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How wide are your bars?
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
As the title suggests, I'm curious as to how wide people are running their bars.
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Interesting you ask this because I've actually never measured mine (that sounds good
). 660mm on my main ride and 640mm on my old one. I should take my old one for a spin as I never noticed the new ones being wider.
Had to check too. 670mm on the dually and 630mm on the hardtail.
680 on the xc bike 720 on the dh rig
640mm
XC bike, small frame.
Do you reckon you'd notice a massive difference going from 650mm to 680mm wide?
Not real sure as mine are on two totally different bikes.
Are you changing anything else like the rise, angle etc.
When I put together the SS I used a new uncut set of bars, which were 685mm.. while my other bike had 640mm if I remember correctly.
I found the slight extra length useful for single speeding so left them on there for around a month, rode the Mont with them and then just got annoyed and trimmed them back to match the other bike (geometry and stem all basically the same). They had just felt odd and I kept clipping trees and never was happy with them. As soon as I trimmed them I was happy again, even with the slight loss of leverage for hill climbing.
690mm on the Anthem - way too wide for Scribblies but great everywhere else. 645mm on the hardtail.
XC dually narrow only 650mm flat
Hardtail 720mm 1.5 inch rise
DH bike 785mm 0.5 inch rise
DH bike 740mm
It came with 780mm bars and it felt like riding a boat so i cut them down.
You can always buy wide bars and gradually cut them down till they feel good. You cant go the other way!
On the Mach 4 I've got 660mm 1" rise bars. They feel perfect for the trail oriented nature that I've built this bike to.
My Glory8 came with 685mm bars, which felt ok, but lacked stability in the rough stuff & in the air - well, really when landing
I tried a mates 780mm, which felt too wide, and a pair of 730mm which still felt too narrow. I eventually settled on 745mm (Sunlines, on special), and they've felt absolutely perfect since I chucked them on!
790mm Syncros bars on my single speed. I bought them wide thinking I would cut them down and work out the perfect length. So far I have raced it a few times and still can't bring myself to cut, I like them.
trail = 660
am = 680
street = 710
DH = 745
I wanted to jump to 710s on my AM ... but I like my knuckles and I've broken both pinkie knuckles this year so bit weary of 'dem tree trunks. Not sure if its just me but 680 seems to be the right length for trail riding where I go?
I want to try some 760 to 780 on the DH at some stage ... but I hate cutting bars ... and don't want to buy any as a test and then hate it ... can't stand waste.
Hathill "690mm on the Anthem - way too wide for Scribblies but great everywhere else. 645mm on the hardtail."
got me worried now.
685 on the epic and 720 on the stumpy evo!
Finally got your Evo eh Todd? Gotta get a look at it sometime!
P.S. I'll be heading down to Syd on Monday for some DHing/FRing. Let me know if you're keen (c'mon! You know your Stumpy will love it!)
I should have it in my hands by mid week some time Gub, and i will absolutely be doing d/h with you guys, it should handle it no problems at all, cant wait!...i am nearly sick with anticipation just waiting!..grrrrr!
800mm Kore Torsions with Esi grips now adorn the 29er SS. Lovely.
Nice one JP, them esi's are awesome!..800, that is sooo wide, but you have big shoulders so no worries!
How is the handling with bars that wide on tight single track?
Be great for uphills on the SS however!
800 was a tad too wide so these bad boys are down to around 7 hungy now. Singletrack is tight but no problem.
Ahhh, the old power saw. Many a roller door and window security screen has succumbed to The Brown Hornet wielding the mighty Husqvarna "skeleton key" in a work related stylee.
The optimum length every one should run (I'll have my tape measure on the next group ride)
shall be......
( I need to file 0.2mm off mine now.)
apparently I need to add some length to my bar ... hmmmm if I had a dollar for every time I heard ...
Collected a sapling at Scribblies on Friday arvo and hit the deck hard. Then today coming down the oaks single track collected another sapling same size and hit the deck again, got some nice gouges in my leg from today's effort. Might get my bars down around that average length.
I think everyone has clipped bars there at sometime... I don't know how the wide bar people get around stuff like that.
I always found Oaks single track to be prime for pedal clipping... Todd had a killer one there one night.
was that with the 790s ??
BOT:
I've just jumped onto some 750s with 11degree backsweep. (as opposed to the more normal 8 to 9 ?? or flat 4 degree users)
Apparently this shortens the top tube a little ... I haven't noticed the diff yet but early days
Yeah that is with the 790's and well I also have some Ergon's with Bar ends built in so I was asking for trouble. The Ergon's seem to make the bars a whole lot wider again. The bars will get the chop tonight, I am going to take them down to 720 and loose the ergon's. I find I also don't have the same grip on the bars with them, I am finding them only suitable for long rides.
Bar ends + singletrack = dismount time. I did the oaks singletrack Wednesday arvo and no clippage for me. That's with 700's.
I took 40mm of each end of my bars, down to 710 now. Rode the lawson single track yesterday and felt more confident I was not going to collect a tree. I missed that little extra bit comming back up from the Terrace Falls creek though, still makes a noticable difference for single speed I would not want to go any narrower, climing hills suck with narrow bars if you can't sit down to take a break.
I single speed with the smaller bars, and there is a loss of leverage in climbing but I found it still worthwhile losing it to maintain the sort of nippiness of the bike which is part of the appeal of the single speed. Also I have a SS mate who climbs like a mountain goat with narrow bars... its just his fitness, so I figure I just need more fitness and less gut.
Like anything its that annoying tradeoff....
I am 6'5 and have wide shoulders so I need a reasonable width to start with, I can climb ok on narrow bars early in a ride but once I get tired like several hours at it in the saddle I start hating the narrow bars.
Your right it does come down to fitness's and it's a trade off between leverage, comfort and tree's, I will keep searching for the right balance.
It's funny though on my geared bikes I have run from 560 through to 690 bars and never thought to much about width, now that I am forced to stand up and pedal it's become a very important factor.
I'm 6'3, but the idea of single speeding for several hours is definately not something I do.... so I don't know what would happen then.. I guess the lowest SS gear... walking
One really needs a bike caddy.
I was on some 580s the other day ... felt like I was holding hands with a midget (not that theres anything wrong with that).