[Closed] What width bars do you use..!?

27" bars for me

700-720-ish on my Pitch. I don't need any wider than that thanks!

720 I think, they're RaceFace SIXc ones if that helps

about 720mm i think.

Went up to 740 on my El Guapo

they're cut down to 700 now and that fits all my regular trail apart from two gaps in particular and I know where they are now!

685mm does me fine, and i still clip the occasional tree.

covert: 750mm
575: 711mm
blizzard: 685mm
road bike: 440mm (I think)

Dave

On my full sus i have 710mm Race Face Respond bars and on my hardtale i have 685 Easton EA50. Can't think i'd want any bigger than the 710 ones, both feel just right for me.

Just in case some people don't reply
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-wide-are-your-bars-3

750 for me.

Sunline V1 745mm

745mm - Find them perfect

sunline's 745mm. Big improvement on handling IMO. Give them a few rides to get used to as will probably feel strange at first.
What length stem are you using?

740 seems about right for me.

mojo - 70mm

DezB - thanks, did a forum search and not much came up funnily enough, hence why I started a new one, must have cocked up the search maybe

Yean I'm gonna give them a whirl at 740 although I have a feeling thats going to be a tad too much for the tree lined trails I ride a lot

Cheers!

No-one tempted to try the new Superstar Yardstick then?

[url] http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=532 [/url]

915mm. Seems like the Forresty Comission wasted their money doing all that felling recently, should have just waited for some of these bad boys to hit the trails, there'd have been knocked over trees all over the place!

710mm here

OT but did anyone see on twitter that Superstar now have a 915mm monster?!

Wilko - I think wide bars work better with short stems (50 mm) and low stack (eg 0-5 mm spacer between headset and stem) to get the direct steering feel and control from wide bars.

I think you're probably right there bro, but I have a disproportionally long torso in relation to my height so 70 is about as short as I can go without feeling cramped!

Been using 685mm bars for about seven years. As my shoulders haven't got any wider in that time i'll be sticking with them!

Ha, good work Rich, I'm sure not many people this side of Dirty Dan need super-wide bars (esp not 915mm?!) but I like the feel and they look pretty cool so thats good enough for me!

Wilko ..but don't forget wider bars will give you a shorter effective arm length (if that makes sense 😯 )

DH - 750
SS - 710
XC - 690
Road - 440

Although I will probably be going up to 700 - 710 on the XC bike soon...

Mojo - it does make sense, hadn't thought of that! Just picturing having 5 foot wide bars now and going along with my chin on the stem.. . 😀

750 trail/do everthing bike (cut down from 780 as would fit through some tree lined singletrack)
685 on xc 'race' bike currently building.
v.narrow on the other bike that being built but I don't want to talk about that one 😳

so what is the advantage of wide bars then? must admit I prefer them but what is the theory? an equal movement at the end of the bar will have less effect on steering i assume........

710s with 70 stem. I always find they take a bit of getting used too, mainly because I use a 660 flat on my XC HT. The wider bars are definitely more stable cornering at high speed downhill, I think they also force a better body position and weight distribution when cornering. I do find them a bit wobbly on very steep climbs, and I've clipped the odd tree in tight wooded sections.

I'm a complete wide bar convert. My '04 Enduro is all the better for running 710mm Funn bars and my Wolf Ridge has the full 760mm Nukeproof monty.

@ charliemort, More leverage> less effort to turn bars, mainly but allows me to run a smaller frame (well fit on the biggest frame they do) which cripling myself mainly.

...did anyone see on twitter that Superstar now have a 915mm monster?!

[img] [/img]

Lol, there's going to be lots of kids rding round with their faces on the stem top cap in the coming months then

The main benefits of wide bars is that they put your weight further forwards. This puts more weight through the front wheel and improves traction, and gives you a more aggressive stance. Of course you can run a longer stem to put your weight forwards but that makes the steering more sluggish. Potentially a wider bar gives you more leverage and makes it less likely that front wheel rocks will force you off line, but my opinion is that's a secondary benefit.

Superstar have obviously taken it too far though - I imagine they offer that to allow people to cut them down to a more reasonable size, but I bet a lot of people won't...

750mm for me on the XC bike.

My view is that wide bars = better, but the last time I said that on here I got mocked by some luddites so I'll end this post with "IMHO, of course."

The main benefits of wide bars is that they put your weight further forwards. This puts more weight through the front wheel and improves traction, and gives you a more aggressive stance. Of course you can [s]run a longer stem[/s][b] simply bend your elbows slightly more[/b] to put your weight forwards

710mm on all my bikes (Cube Fritzz, Trek Fuel Ex9 and Orange Crush). I would ideally like to go up to 740/750mm, but i already spend half my life falling off from clipping the trees in my local forest...any wider just wouldnt work for me.

All bikes are round the 710mm mark but just tried a 740mm and it feels very right for my ape like arms, a change may be coming!

720 I think, they're RaceFace SIXc ones if that helps

Same here, think they might be 725mm.

Perfect anyway!

Leverage, stability, body position take your pick they're all valid points, TBH I simply tryed a fad and found I get along quite well with it...

Call it a "Fashion" thing if you like but ultimately nothing (not even marginally longer handlebars) will actually make me look cool on a push bike, so I might as well be comfortable...

I still think Bar width should match riders physical build, but there's no harm in buying some wider bars and then breaking out the hacksaw to "Adjust" them later...

I still think Bar width should match riders physical build

+1

I tried some 777mm bars and felt like I was being crucified, bigger guys I ride with love them though.

Sunline V1 745mm

One of the best changes I've made to a bike

GW does make a good point here.
If wider bars are used to bring your weight forward, then bending the elbows achieves the same but with more control (your arms aren't locked) and the option to take your weight backwards on the bike too when that's needed.
Of course, we're all different shapes and sizes so I expect they suit some people more than others.
685 and 720 to answer the OP 🙂

685 on my hardtail
600 on my rigid bike.

At some point I'll upgrade the stem and bars on the hardtail and move them to the rigid.

In a few years time we'll all be laughing at these super wide bars like people laughed at flared trousers in the 80s. You mark my words.....

Often pondered on the handlebar width debate which seems to be in vogue at the minute.

Personally, I cut down 685mm bars to 665mm because they felt too wide for general XC and I'm 6'3" with proportionally wide shoulders and arms in proportion also.

Cleverly, I bought a frame that was the right size, so I didn't need to run wide bars to get my weight forward for more front wheel traction.

Anyways, in your position, I wouldn't want to run 665mm on an all mountain rig purely because in today's fashion it just wouldn't seem right.

Things you need to really consider:
Advantage of wider bar is really more steering leverage and not getting knocked off line on fast tricky descents.
The disadvantage is threading between the trees.

I guess the faster and trickier the riding, the wider you should go with the bar.

Noting that World Cup DH Pro's generally run 29" bars and motocross bikes which are heavier, faster etc. generally are around 30" in the handlebar.

No one needs a 30"+ bar for leverage, they need to get in the gym and build up some muscle.

In my opinion, anyone running more than 30" on an all mountain rig has taken fashion one step too far. Chances are they also wear 'carrot' shaped trousers with elastic bands in the ankles. What's that all about? I stopped wearing trousers with elastic bands when I was a toddler.

Gold star for Rusty Shackleford!

Mine all have 710mm on now. Just seems to be the right width for me. I thought the DH bike would keep slightly wider bars but I just kept sawing off 10mm at a time til they felt right, and not coincidentally, they were 710. I'm a pretty narrow guy though.

My riding position's pretty constant, so nowt to to with frame size or getting my weight forward (when I want to get my weight forward, I just do it, I don't need hardware to do it for me). 710 just gives me a nice comfortable, flexible arm position as a starting point.

adrianmurray - Member

Noting that World Cup DH Pro's generally run 29" bars

That doesn't seem to be true... Freecaster or Dirt TV did a paddock walk last year and 30 inches or more was the norm.

I knew GW would weigh in with his usual brand of unhelpful sarcasm.

Let's assume for one minute that at least some of the people on this forum know how to ride a bike well. I, for one, have been bending my arms at the elbow for some time. With that in mind, do you [i]really[/i] think your post is a revelation? Bending your arms more gives you a more aggressive riding position, but having your arms bent 90 degrees for any length of time isn't sustainable, and unless you're built like Jason Statham, it's probably not a very stable riding position. Wide bars just allow you to be in a more aggressive position without tiring.

If you want to be difficult and use older technology, by all means do it, feel free to post your experience up on RetroBike. But don't present your outmoded opinion as fact.

😆 Who mentioned 90deg? or any exact angle FFS! 🙄
Here's a FACT for you..

any decent mtb riders' elbows won't remain fixed at any set angle while they ride.

and another few..

* Fitting wide bars [u]will not[/u] instantly make every riders position more aggressive.

* Fitting wide bars [u]will not[/u] instantly relieve arm strain/fatigue.

* Fitting wide bars to bring your body further forward will actually [u]restrict[/u] forward and rearward body positioning (and weight distribution).

We're all different sizes/shapes and have differing positions/styles of riding our many and varied bikes.
Do you have any idea what width bars I have on each bike? or more importantly how far apart my hands are while riding relative to my shoulders width? nevermind any of the rest of my bikes set-ups? or for that matter, my riding style?
all the above differing variables for each and every rider make "list your bar width" threads like this utterly pointless but feel free to continue typing your reasoning as to why 750mm bars are perfect for your XC bike! bear in mind tho, the more shite you type the more difficult it becomes for me not to mock you! 😉

Mine are 12 inches on the right and 15 on the left, shorter on the right so you can skim car mirors when in town.

745mm cut down to 720mm but I'm a pretty small guy. It's alright proportional, innit?

711mm and perfect

I don't know the exact measurement but they are definatly broad, broad, broader than broadway.

I have a 50mm stem and 730mm bars on my full suss and it's perfect!

* Fitting wide bars will not instantly make every riders position more aggressive.

but how else can a obtain the all important attack position?

wide bars are like soooooo 2010.. high bars are where it's at kids..

[img] [/img]

660mm USE Atoms

Tried wider, didn't work for me, and I have widths shoulders for my (average) height.

I had assumed that people reading my post would have the wherewithal to determine that 90 degrees was merely used as an example - a point I'm sure GW did actually grasp. To pick me up on it as though I'd quoted some sort of rule-of-thumb just seems like an attempt to subvert the conversation.

I wasn't talking about changes "instantly" (two can play at that game) making everyone ride faster. But I strongly believe wider bars can help a majority of people. Ref: Of everyone that's tried wider bars, very few have gone back to <700mm. Sure there will be the odd person with different body geometry/riding style/whatever, but from my own experiences and from what I've read on here, those people are the exception not the rule.

While individual posts within these bar width threads are a little bit irrelevant without context, it's interesting to note trends (in the traditional sense of the word). I suspect if we viewed the same thread from two years ago, the results would be very different. Some people want to try new things, and people can see from reading this that they won't be doing something completely stupid by buying 750mm bars.

780.

I had 700's on for a while until I rode a bike with 660s... Now I have cut my bars down. The only thing I have found is that, going back to wide bars feels weird. No need to do the hobble wobble going between trees anymore.

meh, 915...

http://superstar.tibolts.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=72&products_id=532

Just kidding but that would be insane. 😀

o96192083 - Member

meh, 915...

But don't worry, after you realise they're ridiculously wide you can cut them down to... Oh, only 750mm.

I can't help wonder how many people, perfectly happy with their bars, have read that wide bars are better, so bought new bars just because they thought they should... or because they thought it would improve their riding 😆
Yardsticks may well be "better" for me on my bike, but until I [i]need[/i] new bars, the current ones are staying on.