Silly Wide Bars? Really?

Just perusing some wider bars for my 29er – having stupidly broad shoulders plus nearly having my 710mm bars torn from my grip by a rocky course last week got me thinking an upgrade was in order.

I was somewhat amazed and bewildered by how wide “wide” is now considered. 820mm were the ones that sparked my incredulity… I mean… really? Is there any need for something that wide?

FWIW they were lovely carbon jobs and if I was blessed with disposable income I would have had me a set, but £120 was way too much for my blood!

Anyway, what width would people suggest as a sensible one to go for. Back when I last bought bars my Pro-Tapers were considered monstrous at about 720mm IIRC!

different strokes for different folks innit!

I personally wouldn’t go as wide as 820mm as it would put me too far forward and would get in the way on loads of trail I like. What I do run though are 750s on the DH bike and 745s on the trail bike – works for me!

How about a yardstick?

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

I remember jumping on my mates bike which he’d just put 720mm bars on and thinking ” This is just nuts”. We now chuckle about his being possibly the narrowest bars amongs our happy little band, with the rest of us, now on anything from 740 to 780. Although for general offroad/ trail stuff even at 750mm, I’d not want to go wider.

760mm on my Pitch feels wide, 710 on my XC bike feels right. Probably wont cut the pitch down, but i dont think i’d want them any wider.

FWIW, I’m in the midst of a “discussion” about having to widen bridges as the handrails are now too close together for some of these wider bars.

Still, it’ll be fine when we’re all riding 29ers as the bar height will take them above the handrails 😉

Hmm I was thinking somewhere in the 740 – 750mm range so looks like I wasn’t too far out!

Happy at 745 here… think of it as the middle of the roadrad width.

Every bike sent for review in a magazine has to have the bars and stem swapped for something wider and shorter. It’s the law. The problem is that manufacturers are now specifying bikes with wide bars. So obviously there need to be stupidly wide bars for the journos to put on so that they can still show how much more rad they are than the average joe that the bike was designed for. It’s just the way the world has to be.

Went for a ride in the local woods with someone who had wide bars.

He was persitently slower as the trails have been deliberatly left narrow to stop horse riders using them and he couldn’t do a manual/x-up through all the gaps his bars wouldn;t fit through…

Have you tried riding with wide bars for any length of time?

The bars on my BFe (only mtb) are 785mm and I wouldn’t really want to go much shorter now. The bike feels nice and stable and I’m in a more forward, attacking position to keep my weight slightly front wheel biased.

Having wider bars has a similar effect to having a longer stem, both in terms of handling and effect on body position.

I’d happily have 780s on the Pitch if it weren’t for the tree gaps. 😥

The 720mm bars I have are about the right compromise for what I ride.

750 here with an Answer Pro Taper DH bar. It started out at 780 but it made the steering too slow and ponderous, I gradually moved my controls inward, settling at 750 for a while, I tried 740 but it made the steering too twitchy when riding down some rough descents, so I reckon 750 is my sweet spot 🙂 I’d recommend you try the moving in the controls idea, just still be mindful of tree gaps. Oh btw the only time I’ve hit a tree is somewhere at Cannock!

710mm is silly wide IMHO.

800mm carbon Havocs on my 29er. I love them 🙂

750mm (FS bike) and i’ve started clipping trees i’m missing on the 710 bars (HT bike)

may actually trim the wider ones down a bit.

I put 710mm bars on my old Spesh Enduro and the bike was transformed, I absolutely loved riding it after that.

Since then, the bars on my full sussers have gotten progressively wider. My AM bike has 760mm Nukeproofs, my XC bike has 750mm Havocs and both are at the outer edge of what I’d consider feasible. I do have to thread my bikes around trees sometimes…

The 710s (Easton Havens) are on my hardtail, which does commuting duties for me.

Mine are chopped down to about 550. Learnt to mtb in the early 90s with narrow bars and still love ’em.

740s here, but it’s local riding led, 800s kept clipping the trees

I run 780 Anser Pro Taper DH bars and love them – for what I ride, I can get through most stuff. I still have all of my knuckles too!

I like it to be honest and it feels about right and I doubt I’ll go back to a narrower bar but I won’t go any wider either. The same bars have been cut down on the BFe because they looked a bit silly…its an XS small frame.

Narrow tree gaps are a worry – I don’t have much margain for error when I pop to Gisburn as it is! Not had too many problems on the local Lakes natural stuff though

Put 740mm on my bike about 3 weeks ago, transformed the handling for me.

Defo clipped a tree 2nd ride with them too.

puncut Pro taper DHs here and yeah, gisburn is a challenge in a couple of places 😀

lol those dents in the tree trunks were you then 😉

It was gisburn that I had the front wheel grabbed by rocks that started this train of thought!

Got sucked in to the wide bar trend as I’ve quite broad shoulders and bought some Easton haven carbon bars at 711mm (not even that wide), tried them for two rides and put my 685mm bars back on. Didn’t enjoy the wider bars while climbing, they were slightly better on the the descents but as I seem to spend 3 times longer climbing than descending I decided to revert back.

Mildly expensive experiment, up for sale soon.

I have 760s on my BFe and am going for some 780 Renthals when I can for my Enduro Evo (old 750s at the moment)

Always used to be under 700mm, mostly around 680 as that’s what came fitted and what i was used too.

Times have moved on, the wide bar thing is viewed by most as “too wide but i can cut them to fit”
ODI have a bar that comes with extenders that screw into the bar end so you can fine tune width that way without cutting.

Tried some Spank 777, comfy but wide, full length hurt my shoulder’s they felt unnatural.
Trimmed down to about 720mm which for me is spot on. It did get amusing in the DH world when wide was in vogue, some very uncomfortable looking bikes 🙂 but most riders cut down to suit themselves.
Although it was mostly born of fashion and marketing, the bike industry has done a lot of us a great service by having easier to get (nowdays) bars that can be fine tuned.

I like them 🙂

I got 780s for France a couple of years back on the big bike. even for the wide open trails they felt too wide. through the mega steep tree filled trails there was a constant threat of clippage which worried me.
they are now at 740 and they feel good for DHing but too wide for anything natural and with trees.

on the XC bike I have good old 685mm Eastons which feel as perfect as they ever have done. one of the main trails I ride on (alongside Wolvers Lane on the way up to Leith Hill) has barbed wire on one side and holly bushes on the other for about 1/2 mile and even with 685s I’m scared of catching my hands.

I’ve got some of those cheap purple 725 Race Face Atlas bars on another bike which feel too wide, but I need the width as that bike has a Weeride baby seat on the cross bar 😀

and agree with rwc03, climbing is horrible on anything wider than 700 – I end up putting my hands right next to the stem with wide bars.

750mm Fatbar max here, as anything wider doesn’t go through the trees on some of the local trails. 660mm on xc ‘race’ hardtail

780 superstar for me, didnt even try one ride on my Stumpy that came with 720mm bars. I’m wide and 780 feels spot on for me.

One of the issues I found with narrower bars was that my brakes levers ended up mega close to the bend in the bar because I run my brakes a fair way in for one finger braking.

It’s not so bad now that I have Shimano brakes with their stubby lever blades but it was a pain with Hayes and their mega long blades.

I do genuinely prefer the wider bars, but my grips seem to wear out faster. The extra control on the descents makes up for everything else. I don’t think they feel odd climbing either.

From Orange Supercross bars at 685 to Chromag Fubar OSXs at 780 on my hardtail. Massive positive difference. I’m 6’4 so not perhaps the leap it is for some but I’m sold on the idea, whether it is a gimmick or not.

More room in the middle to go all ‘roadie’ when you’re slogging uphill on the tarmac as well.

Can’t get them through the gates on the towpath now though…

Brakes – I know exactly where you mean (is that still summer lightning?), the 711mm bars did just fit through but would not want to go much wider through there.

Just got some chromag fubars for my dh bike and 780mm feels huge compared to the 710mm I had before. Haven’t actually had a proper ride to try em out yet but I think I’ll probably settle at about 740mm based on past experience.

760 on my rigid SS, Buzzard and Alps bike, 720 on my C456. Tried 800 for a while on the Buzzard but I was too stretched out and couldn’t move around enough.

Brakes – I know where you mean on Wolvern’s Lane and have the bruised pinkies to prove it

I started on 710 Funn bars on my mmmBop. Swapped to the 780 Pro-Tapers fairly recently and much better. Problem is; I almost feel like I want them wider still. 😐

I’ve got 590mm on my Giant XTC, I just pulled the tape measure out to 800mm and that’s cowhorns!

My FS mega came with 760mm bars. Thought they were quite wide to start with. Love them now. Going back to my hartail which i already put wider bars on 710 i think just didn’t feel right. Bought the same 760 bars with the intension of chopping them down a little but feels good as is. So on that bike have gone from 660mm to 760mm with a shorter stem. I know it is the current fashion but i think it improves the handling greatly. And surprisingly the wider nukeproof bars feel stiffer.

i’ve got monkey arms & broad shoulders, haven’t tried wider than 685mm & prob won’t, can’t see the point myself if you are gonna start hitting trees an that. Saw someone riding the other night & they virtually had to ride with their chin on the stem because of the width of the bars they were running. The only upside is that unlike retro times when bars were stupidly narrow, you couldn’t go back to a sensible length, at least with wide bars you can just trim some length off to get you back to reality.

I’m 6’2″ with broad shoulders and I run a 750mm Havoc DH bar on my Cotic Soul. Feels just right.