I’m riding a rigid singlespeed and loving it. Seemed to fit like a glove, the only issue was I was using a Halfords £5 sales bin handlebar as a stop gap, 680mm and quite clearly too narrow for my preference.

So I went for a big upgrade to a 800mm OneUp carbon bar, feels lovely with the rigid fork. I’ve done about 200 miles on it, still not worked out how much to cut it down as I seem to be in the habit of resting my palms on the end caps anyway, probably from riding a narrower bar for a while. The extra width seems to really help my shoulders as it reduces the leverage against pedalling a singlespeed, but I’m sure the sweet spot is less than 800mm.

However, the rather extreme recommendation to reduce stem length by 10mm for every 20mm increase in width? That would have taken my 70mm/680mm setup to 10mm/800mm! Clearly impractical so went down 10mm to a 60mm stem, had to buy a stem anyway as its my first 35mm diameter handlebar.

So, 60mm feels too short, I’m too upright/over the bar it feels. Seeing as the above recommendation clearly hasn’t worked for me…if I cut my bar down to say 750mm, thats also going to lean towards increasing the stem back to a 70mm I suspect?

Any thoughts on my ramblings appreciated 🙂

Missing dimensions: you, the bike’s

Despite what people tell you, there’s no magic number. It’s just whatever feels comfortable to you.
800mm bars with a 70mm stem sounds quite strange to me, but if you like the feel then it clearly works 🙂

Doesn’t feel quite right and I hoping that will be better once they are cut down to something that fits through your average gate…not planning on leaving them at 800mm 🙂 Maybe I’ll conservatively cut them down tho 760mm and see if I’m still unhappy with a 60mm stem.

nickc – medium Shand Bahookie and I’m a shade over 5’10″/177cm

OK, The Shands quite conservative right? I’d probs be thinking 720-740mm width bar with a 60-70mm stem, I’m about the same height as you, and I think that’s where I’d start…But as johnw1984 points out, there’s no right or wrong here, go with what feels comfy.

I think your thoughts on 760mm sounds about right, you can always cut more off, you can’t add it back on. Also jealous of the bike, always thought they looked a pretty nice thing to ride.

If the tracking feels OK on the 60mm stem why not adjust the saddle rails back to account for your ‘missing’ 10mm and try how that feels?

I’m still in experimenting stage with a rigid 29er ie switchimg a layback seatpost for an inline one, and back, a 110mm stem with wide swept loop bars, 90mm stem with narrow flat bars, bar ends, saddle fore vs aft. Sometimes it depends what mood I’m in! ie relaxed vs racey. twisty trail vs long gravel hauls

Sweet spots might stay sweet, or they may not. As stated above, just whatever feels comfortable. IME it’s worth having a spares box with a few old stems of differing lengths. Measure twice, think thrice – before cutting yr nice carbon bars! I get the sweats taking a hacksaw to £25 bars!

Thanks Nick, good to hear 🙂

Its a lovely ride, randomly bumped into someone riding another one yesterday, I’ve had it 8 months and its the first time I’ve seen another one, anywhere.

Going to slide those grips in and one more ride and then give them the chop later perhaps…

In the style of say what you use…

110mm -8 degrees with 747mm bars.

Feels a damn sight more stable on fast downhill sweepers than the 35mm I bought at the same time.

On tarmac. 😮

Interesting to see that ignoring the rule completely works for some people 🙂

Malvern rider, my saddle is already as far back it goes on my inline seatpost. It felt great before messing with the bars so hopefully I won’t have to spent more £££ on a layback post, although I could swap one off another bike to give it a try. Could be a really good idea actually as I just removed a link and rotated the eccentric BB from a fully forward position to almost fully rearward position so BB centre has moved back between 10-15mm.

It came with some swept back bars but I never really felt comfortable with them (but they swept forwards first to avoid having to run a longer stem so reach remains roughly the same with a normal bar)

If you widen the bar then you are ‘effectively’ reducing the stem length, as your hands are coming back towards you (due to the backsweep). That’s not the same as needing to fit a shorter stem, as then you’ll have a double whammy.

I’d say, try a 700-720mm cheap bar first, before you start hacking the OneUp carbon bar down.

Just been reading “Dialed” by Lee McCormack. He reckons a start point is to multiply your height in cm by 4.40. The ideal width should be anywhere up to 5% less than that.

He also recommends just setting up your bars inboard a bit to see how it feels.

Thanks Stevious. 177*4.4=778mm

I think I’m going to move my grips inboard again (I’ve been moving them in and out) and bung a layback post on there due to me rotating my BB back, and go from there.

Thanks everyone, wasn’t sure it was worth posting, but it has 🙂

although I could swap one off another bike to give it a try.

Almost genius 😉

Genius if I can find one that isn’t bent!

I think my stem length journey has been roughly thus:

680mm bars / 100mm stem
680 / 60
710 / 50
740 / 50
750 / 35
740 / 50
760 / 50
800 / 50
810 / 50
770 / 50

Much longer than 50mm feels too indirect, like a tiller rather than a steering wheel. Much shorter feels too quick and nervy.

Don’t worry too much about what the internet tells you (yes, I’m being ironic, but only casually)… If you like your 800mm bars, then I really wouldn’t cut them down because you feel like you should. Could be an expensive mistake!

I was firmly in the “nobody needs a bar that wide” camp having spent 10 years progressing from 680’s to 720’s, and here I am now running 780’s on an XC bike and finding I want more!

Thanks for the additional comments. As an aside…this is the first set of brakes I’ve had where the clamp does not clamp evenly… It didn’t bother me on alloy but when I nip these up (just enough to only move the brakes with firm pressure) it feels like I might as well crush the bar between some mole grips!

Completely normal I guess… Shimano brakes, the upper black clamp fits snugly, the bottom clamp is a larger diameter! The XT cassette that came on the bike has PROTOTYPE stamped on the back of it so just makes me wonder if there is any funny business going on!

I’m 5’10”, and generally considered to have fairly wide shoulders.
I use 720 risers on my ebike and 740 on my rigid surly Both with 40mm stems, although I’ve used both with 60mm and 80mm, all felt ok to me.
It’s personal preference.
However as someone has already mentioned, you can always take more off, but you can’t put it back on.
I would add to that, ‘measure twice, cut once’
Modern bars are insanely wide compared to the bars we used on early mtbs in the late 80s, they had 150mm stems (!) but they still worked for the riding we did then.