In 2008 i swapped out a set of 670 for 780 bars on my 07 Mongoose and loved them. The only problem was that we kept trashing the door frames when wheeling it into the house. Cut them to 750 and that made it just narrow enough to not be a problem. Both the wife and I are currently running 750-60 (hers are wider as I got her old ones) and now I have a garage again I’m saving to swap to 800mm wide bars as I prefer the width, she’s significantly narrower so is keeping hers.

It’s all about what suits you and your style, my Orange Alpine is my do it all bike and rides better with wider bars – for me. My little bro still prefers narrower bars 690-710) and they’ve never slowed him down. But that might just be cos he’s a grumpy cheapskate and hates new things.

Tom KP

kerley – Member
I am an XC type rider and always have been (mainly because where I live is totally unchallenging technically). I tried 685 for a month and and now back to 620.

The extra width almost feels like it slows me down with a wider stance. If I rode other styles I would no doubt see the benefit.

oliverracing – Member
yep, I’m also an xc rider, tried and hated wide bars (700mm) and have now gone back to my trusty 640mm with bar ends!

I was always moving my hands inwards while riding with the 700 bars, while also feeling less confident on techy climbs.

What wheel size out of interest?
I had 685 on my old 26″ wheel anthem, nice carbon MT Zoom bar. So when I got my 29er I took the stock 720 bar off it to save weight with the MT Zoom. Christ it felt ridiculous trying to steer the big wagon wheel where you wanted it to go.

So naturally I didn’t put the 720 back on, I bought a 740 flat bar to go wider again and go a little lower.

I think its just what you are used to and what feels right from person to person but the only trouble i have with wide bars is the gridding and having room to fit them in alongside the other riders!

Isn’t it about time the bike industry responded to this sort of issue so we can switch bar lengths to what trail we are riding that day.

Surely a pair of Reverbs sticking out the stem so you can carry out on the fly adjustment would be best?

You could even have different width on each side at will so your outside arm has a longer bar to turn than your inside one when cornering?

What wheel size out of interest?

Aah yes.. I’d forgotten about this. My first 29er seems to need a much wider bar than I would have used on a 26er, due to having to turn this huge wheel.

The Patriot is 26 of course, which may explain things a bit.

I’ve got a few different widths on my bike.

700mm on the XC bike, only a smidgen wider than ‘normal’ raiser bars, feels more in controll, but sometimes miss the really narrow flat bars.

760mm bars on the Pitch when I had it, great, but some issues with tree clearance, best left for more open tracks.

800mm bars on the Fatty, feel great for tha bike, just recieved a set of 777mm bars so will swap them over, not sure I’ll miss the width and might swap them again and try some normal bars.

It’s good for controll, especialy getting it back under control after a slide or holding a line over rocks/roots, but I’m not convinced it’s a particularly good ergonomic soutuon.

Arent you sUpposed to be tall and broad to use wider bars?

I always ride with my elbows bent. No idea if its the best technique but if I was 5ft6 I wouldnt feel comfortable on 800’s.

I dont anyway but I do on 750’s. Im 6ft2

It’s good for controll, especialy getting it back under control after a slide or holding a line over rocks/roots

Interesting. Smaller wheels would make this easier, as would 180mm of travel I guess, thus reducing the need for width..

600’s on my26″!

Always chopped them down as kids and have never grown out of it I guess!

I dunno, I think the leverage argument is basically wrong, you don’t need massive power or leverage to steer a bike or keep it on line, not even a motorbike weighing 10 times as much. But there’s a bunch of effects of long bars… I reckon for me it’s mostly body position, it puts me into a good wide, open body position by default. I can do it on narrow bars but it’s not the natural position. And there’s obviously various effects on steering etc but they’re complicated and interlinked

Doesn’t really matter tbh, I don’t think you have to be able to explain the reasons for liking or not liking it.

what is ‘wide’ these days though ?

I went from 660’s to 711’s a few years ago and thought they were pretty wide, but now 711’s seem t be regarded as narrow !

I have 730’s on new FS and they feel fine, although I’ve had a few tree knocks on narrow forest singletrack – only ridden it half a dozen times so far tho…

Started off on the usual 600’s but then and went and got a 800, found I had much more control but did think they were a tad too wide.

On the next bike (HT) put some 785’s which I think could do with a very slight trim tbh but cannot be arsed.

On the new FS the 785’s seem perfect.

Most of the guys I ride with find them too wide. But then they also have 70mm and 90mm stems so horses for courses and the type of riding you prefer.

Another one who can’t stand what is now considered wide bars. 685 is the widest I’ve gone without hating the feel of it.

I remember trying c780 and couldn’t stand it- you feel like a trapeze artist. Yes you are ‘balancing’/less likely to wash out/lose the front? (thats a guess) but what about movement and manoeuvring?

I’m not sure you are less likely to wash out. I noticed on 760 that I was having to move my hands a long way to get the bike to turn. Didn’t seem to make for quick responses to situations.

I have put them back on the 70mm stem now, feels odd in the garage, I’ll see if I can get to Cwmcarn at the weekend see how it performs.

The main reason for experimenting was a a sort of twitchy vagueness on certain corners at Cwmcarn, when I had my weight far back to get the front around the hairpins. I think I may be prepared to live with that though, it was pretty minor compared to the worse riding position. I do think though that I should have got wide risers instead of flats.

had 720 on my bike for ages, didnt feel right, went to 760 and they felt great. i bought some new bars at 780 with the intention to cut them down to 760, but a year on still havent. i love the control i have with the wider bar, but i love techie riding and the small bars dont cut it with me. i have wide shoulders (so ive been told 😉 )

XC 29er rider here on 620 mm bars and even they feel wide at times.

I’m with Ton that generally bars should be a bit wider than shoulders.

Ok so wide bar users – those who started normal and went wide – what wheel size?

The main reason for experimenting was a a sort of twitchy vagueness on certain corners at Cwmcarn, when I had my weight far back to get the front around the hairpins

you don’t need wide handle bars for this, you need to be low, be prepared to let the bike lean into the corner, steer with your hips, and look where you want to go, not at the corner.

I recently gone from 720 to 740 and quite surprised at the difference. More stability and better control when in the ‘attack position’

670 felt too narrow. 711 felt right (bearing in mind the tight tree gaps on our trails) on my Soul. So I put the same on my Spitfire but they felt too narrow – I suspect that is down to the trail (combination of head angle and wheel size) being quite a bit larger so it takes more force to initiate a turn. It now has 750 bars and they actually fit through the tree gaps better because I seem to have more control to flick them sideways.

If my local trails were much more open and fast and rough then I suspect I’d go 50mm wider still – as it is my hands overlap the outside lock-on collars. My armspan is longer than most though.

If you turn the bars rather than leaning the bike to corner then I can see why you’d prefer narrower bars.

29er +100mm travel – 700mm
26″ +160m travel – 760mm
Fat bike – 800mm but not settled on that yet.

More gnar = more bar

I have 780’s on mine with a high rise and a 35mm stem (26″ wheeled S-Works Enduro). I have ODI grips with a raised flange and hook my thumbs over them and ride with my palms pressed onto the end caps when climbing sometimes.

What suits me, probably wouldn’t suit many others though. Going back to 685’s on my HT feels far too narrow now.

you don’t need wide handle bars for this, you need to be low, be prepared to let the bike lean into the corner, steer with your hips, and look where you want to go, not at the corner.

Yes I know all that. You cannot however lean into a hairpin 🙂

Can someone please give me a tutorial in leaning their bike round a tight, slow hairpin? I’ll bring my video camera 😉

*edit – too slow

I’ve gone 760 with 45/50 mm stem on a 26er and a 650. I ride 44cm/80mm on my cx.

I did try 760 on my old 70mm stem on the 26er and it was horrible, twitchy nonsense. I went back to 711’s at that point (had just fitted expensive stem and not prepared to change)

Eventually I had a light bulb moment and shortened the stem as well as fitting the wider bars. This is awesome. Position feels great, loads more control and confidence. Going back to narrow 680 monkey bars (the old wide) feels dreadfully cramped, and an old 400 flatbar (orange hotrod) feels terrible. Like someone put my shoulders in a vice.

Pretty sure I agree with Northwind that the leverage argument is bollocks. I’d guess it’s tied up in effective top tube – part of the ‘reach’ measurement Keith Bontrager was advocating as a saner replacement for seat tube length when discussing frame sizes. As to the whole shoulder width thing, I’m counting that in with Kops and all the traditional ‘rules’ about bike size that don’t really work with modern MTB geometry, personally. I’m aware this is grounds for jihad in some quarters… 🙂

You cannot however lean into a hairpin

you don’t, but your bike should.

26 inch, 120 full suss, started with 640 on a 70 stem, crept up to 680, then 720 now on 760 (we have far too many spare bars in shed) Jumped from 640s straight to the 720s and hated it (the 720s were riser bars and I prefer flat ones which didn’t help) Stem is now 60 and a perfect set up for me. I’m 5ft 8 but would say narrow shouldered but I love the 760s up and down 😀

Now the XC 29er on the other hand… came with 710s and a 90mm stem. Swapped straight out to 70 stem with the 710 bars but these had a weird sweep which I hated. Wacked on some spare 750 flat bars thinking I would like them after riding with 760s on my other bike NO NO NO felt awful, waaayyy to wide. Now on 720s with a slight rise (one of the old bars from the full suss experiment) and swapped to a 50mm stem (mainly as the bike is a smidge to long in the top tube, couldn’t size down though as I have long legs – seatpost is on min insertions) feels perfect for me.

Other half swears he won’t go narrower than 800s on his Camber 29er evo, he’s broad and 6ft 2. Got some right funny looks when he entered the taster race at a local XC and he got wedged in the trees… 🙄

I think I’ll just leave these videos here for analysis since the topic has shifted to cornering technique.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOlVJv7jAHg[/video]
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vnw0HuQ9cE[/video]

you don’t, but your bike should.

Other way round when I do it. Lean myself back over the rear wheel and to the inside, then turn the bars a lot and yank the front around, pivoting on the rear wheel.

Not seeing any hairpins in those vids btw 🙂

Cut a seemingly trifling 1cm off each end and it seems much better. Also back to the 70mm stem too. I’d be out trying it out if the wether wasn’t so crappy 🙂

Anyone not get on with wide bars?

Me, I got fed up of almost impaling myself on tight stuff so I put a set of narrow drops on my fatbike, and riding it around the place I was delighted with how much better it felt.

And publicly proclaimed that.

But then I rode it on some tricky technical stuff…

Mine are 750 and they’re about shoulder width, and that’s pretty comfy for me. I’d still keep hitting trees if they were 12″ wide so I don’t really care about that.

That second video is brilliant. How much fun are they having? And how can anyone ride round corners at that speed. Awe inspiring 🙂

780s for me, flatish (Spank Oozy) on the 29er, riser on the new 650b. I went back to 750s on the 29er and hated it. That’s why they are now on NW gnar commuter! Shape is important too I think. But being gibbon shaped, wide bars work for me with 50mm ish stems.

Yeah, can’t help thinking I could easily go wider with more sweep. El Guapo Ancho aren’t that swept which seems to make it harder.

In the same vein as the other vids….G2F at Schladming.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPCBud4AFcI[/video]

Apart from the tyre scrabbling for grip sound, you couldn’t fail to hear those Hope hubs!!!

Answers on a postcard- fitted new 750mmbars to a new frame and the bars feel like they could do with being abit wider. Why?!

Prev I was used to 740mm.

Clue is in the poster’s name.

Thank you for your input. #oxygenthief

Have the new bars got more sweep hora? Are they the same rise?

I loved the Hope video, I’ve now realised that banging soundtracks ruin videos.