Why does everyone love wide bars so much?

I ride some cut down Titec Hellbent bars, which must be about 640mm wide. Narrow by most people's standards.

I recently bought another pair for another bike (uncut at 670mm) and it feels like steering a bloody tractor! I'm sure it'll make squeezing through the trees a little bit harder.

I'm a bit reluctant to chop these ones too.

760mm on my dh bike
685 on both my xc bikes

narrow bars feel horrid at speed

allyharp – Member

Why does everyone love wide bars so much?

More stability at speed, more leverage, better for leaning the bike over in corners. I was skeptical but I'm a convert. Give them a while and you might like them, unless you've got weedy little girlie/roadie shoulders.

my bars are the same width as my shoulders, which is what i was always told they should be…………750mm

it does making going downhill a lot more fun for some reason.. 8)

Ive got weedy little girlie/roadie shoulders and run 710mm bars, they really are good, i had 685mm on previously and these feel even nicer.

Cut down bars on my commuter bars for narrow gaps. Wide bars on my SS for leaverage when climbing, stability at speed

Wide bars on my SS for something to crank on. After a winter's worth of riding them, I couldn't get on with the narrower ones on my FS, so put the same width on there. Feels great.

Unfortunately, the SS gets used for a fair bit of around-town-sneaking so I do have a few squeaky moments getting through narrow gaps. One of these days the bars'll be wider than the gap… 😯

Just thinking about getting some wide bars, mine are currently quite narrow… Anybody got any with a low rise?

I use onza trials bars on my mountainbike 720mm wide with upswept ends.
To me this feels ace as it puts my elbows up. I can easily move in to a narrower position for just riding along.

711mm on the Enduro and I LOVE them. Stable at speed and just perfect.

Like Ton I got wider bars so they felt the right width – stick your hand out in front of you at a comfortable width whilst no where near your bike. Get someone to measure to the the distance between the outsides of your hands and see how different that is to your bars.
If only I could get a keyboard the same width I wouldn't feel so cramped at work.

allyharp – Member
Why does everyone love wide bars so much?

because they work?

I like them as they open my chest up and stop me wheezing. Normal bars are narrower than my chest so I ended up arching my shoulders in.

They just feel right now, and if my shoulders can get through the gap my bars can.

You really need to be running a shortish stem with wide bars (80mm or less I reckon) A long stem and wide bars will male it feel like a right boat!

785 on my DH bike, 685 on my smaller bike, but I want some wider bars for that for increased stability. Skinny little bars on my commuter.

I've well over 6ft, with long arms, makes sense for me to ride wide bars on my big bike, its a lot more stable at speed. Rides a lot better now.

600mm flat bars for me. Quite happy using anything up to 650mm, but anything over that just feels horrible. Probably due to my shoulder width.

anyone suggest some wideish bars 650-700mm with a fair bit of back sweep, 9-12 degrees?

flat or low rise?

OS clamp size….

oh and cheap, £30 or less?????

I put some Nuke Proof warhead bars on my bike (SS) 760mm wide but I chopped em down to 730. Feel great and extra leverage up hill is great.

I ran with uncut eastons on my SS first (685mm I think), liked them so much I put them on my Chameleon, use a 90mm stem, seems just about spot on, have got widish shoulders

You really need to be running a shortish stem with wide bars (80mm or less I reckon) A long stem and wide bars will male it feel like a right boat!

100mm stem – there's a prob for me!

timdrayton – if you're after cheap 'n' wide low rise then have a look at the Easton EA30 Riser. At £17.95 from Merlin you can get much cheaper, plus it's a good shape or for 28.95 the EA50 will save you 50g – personally I'd prefer the £11 saving to the 50g 🙂

Oh, and no, I don't have any connection with Merlin, but they've given me great service so come recomended.