For all-mountain riding as opposed to featherweight XC stuff

Mine have been about 700mm, but I’m just building up a Titus El Guapo, and have bought 740mm bars. I’m gonna give them a try anyway at that width before any cutting, was just curious how wide other people had gone…

27″ bars for me

700-720-ish on my Pitch. I don’t need any wider than that thanks!

720 I think, they’re RaceFace SIXc ones if that helps

about 720mm i think.

Went up to 740 on my El Guapo

they’re cut down to 700 now and that fits all my regular trail apart from two gaps in particular and I know where they are now!

685mm does me fine, and i still clip the occasional tree.

covert: 750mm
575: 711mm
blizzard: 685mm
road bike: 440mm (I think)

Dave

On my full sus i have 710mm Race Face Respond bars and on my hardtale i have 685 Easton EA50. Can’t think i’d want any bigger than the 710 ones, both feel just right for me.

Just in case some people don’t reply
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-wide-are-your-bars-3

750 for me.

Sunline V1 745mm

745mm – Find them perfect

sunline’s 745mm. Big improvement on handling IMO. Give them a few rides to get used to as will probably feel strange at first.
What length stem are you using?

740 seems about right for me.

mojo – 70mm

DezB – thanks, did a forum search and not much came up funnily enough, hence why I started a new one, must have cocked up the search maybe

Yean I’m gonna give them a whirl at 740 although I have a feeling thats going to be a tad too much for the tree lined trails I ride a lot

Cheers!

No-one tempted to try the new Superstar Yardstick then?

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=532

915mm. Seems like the Forresty Comission wasted their money doing all that felling recently, should have just waited for some of these bad boys to hit the trails, there’d have been knocked over trees all over the place!

710mm here

OT but did anyone see on twitter that Superstar now have a 915mm monster?!

Wilko – I think wide bars work better with short stems (50 mm) and low stack (eg 0-5 mm spacer between headset and stem) to get the direct steering feel and control from wide bars.

I think you’re probably right there bro, but I have a disproportionally long torso in relation to my height so 70 is about as short as I can go without feeling cramped!

Been using 685mm bars for about seven years. As my shoulders haven’t got any wider in that time i’ll be sticking with them!

Ha, good work Rich, I’m sure not many people this side of Dirty Dan need super-wide bars (esp not 915mm?!) but I like the feel and they look pretty cool so thats good enough for me!

Wilko ..but don’t forget wider bars will give you a shorter effective arm length (if that makes sense 😯 )

DH – 750
SS – 710
XC – 690
Road – 440

Although I will probably be going up to 700 – 710 on the XC bike soon…

Mojo – it does make sense, hadn’t thought of that! Just picturing having 5 foot wide bars now and going along with my chin on the stem.. . 😀

750 trail/do everthing bike (cut down from 780 as would fit through some tree lined singletrack)
685 on xc ‘race’ bike currently building.
v.narrow on the other bike that being built but I don’t want to talk about that one 😳

so what is the advantage of wide bars then? must admit I prefer them but what is the theory? an equal movement at the end of the bar will have less effect on steering i assume……..

710s with 70 stem. I always find they take a bit of getting used too, mainly because I use a 660 flat on my XC HT. The wider bars are definitely more stable cornering at high speed downhill, I think they also force a better body position and weight distribution when cornering. I do find them a bit wobbly on very steep climbs, and I’ve clipped the odd tree in tight wooded sections.

I’m a complete wide bar convert. My ’04 Enduro is all the better for running 710mm Funn bars and my Wolf Ridge has the full 760mm Nukeproof monty.

@ charliemort, More leverage> less effort to turn bars, mainly but allows me to run a smaller frame (well fit on the biggest frame they do) which cripling myself mainly.

…did anyone see on twitter that Superstar now have a 915mm monster?!

In other news, Superstar sign a new team rider.

Lol, there’s going to be lots of kids rding round with their faces on the stem top cap in the coming months then

The main benefits of wide bars is that they put your weight further forwards. This puts more weight through the front wheel and improves traction, and gives you a more aggressive stance. Of course you can run a longer stem to put your weight forwards but that makes the steering more sluggish. Potentially a wider bar gives you more leverage and makes it less likely that front wheel rocks will force you off line, but my opinion is that’s a secondary benefit.

Superstar have obviously taken it too far though – I imagine they offer that to allow people to cut them down to a more reasonable size, but I bet a lot of people won’t…

750mm for me on the XC bike.

My view is that wide bars = better, but the last time I said that on here I got mocked by some luddites so I’ll end this post with “IMHO, of course.”

The main benefits of wide bars is that they put your weight further forwards. This puts more weight through the front wheel and improves traction, and gives you a more aggressive stance. Of course you can run a longer stem[b] simply bend your elbows slightly more[/b] to put your weight forwards

🙄

710mm on all my bikes (Cube Fritzz, Trek Fuel Ex9 and Orange Crush). I would ideally like to go up to 740/750mm, but i already spend half my life falling off from clipping the trees in my local forest…any wider just wouldnt work for me.

All bikes are round the 710mm mark but just tried a 740mm and it feels very right for my ape like arms, a change may be coming!

720 I think, they’re RaceFace SIXc ones if that helps

Same here, think they might be 725mm.

Perfect anyway!

Leverage, stability, body position take your pick they’re all valid points, TBH I simply tryed a fad and found I get along quite well with it…

Call it a “Fashion” thing if you like but ultimately nothing (not even marginally longer handlebars) will actually make me look cool on a push bike, so I might as well be comfortable…

I still think Bar width should match riders physical build, but there’s no harm in buying some wider bars and then breaking out the hacksaw to “Adjust” them later…

I still think Bar width should match riders physical build

+1

I tried some 777mm bars and felt like I was being crucified, bigger guys I ride with love them though.

Sunline V1 745mm

One of the best changes I’ve made to a bike