Are bigger carcas tyres gonna offer more grip? Surely they’ll just add more weight?

Will wider bars make it easier to get served, sorry, offer more control, surely I’m just gonna clip more trees and it’ll slow my steering?

+1 on the whole questioning the excessively wide bars thing, think I’m going to take a saw to mine..

Derek, I suspect you may find the bars of 20 years ago too wide 😉

Both of them depend on how and what you ride. If you ride aggresively then bigger tyres make sense. They offer more grip as you’ve got a bigger contact patch, especially when you run them at lower pressures, which you can get away with on a high volume tyre. I love big tyres and wouldn’t be without them.

I like wider bars, they offer more stability at speed and let you man-handle the bike easier. Wider bars and short stems also come into play when you ride a bike with a slack head angle as they are harder to steer with the same length stem and width bars than a bike with a tighter head angle.

So it really does depends how you ride. I ride quite aggressively and love big tyres and wide bars but the XC whippets hate them: I’m running 720mm bars and love them but the purely XC riders cut theirs down to a tiny (for me) 660mm!

I ride very aggressively sometimes I just start punching myself in the head to get pumped up for the climbs. You don’t want to know what I do before the descents!!

Are bigger carcas tyres gonna offer more grip? Surely they’ll just add more weight?

Too many variables… Ok fine if you’re comparing like with like (say a 2.35 High Roller with a 2.5 High Roller), but otherwise it’s too complicated. Tread patterns, carcass construction, rubber compounds all come into play and can be much more crucial than the tyres width when it comes to grip and rolling resistance. What you can guarantee with a big tyre though is you can run it at lower pressures than its narrower counterparts, before you pinch puncture or ding the rim, and this generally means they are more comfortable to ride on.

Will wider bars make it easier to get served, sorry, offer more control, surely I’m just gonna clip more trees and it’ll slow my steering?

Errr, yes/no/maybe. Bar width is quite a personal thing. Wider bars are in general perceived to create more control, but if you go too wide then well… It could be hard to steer at all! I think the individuals build and their should width is quite a contributing factor, personally I find bars around 710-720mm wide about ideal. Any wider and they feel too wide, narrower and I start to notice a loss in control.

How many trees you clip is down to where you ride though. If you only ride trail centres, you’d need 1500mm plus bars to clip trees, but I know natural trails where in places 2 trees are less than 700mm apart, and hence significantly narrower bars may be preferable to aid progress.

The reason for my question is I run 2.2 Bonty XR4’s and have recently been clipping trees on my Blur?
If I went to 2.35 XR4’s, would I corner better, therefore helping to avoid the trees?
Could it be that I’m running too long a stem or too small bars and that’s hampering my cornering, my Commencal’s Hardtail’s head angle is 69.3, don’t hit many trees but the Blur’s is 68.1. I’m using 70mm stems on both.
Please bear in mind that I ride much more aggressively on the Blur.

Bigger tyres = more awesomeness and more pain (both uphill and when you crash!)

Big, supple tyres: more comfort and grip for me but it can be more about the tread and rubber compound. Ask what everyone else round by your rides on.
Wide bars – I use the ones the bike came with.
As ever with all these things, Don’t Believe The Hype too much.

Proper wide bars

and a bit more info on why they might be good

http://www.freeborn.co.uk/blog/2010/02/20/big-bars-trend-or-truth/

Please bear in mind that I ride much more aggressively on the Blur.

GGRRRR !

Your stem is OK for a jeyboy but your bars are normally too narrow, wider bars add control at speed, lower bars can put more weight on front which helps grip and improves climbing. Lower and wider can give sameish effective stretch as your hands will be lower but nearer…

2.35 XR4s will slide about in the wet, its a about 2.2s for winter.

If your hitting your bars on trees simply steer more to avoid them.

bigger tyres are better because you can run them at lower pressures*, and soft tyres roll better over roots and rocks.

*for a given pressure, your weight will create a certain contact patch, as force = pressure x area. The bigger the tyre the more squish you have in reserve.
In other words; although you can run skinny tyres at low pressures, your rims will be closer to the ground, so you’ll be more likely to puncture.

wide bars? – try really narrow bars, try really wide bars, see what works best for you. this may be wider/narrower than you expect.

You don’t want your bars so wide that this happens:

“…both crashed in the same corner. Strange, they said, because they felt like they were in control. Upon review of the film, it turns out … they hit their handlebars on the ground!”

First ride: Specialized Butcher DH tires

the sik radness of the rider is usually stored inside the bars and tyres..
the more of this that your bike can store, the more gnarr you can shred..

simples

If you’re worried about clipping trees, buy some of these…

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Charge-Straw-Bike-Flat-Handlebars_32095.htm

440mm of alloy, can guarantee you’ll not clip many trees with them! You’ll probably not have much control either, but beside the point… 😉

As for tyres, 2.2″ Bontrager XR4’s are bloody big anyway, wouldn’t bother going bigger. I think you’re thinking about this in terms of “How can I spend some money to compensate for my lack of ability” whereas you should really be approaching this in the way of “how do I improve my technique” to stop clipping the trees…

mboy – I like you’re thinking, time for some technique lessons methinks. Altho it’s not that I want to spend money, I just don’t want to be in pain

It depends what you are riding on.

If you are riding on mud, skinnier tires with higher pressure cut through to the firmer grippier stuff underneath. If its also very rooty or rocky, you will need to make a compromise between higher pressure, to cut through the mud, and lower pressure to give you grip on the rocks and roots.

In the dry, wider tires can be run at lower pressures and will generally give more grip.

Bar width is personal preference, but generally shoulder width is about right, ie, start with your hands by your side, raise them out in front of you. If I do that it measures roughly 710mm.

If you fit wider bars, you will need to counteract it with a shorter stem, otherwise the steering will be slower.

This vid might be useful

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tuesday-Handlebars-How-Wide-Affects-Your-Ride-2011.html

I’ve got some very short xc carbon flat bonty bars which came with the bike (ST4) a few years ago along with a 2 bolt bonty stem. As I’m not the lightest rider I’ve always eyed them with a bit of suspicion, especially as my riding develops and I hit more aggressive (for me!) lines.

So I’m considering asking for new bars (easton haven maybe) and short stem for xmas. Will the reduction in reach from a short stem be offset to a degree by having a slight rise on the bars?

Double post

I think the reduction in reach from a short stem will be offset by having more width

They make you at least 2x more radical.

Run Ardent 2.25 about 20psi this time of year. Wide? Dont know but they suit my riding. I find a good wide good rolling tyre climbs better than narrow tyres. You get more traction. If you need your tyres to compensate for lack of fitness then try the thinner ones but they are more prone to puncture on rocky descents.

Well I’ve gone from Monkeylite SL’s (635mm) to EA70’s (685mm) to Bonty RL’s (720mm) and things feel much better with the Bonty 720’s. Much more stability and more confidence in corners.

I’m not saying I’m not still s#!t, just not as s#!t

Very noticeable difference in going from stock 680 -> 710 -> 780 on the DH bike.

Also went from 710 -> 740 on the xc/am/whatever bike.

According to (IIRC) Schwalbe, the bigger tyres rolled better given the same tread and weight. The thinking being they were able to deform over an obstical (think small stone, not a boulder field) and therefore maintained speed.
This is obviously going to be countered by heavier tyres, softer compunds and more agressive grip.
For the same type of tyre, I think you would get a samll cornering improvement in a larger one, but I don’t think the 2.2’s are small, and the edge grip is really going to be very similer if you’re cranking it over in a turn, so I’d save money and live it for the odd time it happens until the tyres wore out.

Wide bars have their uses 760mm+ is very nice DH but Clothesline City on a trail bike through the woods.

Wider tyres are a bit of skill compensator if you can hit a line through a six-inch gap with confidence & accuracy there’s no need for wide tyres.

I ran 2.35 XR4s (more like a 2.4) on my Trek Fuel, loads of stability on the rough stuff downhill and not too much drag along the road. I changed my wheels for Xts and they changed the tyre shape causing them to foul the frame. Dropped down to the 2.2 XR4 (more like a 2.3) and TBH I haven’t noticed a difference.

skills compensator? Really? What’s wide then? anything over 1.5 conti mud tyres?

Take a Maxxis tyre in 2.35 and 2.7 both will have almost exactly the same size side knobs and that’s what you’re cornering on. The 2.7 will have a slightly larger tyre footprint but the difference is nothing compared to the massively lower rolling resistance on a 2.35.

So why bother with big tyres at all? Thin tyres deflect easily. If you clip the edge of a rock it will send you off line but a wider tyre won’t do that so much. You also get much better straight line braking with a big tyre.

So if you can hit your lines spot on and you dont need to brake too much then a smaller tyre is for you. But if riding through narrow gaps at speed presents problems then fatter tyres are the way to go.