Just swapped up from 685 to 711. Not a massive jump, subtle but immediately it feels ‘right’.

What are the benefits apart from control at fast speed etc??

On trend

I found they opened my chest up and made breathing far easier on hard slogs, but I am a big bloke. Didn’t notice a great deal of difference in control going downhill.

I thought that too. Mountain bike mag-crew fashion led 😆

I’m not big by any means but found that going up from some Race Face Diablous’ to some uncut Nuke Proofs just felt a lot more comfortable. Find that the 710 Gravitys on my hardtail feel narrow by comparison now…

have a 780 arriving today, think my current bar is around 680-700, should be interesting. Should help with balance 😉

780? 😯

Went form a rad xc stylee 640mm to a still weeny 685mm. Zig climbs and decents much easier and much more control. 710mm must be almost cheating.

😀

your bars should be as wide as your shoulders
nobody makes a 1m wide bar………………. 🙁

ton, check this http://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-gear/ritchey-syncros-1000mm-bars-fric-stem-and-carbon-29er-fork/

was running a 660mm bar now running a 711 ragley wiser bar on my HT. It’s turned into a proper hooligan bike. I love it!

Just for some balance I hate riding with wide bars (anything over 27″/685mm) – it makes the bike feel like a barge to me and feels like I’m trying to ride Jesus’ cross. I’m tall/broad too so it’s not because I’m got narrow shoulders.

a crazy motorbike mate of mine runs 800mm bars on his MTB. Seems to work well for him, and how we laugh as he inevitably smacks his bars into trail objects now & again. We tend to let him go first down particularly overgrown trails.

You can fit more carrier bags on wider bars, but they do affect the handling a bit when I’m bringing the gnar on the towpath near the Owl Sanctuary.

I’ve just put EA70 Monkey Bars on my carbon 456 with the 70mm stem that was on there already. I’ve noticed that I don’t lean on the bars as much so my core muscles are keeping me upright on the saddle. The steering feels more twitchy than before but I have no trouble muscling it about. And, for some strange reason, it made me want to wheelie a lot.

Gone up from 710/40m to 780/0mm on the big bike, and noticed quite a bit of difference in control. And yes, I was sceptical at first… but it grew on me.

I couldn’t be bothered to cut down my bars; hated it at first, now I love it.

went from 660 on both bikes to 720 on the singlespeed & 750 on the AM bike (after a few weeks with the SS changed over).
& Yes: I **** trees with my little finger once and awhile however it’s becoming less & less as I get more used to the width.
the biggest changes I noticed is that I find it easier to “muscle the bike around”, retain control on a sketchy landing or on a particularly unsure surface. It also seems to help me keep weight over the front wheel when in berms, but I suspect this is because my technique is poor anyway.

Just to find out the exact point at which it gets too wide for me I’ve got some 762s, which are definately too wide, my hands are always creeping inwards on the bars. So I’ll lop 5mm off each end and move the controls and see what happens.

Clubber I’d say change stem and/or angle? That’s a question btw.

I’m on 50mm stem 6ft2 on a 23inch TT. Maybe the bar length pulled and over-stretched you out hence the Lord our Saviour comment

I had 720mm on my Lapierre and went to 780mm. It was the best thing I could have done, just reels right and gives more balance and control. Of course my bike isn’t an xc bike so 780mm doesn’t look or seem out of place on it!

Wannabe downhillers! (apart from the actual downhillers!)

I have been using 585mm bars on my race MTB for the last couple of years and mad last year i got a 456 trail with 710mm bars on it and noticed a massive difference. Last month i got some 680mm bars on my race mtb and it handles and rides a lot better, but saying that i have just changed the frame from a 2009 to a 2011 giant anthem x and changed the forks to a tapered head tube. either way it rides very sweet 🙂

So wider bars are better for me 🙂

I just ride with thin bars on my commuter then the 650 bars on my mountain bike seem huge. Could not run away wider as they would get stuck in the gates/ram styles

I tried 760mm which was a bit too wide. 710mm feels about spot on to me. Any less and it feels like a toy now.

I predominantly ride a road bike with 40-odd cm bars so even going to 685mm on the mountain bike feels a bit weird – wide bars feel horrible for climbing with and I often try to move my hands inboard (on the lever clamps) to climb.
Having said that, given all the accolades, I wouldn’t mind trying something a bit wider (710-740) on the big bike.

“I often try to move my hands inboard”

I do that too, and drop my elbows to pull my torso down and forward when it gets steep. I have the brakes and shifters quite a bit inboard too.

If I ever do a trip to big, open Alpine trails, I’ll try big bars. But honestly, a lot of local trails are twitchy badger runs through the trees. 685mm is OK.

You kids and your cowhorns…

580, shoulder width.

My shoulders are wider than 580 although I’m not Doddy

I always used to hang my hands off the end of grips until wide bars became available. Im a happier, comfier boy now with 780 on both bikes.

685mm on both bikes – nice width – and still fits through styals just about!

Tom 780? No wonder it felt really odd when I had a spin on your bike 😆

Personally I would have the shorter stem as well as the wide bars.
My HT with relatively narrow bars has improved control when I slapped a 60mm stem on it.
The FS, which has a much wider bar albeit under 700mm, is getting a 50mm stem soon and I may even consider a new bar to get it to over 700mm.
Simply put I like wide bars but “wafty” stems just feel so wrong.

i hated wide bars so got tird of them and went back to 27″
i couldnt pull a table top as i jarred the bar in my chest on the way through. 🙁

I had 720mm on my bike for a while, and quite liked it. However the amount of spots requiring work to squeeze through increase by a huge amount, and I did not feel it was worth it. Back to 680.

760mm nuke proofs on my 456 with a 50mm stem

680mm RF Deus on my SS with a 110mm stem

Swings and roudabouts;

The wide bars are crap for climbing, utter crap, yes you can wrench the wheel wherever you want it, but equaly it makes the bike feel unbelievably slack and hard work.

But they make sense on the way down, the front wheel just stays wherever you put it.

Never had any issues with trees/shrubs, you just plan ahead a little more carefully, your only 1.5″ wider wach side than normal risers.

I ride 810’s

Better control, feedback and open lungs.

I have hit a tree or two when riding Cannock, otherwise Ive been fine.

All others feel way too narrow now.

Jedi, turndown? so much more ‘moto’ 😛

Approx 700mm with a stem shorter than 90mm seems to suit my riding style on most bikes most of the time. Climb well enough, and can flick round twisty forest tracks more easily. Narrower bars/longer stems really do make any sort of twisty steering barge-like, and only seem to be good for going in a straight line (and how much fun is that?) I also agree with the lungs/breathing points – true for me also.

However, stems shorter than 60mm feel too twitchy – it’s all about making a measured turn and holding a line, rather than turning in on yourself too fast.