wheel got as far as the hub you turned your bars enough so they would fit through the gap. I cant see anybody being able to do that at speed, but maybe they should resurrect that article for modern day bars?
Narrow xc bars all the way. Grow some arm muscles girls.
DaveyBoyWonder
It was ever so slightly staged, not that anyone would notice that.
At the time, they were uncut raceface atlas bars..
I've since gone to a more sensible width.
I_Ache - Member
I remember when I first started riding in about '96/97 there was an article in MBUK about how to get through tight gaps with the really wide bars we had back then. IIRC it involved wheelieing and when the wheel got as far as the hub you turned your bars enough so they would fit through the gap. I cant see anybody being able to do that at speed, but maybe they should resurrect that article for modern day bars?
I've seen a video of a dh rider doing that at high speed, didn't wheely but manualed instead and turned his bars while his front wheel was up, surprised how he didn't crash!
Unfortunately I can't remember what the video was but for some reason Sam blenkinsop seems to ring a bell.
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