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Bought a new bike. My first proper trail bike really.
Its come with 800mm bars and a 50mm stem. I find them reeeaaally wide so tempted to reduce them a bit.
What would the effect be on handling if I dropped them to 760mm? I don’t want to ruin what the manufacturer has designed, I’m not sure if they just left them long for user preference though?
Bars are personal preference BUT.... give it a bit or try the patented bar width test - arms out level with your shoulders then drop your elbows 90 degrees and see how far apart your hands are, measure that for the rough guide to bar width
Manufacturers will/should put wider bars on incase an ape buys the bike, because they can always be cut down to the desired width.
Saying that, don't rush, give the wide bars a go. You can always chop them at a later date.
Stick with them for a few rides, you might be surprised how quickly they feel normal.
Saying that I went back to a 760mm bar last year as it was the only flat one I had in stock, and it didn't feel much different.
They left them long cos it's the current fashion and they'd get "Bars too narrow" reviews if they put anything less than 800mm bars on the bike.
780 was too wide for me, not because of the handling but just trying to ride through stuff.
What I'd do is buy some cheap 760s, see how you get on and sell the bars you don't want.
Bars are personal preference BUT…. give it a bit or try the patented bar width test – arms out level with your shoulders then drop your elbows 90 degrees and see how far apart your hands are, measure that for the rough guide to bar width
My internal Babel fish reads that as...
Stand in a crucifixion pose then, leaving your elbows where they are, let your hands dangle. Get somebody to measure how far apart your hands are.
...is that right?
yep, with the use of a broom handle you can measure it yourself too
I had 800mm bars, then dropped to 775, now 720.
Its not that I didn't get on with the wide bars, its that they don't fit between trees! Although 800mm felt like riding a caricature of a bike! It did feel good on anything wide open and flat out, less good on steep switchbacks.
Depending on the bars, if they're nice carbon ones I'd leave them alone and get some cheap alloy ones to try out different lengths. If they're just OEM alloy ones already then hack away, worst case you go too narrow and have to buy another cheap set (or upgrade them).
Me and TINAS agree on something, this should not be ignored!
Stand in a crucifixion pose then, leaving your elbows where they are, let your hands dangle. Get somebody to measure how far apart your hands are
My 15 yo son rides wider bars than me, so yeah, more the personal preference side of things, I'd say.
As above, keep with them a little, if you really don't gel with them, buy some narrower ones, run those for a bit, then either reinstall the 800s having realised it wasn't the issue, (which you couldn't do if you cut them down) and sell the 7 whatevers, or be happy with the smaller (probably cheaper) ones and flog the bigger (more fashionable so more valuable) ones.
Don't cut the existing ones down.
Also the crucifixion pose thing above is daft. By that approximation i should be riding 1040mm width bars...
You could always move the grips and controls in 20mm a side and try that. Would look daft, but it would mean you could get a feel for it before cutting them down.
(more fashionable so more valuable)
A little tiresome phrase really.... For years we were stuck with silly narrow bars, now we have some choice and it turns out that lots of riders really prefer and are much happier on wider bars, a lot of older trails may have some finger nipping potential with wider bars as they were built back in the good old 680 is super wide man days, there were certainly trails even in DH back in the day where you were nicking between tight trees tucking elbows and ducking shoulders. One of the most obvious thing seeing lots of riders at things like EWS and WC this year was how varied bar width was and how it lined up with shoulder width a lot of the time.
Although 800mm felt like riding a caricature of a bike!
Function over Fashion 😉
Bars are personal preference BUT…. give it a bit or try the patented bar width test – arms out level with your shoulders then drop your elbows 90 degrees and see how far apart your hands are, measure that for the rough guide to bar width
push up/plank method is much better and you can experiment with what feels best
Riding the bike [i]is much better and you can experiment with what feels best[/i]
Ftfy 🙂
A little tiresome phrase really….
But not untrue. They're more popular so they have more [in this instance resale] value.
If you're taking umbrage at the suggestion they're more fashionable I'm not sure why you would disagree. I didn't say they're bad, heck I've got 840mm bars on my big bike (not fun round Cannock, nor are the bars). Being fashionable doesn't mean something is bad, it just means they're popular, and at the moment wide bars [i]are[/i] popular. Are they better or worse? Horses for courses.
Sorry just picked your line there.... Fashionable as in the stw cindecending version.
840mm bars??! wild
It helps they clear felled everything round here dez 😉
I'm clearly an odd ball though as i like wide bars on tall bikes of moderate length, the whole long and low thing doesn't work for me.
nicking between tight trees tucking elbows and ducking shoulders.
it really brought the trails alive!
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DezB
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Me and TINAS agree on something, this should not be ignored!
Do we have some forum beef I don't know about that our agreement is unusual?
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I've currently got 720mm fleegles, bought just to try, they felt weird for a few rides (I kept rotating my wrists over the top whenever the front wheel hit anything) now they feel normal. I'm not saying fleegles are better than flat bars but it does prove I can adapt to anything and there really isn't a right answer, just because a 840mm bar works doesn't necessarily mean it actually works better than 680, 720, 760 etc.
I went from 700 to 780 mm bars, and 60 mm stem to 40 mm, figuring I would probably cut the bars back to 750. As soon as I got on the bike, it was obvious they were too wide and I'd be whacking every tree. Figured I should just try them on a proper ride before cutting them. After 20 minutes they started feeling less stupid. Didn't make any difference to climbing time, set a personal record on the descent, didn't hit any trees. Two months later, still feels weird after the 600 mm bars on my commuter, but definitely try riding before you cut them down.
Good advice chaps cheers. I’ll take it to Pines next week and give them a go in the wild before making any rash decisions.
Up for buying some spare bars if anyone has some for sale! That said mine are just basic alloy risers that came with it.
Ha, I remember when Answer Hyperlites were w i d e at 23"!!!
I think Pinkbike did a "how a how wide is your handlebar" article of enduro racers, most wern't at the wide end of the spectrum.
https://m.pinkbike.com/news/ews-rd-2-is-narrow-the-new-wide-2017.html