I’ve used EA70’s for years and years on all my bikes, IIRC they are 685mm wide. That used to be ‘WIDE’.

I fancy getting with the program a bit and trying some proper fat bars – is it reccomended to drop a few mm on the stem too? It seems to me like if you dont, your going to be leaning further forward?

(Arms and bars making a triangle, increase the base, the arms splay wider etc etc..)

Try it and see?

I didn’t, but then my bike was pretty short to start with.

How long is your stem now?

My preference is for 750mm bars with a 50mm stem, or 60mm on my XC bike.

The stem is on the longer side for the style of bike as it is. Suck it and see I guess.

im running a 70mm stem on a five with 720mm wide bars- i have been thinking about trying a 50mm on it, will i actually notice any improvement on handling descending from 70mm to 50mm?

Give it a try – pick up a cheap second hand 50mm stem.

If you want equivalent fit, then widen the bars and shorten the stem together, yes.

I saw a vid (Charlie Cunningham iirc) that said for every 20mm wider on the bars you drop back 10mm on the stem in order to maintain the position. Not sure if that is accurate or not but it’s a starting point if nothing else.

Wouldn’t the extra sweep on the bars cancel out the extra lean forwards?

I’m no mathematician but I suspect the difference is minimal. And you might end up preferring a further forward position anyway!

You’ve really got to try it and see. It’s not just about reach, it’s also about how the bike handles.

On my Reign I went from 685/70 to 760/70 and it really upset the handling. Tried 760/50 and it’s perfect.

On C456 I went from 685/70 to 720/70 and that was fine.