Silly Wide Bars? Really?

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

785mm & 800mm here, I like the ride and accept the scratches in the holly-side hand. It is rideable on 800s (tho I accept it’s likely to end badly one day), and 800 fits through Clawhammer at Winterfold too.

when you say it fits… do you find yourself having to turn the bars as you go through to make it “fit”?

I have a mate with 650mm flat bars and he absolutely flies along Wolvern’s. it’s all the bars too, nothing to do with him being generally faster… 😳

No, my 800mm bars fitted straight through the Clawhammer tree with a little clearance, lined up centrally.

Do you know Pint Glass on Leith Hill? Theres a claw tree at the bottom of that too, the 800s went through without acrobatics but both ends scraped the tree simultaneously! I was lucky actually because I wasn’t really being careful, I will be next time.

On the Wolvern’s holly, at the tightest point, I lean a tad into the holly just to make sure the other end clears the fence post. It’s just for a moment.

I like my wide bars, the very occasional tight spot isn’t enough for me to cut them down. Overall I find them a big win.

I may perhaps trim my 800s down to 780mm, still faffing with other parts of fit on that bike .. so maybe not.

I run 710mm with 23degree sweep back… I’ll get my coat.

After using 745s for a winter on my HT I got some 750s for my FS. I rode around for a bit with the controls inboard and then when I was happy I cut the bars to 730… thinking I might trim them a bit further. And then a bit later I changed the stem from 80mm to 70mm and bought a reverb (no layback) – now 730 feels like just wide enough.

CRC: 800mm Warhead flats £25 if you can handle silver or yellow.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=55477

A cheapish way to try wide bars.

Just trimmed mine to 760mm and it instantly feels much better.

750s for all my riding here. I’m using the ODI Flight Control bars with the extender tips that were mentioned earlier and I’ve just left than at 750mm, sans extenders.

680mm -> 760mm -> 780mm for me and my broad shoulders/ape arms.

Thinking of going to 800mm next time…

Only 1 of my bikes has “normal” bars and the’re 720’s i think am tempted to go to 750. The others are 645 wide mary bars, made royce clough ineresting on the ridgid 29er.

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.

Get some bars with less bends in.

I have to admit I am going wider myself. Have just got a new set of 600s – I’ll keep them that length instead of cutting down to 580 like I did the last set.

I’ve still got my Answer Hyperlites and Ringle Zooka stem from back in 1994 as fitted to my Indian Fire Trail, all 490mm of cut down anodised blue aluminium and 130mm of anodised purple quill stem, i’m tempted to fit the bars/stem to my cove hummer with its current 711mm Easton Havoc bar and 75mm Easton Havoc stem for a laugh, shame the zooka stem is a quill as i imagine it’d be fun for all of 5 minutes before i realise that progress is actually beneficial in this case.

I keep going up to longer bars then back down, all of mine have ended up at 710-ish. The only one I feel like could use more is the rigid xc bike, weirdly.

Had 660 carbon USE Atoms on my hardtail just upgraded to a renthal fat bar that came at 780 and I got cut to 740 and feels about as wide as I want to go right now. Also droped from a 90 stem to a 60.

So what’s the difference between short stem and wide bars and long stem and short bars. I run between 685 and 780 depending on the bike so for me i think a lot is to do with the top tube length

You all must have hands dragging on the ground 😆

*strokes 580mm 85g bars

Pah 680 for me is wide, wouldn’t fit through the tree in my fave Singletrack if any wider! As wwaswas said above, our trails are nice and narrow. Along with this and the dropper post post, I think I may be stuck in my old school ways (and I’m on a SS 29er so what des that mean? Oh and my beard is rocking at the moment).

780mm bars on 29er short 45mm stem,like them no issues with trees at Gisburn, more of an issue on oversteering as I feel the bars accentuate every move usual bars are Easton 711 havens with a 55mm Easton stem

Still riding and thinking.
But where in Gisburn would you hit trees?

I can’t remember the names of the bits, but there are a couple of sections where I must have an inch or so clearance either side of the bars (710mm). I don’t head there that often, only if I am working over that way since it is over an hour from home (and being in the South West Lakes there is plenty closer to home to keep me occupied.

Gisburn isn’t a bad distraction when I make it though 😉

About 5 years ago I decided to try ‘wide’ bars so stuck at set of 685’s on… I thought they were the dogs and immediately got a set for the Soul.

The next bike I put 711’s on and bought, hey that’s even nicer. And out with a mate (from far off lands so he was on my ‘spare’) swapping between the two, 685 flt soooo cramped.

When I built the 29er I wanted flat bars and the only things I cold get hold of that weren’t skinny was a set 762’s. Now they flett ridiculously wide at first (esp on the limbs) and I was going to chop them down. But I got used to them. When I got the rocket I went Havoc 750’s. Reckon they are perfect (most of the time anyways, not so in amongst the trees…).

Ironically I had to chop my 685’s down to 673’s to fit in the bike locker at work. Felt really weird for the first couple of rides.

I’ve got 46’s on the road bike. The 42’s were way to thin. I am broad of beam though.

I’m running 780 and 785 on my bikes currently. Briefly flirted with a 800 flat bar on the FS but it felt awful. More to do with lack of rise than width though perhaps. 785 with an inch of rise and some back sweep is much better.
I ran 710 on both bikes previously and there was a tree gap at greno that I went through with those bars on that wouldn’t have been possible with current bars. However I only went through it after losing control dropping in to the bomb hole and swerving off line comically so don’t intend to repeat this. Maybe less likely to happen with wider bars as well?
Agree climbing with wide bars is not so nice but you have the option to hold the bars inboard of the controls for a bit.

760 on the fs at the mo. Not great for stanmer as there a few butt clenching tight ‘this better fit or I’m in a world of pain’ tree gaps. I don’t really want to cut them as being part monkey I think they are dead good. The 720 s on my ht just feel skinny now. I think I may go to 740 as a comprimise

feisty – Member
You all must have hands dragging on the ground

*strokes 580mm 85g bars

Pah – just been out and measured a set of mine – they’re 150mm and I could probably chop 10mm off each end as that’s how far in I have the bar ends 😉

I use 760mm as well, only one local singletrack section with a tree gap which I have to slow to a halt to get right, or risk losing fingers.

The other problem I’ve noticed is that trails centres, like Dalby locally, have chicane type constructions to slow riders down when crossing fire roads; they were clearly designed in the days before the current wide bar trend – some of them are very tight indeed.

I’m running 780 and 785 on my bikes currently. Briefly flirted with a 800 flat bar on the FS but it felt awful. More to do with lack of rise than width though perhaps.

I had a 750 flat bar, fitted it flat, hated it and sold it at a significant loss.

A few months later I got a flat bar on loan to try on another bike, this time I rolled it forwards slightly to give it a little rise – it’s bang on.

The moral is flat bars don’t have to be ridden flat.

Ironically I had to chop my 685’s down to 673’s to fit in the bike locker at work. Felt really weird for the first couple of rides.

Can you actually tell the difference between 6mm off each side? *raises eyebrows*

Have just gone from 560mm flats to a 685mm 20mm rise; feels much better. Don’t think I’ll go any wider, as (for various boring reasons) I can’t shorten my stem any.