I'm buying some Salsa Cowchippers. The problem is, the width of your drop bar used to depend on your shoulder width- easy. Now it's seems to all about the width of whatever you fancy and I have no idea what it's based on. So what do I want? Just as wide as possible? Will that make my top tube effectively too long? What's people's real world experiences...
I tried a 46 Venturemax and liked it.
I've now got a kitchen sink 47 and like that too.
I basically just guessed.
Cowchippers go up to 52cm. Would that be ridiculous?
Would that be ridiculous?
Depends how broad shouldered you are?
Depends how broad shouldered you are?
Not particularly!
I reckon about 40cm from AC joint to AC joint
I have some barely used 52cm Cowchippers I've been meaning to sell. As a 800mm bar rider normally, they still feel narrow! £35 posted.
As wide as possible in my experience 😁
I really like my 52cm Salsas
Will that make my top tube effectively too long?
Just take 10-20mm off the stem if you go wide.
TBH I think the shoulder width thing is irrelevant for off-road or flared drops, as it is with MTB bars.
I have some flare drops that are 56cm at the tip but std 44cm on the hoods due to the extreme flare angle. I like that combo though it took a bit of getting used to. I rode some less flared, wider drops and didn't like them, the combo of a wide position and relatively normal drop angle / STI angle made little sense to me. They just felt very 2D / samey vs the more flared bars.
It all depends on how 'dirt' you want your drops I suppose. A drop bar can't match an MTB bar for technical off-road control no matter how wide you go so ime it's not simply 'wider is better', it's about compromising between a decent road-like bike position and getting more control when in the drops. That's about grip area and STI angle more than just width, because the angle affects whether your elbows naturally tuck in like a roadie or brace out, more MTB-like.