[Closed] How wide are your bars?

800mm Blackspire jobbies from CRC, I thought they'd be faaaar to wide after using Easton's EA70's for years, but I've kinda got used to them now and love the nice wide feel to them.

620 on my hardtail, which feels slightly narrow,
700 on full susser, which feels just right for me.

My main bike has Sunline V2's at 725mm.

It's on my Pha5e, tis lovely. 😀

750mm and have been for about three years now. I recently tried to go a little narrower, down to 730mm, but I missed the extra leverage that the wider bars give.

Personally I think everyone should ride what works for them but I do think a lot of people would find their riding improved considerably by switching to a 730mm+ bar.

745 v1 for the last 2 years swop back to 711 v1 and they just feel narrow,and resrictive strange what feels good 😀

710 + 730 on my bikes

27" on my mtbs and bmx

580mm flats currently on my main bike

Not sure on the others but a bit wider

I have 4 sets of 750mm Funn Full-On Triple butted in 25.4 standard. 2 sets are spare cos CRC were clearing them out; because they are gret bars; and because I want to stick to 25.4 for as long as I can.. I prefer the look... these bars are plenty wide, I have 47in chest..

710mm feels just right for me. I tried 765 but was too wide.

685mm monkelites CNT on both bikes - could probably go a bit wider, but dont want the hassle on narrow sections

680ish.

745 V1 - feel spot on on the full suss.

750mm on Areil, maybe still a little too wide for tight woodland singletrack but spot onm elsewhere, not sure what size I'm going to go for on the Anthem race bike 😕

_tom_ - Member
710mm feels just right for me. I tried 765 but was too wide.

slainte 🙂 rob

685 and 715

711 MTB. Moved from 680 and prefer the slightly wider feel. Could go wider 🙂

440 Road

685 on xc bike, looking at the start line at races i think that is pretty wide for a 'race' bike but it is my all purpose one. 710mm on singlespeed and bullitt for 'gurn/stood up leverage' and 'control' factors respectively. I think my shoulders are too narrow for there to me much point in me going much wider.

Whatever MBR tells me they should be

It's a combo of bars and stem length and physical size...

Wider bars bring you forward over the forks using same stem length, etc, etc...

Whatever fits is the ticket!! Might actually measure mine tonight 🙂

Not sure on the Inbred - some fairly old RF Deus that I cut a bit off - so probably about 640mm or so. I did have some Sunline V3's on there at 710mm, but they were a bit wide given that I use it a lot on the road to get miles in during the week.

The Stumpjumper has got some 710mm KCNC low risers on. Not sure if they are too wide for me or not. I keep thinking that they'd be better with a teeny bit off, but will give it a while longer to be indecisive.

685mm EA50s, I just trimmed to 655, much more flickable for twisty singletrack, should have done it years ago. May shave off a few more mm yet.

I wonder if there are different measurement methods going on here (some seem very high). Mine is for the bars without the grips, straight line centre of bar to opposite centre.

711mm Answer Protaper on the FS
685mm Monkeylite on the race HT
700mm Funn Full On on the street bike (cut down from 750mm)

680mm cut down from 720mm after I kept hitting trail side trees!
Typical case of reading magazine that said you must fit wider bars, spending the money, thinking it's great and then realising that I am an individual.
Got suckered into it, not thinking that most journo's are taller than me. Said journo probably feels obliged by way of free trips to fantastic launch locations provided by the importers of wide bars etc that have warehouses full to shift.

745 V1 - feel spot on on the full suss.

Same here 😀

Both bikes back down to 685mm. Tried wider bars (740mm) but felt detached from the front end and kept bashing trees.

16 feet and counting on my penny farthing.

780 on the enduro
760 on the chumba

I recently stuck some 'narrow' 710 bars on the sovereign I have just built up. It felt great through tight singletrack (not having to worry about catching the bars) but not as good everywhere else.

I'm going to chop a bit of the chumba bars to make them a bit more singletrack friendly.

710mm on my old Enduro XC bike
760mm on my Wolf Ridge

Minty.

740s at the moment, they were 780 but just felt too wide so I cut them down, this seems perfect.

I've gto some Sunline V1s which were at 745mm but on some of my local singletrack I kept holding people up because I got stuck between the trees. I've cut them down to 720mm and they feel perfect now. I'm only a small guy, though.

760 nukeproof warheads for me.

760 on the Pitch, good, unless the gap between the trees is a bit narrow!

685 on the SS, suits it better.

750 on the Spicy & Demo, 710 on the Soul. Was glad of the 710s last night, riding ticht singletrack through trees

600mm flat bars on all three of mine.

710mm flat Salsas on the hardtail
685 Easton risers on the full-sus.
660 Easton risers on the rgid SS
554 On One Midge bars on the 29er.

711mm and still getting used to them, clipped a few trees down labyrinth @ swinley
580 flat bar on my XC HT

720mm flat bar on my 29er, really like it but it does make things a bit dicey in the singletrack!

chopped down some Azonic World force bars from 762 to about 710. Ran them full width for a while but it was quite a step from the 660mm monkeylites I had before, plus I kept catching the ends on trees.

the hack has 560mm flats and barends, which feels very odd.

All my main bikes are on 711 now, seems just right for me. The XC bike is whatever length monkeylites are, 685 I think. I'm quite narrow shouldered so these seem pretty appropriate, not often wide enough to be a problem either.

I do have a set of Sunline 762s which are good fun but made me very aware of just how precise some of my line choices are and how close I get to trees- less than 25mm apparently, clonk.

Next time (as in, next week) when the next person starts this thread can you ask for the height of the rider in the reply or maybe arm length or shoulder width. bar width means nothing on its own.
I'm 5ft 8", originally XC bike-685mm. DH bike 710mm.

Now running one bike with 760 bars but grips set between 735 and 750 depending on what i'm riding. can't decide and don't want to cut the bars yet.

Sunline 745's on my bikes.
745mm on the DH and cut to 725mm on my Enduro.

I'm 6ft tall btw. (also tall, dark and handsome :D).

How about introducing a Bar Width Index (BWI?) - I propose: [b]BWI = (0.5 x Bar Width) / (elbow to that fleshy bit between thumb and index finger)[/b].

For me (0.5 x 660mm) / 300mm = 1.10

I think I would like to go a bit wider, though to around 690mm bars, i.e. 1.15.

I did not need to open this thread! Just had some carbon Easton Havens delivered but worried they are not wide enough (711). I am only 5 9 but am very broad. hmm

760, but i need to cut them down to 740 i think, the 760 bars make my forearms ache

One bar is 710mm, the other is 450mm; so, collectively, my bars are 1160mm. Weird question.

711 Easton Havens.

Just the right balance of "fashionably wide" and "I can still ride in woodland".

I think the BWI should be elbow to elbow with arms outstretched, with a multiplier for open yet rocky trails and a divider for twisty deciduous woodland trails...

745 v ones currently. Feel perfect and would never go back to narrow bars. Started off with 660's which I reluctantly changed to 710mm and wow what an improvement. Then I tried a mates v ones 745 and had to get some:)

Mine are 777s which I bought because they were cheap. I had intended to cut them down but I actually really like how they feel and have not, as yet, ridden into any trees. Well, not due to the width of the bars.
I am a 5'10" girlie (because I know women and men generally have different height proportions and I can't be bothered measuring how long my forearm is)

In rock climbing they talk about ape index which is you height divided by the span of your arms. That would be a good measure by which to judge your bar width.

just fitted some 750 havocs on my do-it-all bike. will give it a ride in a couple of months and see how i get on. Had 710s on there prior, and they felt great. I just fancied giving wider bars a go. I'll probably chop them down to about 730mm though.

Oh, and i'm 6'

Are wide bars 'in' at the moent?

I'm not a big guy (5'8") but have pretty wide shoulders for my height and chopping from 685 to 655 was a definite improvement for the local riding (forest, natural trails). The steering is faster to respond and more sensitive to shifts in balance than before (which was more like turning a big ship's wheel, slooooowwwww).

For switching direction on twisty trails and anticipating the best line through bends, it's much faster. More 'speedboat' less 'oil tanker'.

I've not seen a downside yet.

I'm tempted to chop further but first I need a longer stem now my hands are in front of me rather than off to the sides. And that's with only 15mm chopped off each end.

This is why I haven't gone wider than 711...

[img] [/img]

I am about to go from 685mm to 725mm, doesnt sound a lot but peopple are telling me it'll feel a lot wider at first. Cant wait to ride them and find out.

I use 800mm on my AM bike, took some getting used to but love them now

685 EA70's

Is anyone bothering to read how wide others bars are?

On my FS I have 711mm Easton's with a 65mm 10deg Rise stem, with a horizontal TT of 590mm, combined with a Joplin (roughly 20mm layback)

On my geared HT I have 685mm Eastons with a 90mm 0deg rise stem, with a horizontal TT of 580mm, combined with a layback Thomson post.

On my SS HT I have 660mm Race Face XC's with a 90mm 6deg rise stem, with a 585mm horizontal TT, combined with a RF post (10-15mm of layback)

All seem just about right to to fair, although if I want to XC up the FS for marathons etc it gets a set of 685mm Eastons on a 90mm 6deg rise stem and a Easton 10mm layback post, seems to climb quicker

Lot of wide bars here.
6'2" and 600mm wide.

As wide as the ones supplied ...

720mm on my Orange 5 and 711mm on the Blue Pig. Tried 760mm which I really liked, but found them a bit wide for my local woods.

660mm

Most of my riding is local forestry commission land, makes no sense for me to go wider as i reckon i'd start clipping trees.