https://www.curvecycling.com.au/products/walmer-bars#
My Funn G-Wide start to look pretty narrow in comparison xD
Cheers!
I.
That’s definitely ‘because we can’ territory.
48, 50 and 52 seem perfectly suitable for those of us north of 6ft tall with broad shoulders. Although I would prefer them in a normal drop rather than flared. Are the measurements for where the drop starts or at the tip of the flares, if the later then meh.
Normal road drop bars are constrained by uci race rules, they have nothing to do with what might be best comfortable or usable by most of us out for leisure rides.
measurements are from the hoods.
The wider the bars, the more you need the drops to be spaced further out than the hoods, to match the angle of your arms, at least. The drop sections are parallel to the frame, from what I can see, so they're not flared in that respect. (ie, 90 degree backsweep, not 75 degrees)
IME wide drop bars didn't work. My road bike's quite narrow at 42cm (c-c), my CX/gravel/winter bikes all have variations on normal road bars but slightly wider.
Best analogy I can think of is doing a pull up. Doing "chin-ups" with an underhand grip and arms close together, it's easy, most people can probably do 10-20. That's what narrow straight drops feel like. Try and do "pull-ups" with a wide overhand grip, most people can't do 5 (or any) and that's what wide flared bars feel like..
For me it is opposite. Started with standard drop bars, 42-44cm, then progressed to Midge, 44 and 48 FarBar, currently on 50cm Funn G-Wide.
Can't ride standard, non-flared, narrow drop bars xD
55cm looks very tempting to be frank...
Cheers!
I.
Eeeeeew, with this at the front and 10-50 tooth cassettes at the rear we truly are breeding some ugly looking bikes these days!
13thfloormonk
Eeeeeew, with this at the front and 10-50 tooth cassettes at the rear we truly are breeding some ugly looking bikes these days!
Maybe the extra leverage is needed to damp down the steering on a bike with Modern Trail Geometry. 🙂
it’s easy, most people can probably do 10-20
I would guess the average number (mean) is probably under 1 for the adult population.
I think the widest I found when I last had drop bars was 480mm, and that was just starting to move into teh territory where it didn't feel awful to me. I think maybe if I could have gone out to 540mm or so that might have been enough to make me keep the bike but I switched back to flat bars in the end. Not because there's anything wrong with normal bar widths, they just don't suit me... But I got the feeling when I was looking around that there were a lot of people who'd have bought wider if they existed.
When they were introduced on Radavist ---> https://theradavist.com/2019/12/curve-cyclings-walmer-drop-bar-is-wide/ someone in comments dropped this absolutely BRILLIANT comparison site of various handlebars.
http://whatbars.com/
Absolutely crackin' 😀
Cheers!
I.
Agree with TINAS, I have actually gone down to 42cm from 44cm on my road bikes for more comfort, have even tried a 40cm briefly but that was narrower than my shoulders and felt constrictive. I've used 50cm wide drops on a few gravel bikes I've tried, they'd be the first thing I swapped out if I bought one for myself! Wide drop bars just feel wrong, that and we are talking about bikes that generally due to tyre and rim restrictions need to be finessed rather than manhandled whilst off road... This is coming from someone who considers a 760mm bar on an MTB the narrowest I could conceivably run, even on an XC race bike, and 780-800mm is where it's at on a trail bike.
... that only proves that everybody is different and prefers different things 🙂
Cheers!
I.
Best analogy I can think of is doing a pull up. Doing “chin-ups” with an underhand grip and arms close together, it’s easy, most people can probably do 10-20. That’s what narrow straight drops feel like. Try and do “pull-ups” with a wide overhand grip, most people can’t do 5 (or any) and that’s what wide flared bars feel like..
They're not meant to go on a road bike though. All that doesn't apply to my SS MTB where I liked wider flat bars, before I fitted H-bars.
I think drops can work at almost any width that also makes sense for the range of hand or upper body positions you're after. The width and flare/shape need to match, as said above, as your grip position widens the angle changes - these don't look so good in that respect but the guys at Curve ride enough so if it works for them, why not. My Genetic Digest bars (620 at ends I think) felt all wrong for the first few rides but are great for non-roadie drop bar riding.