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How wide are your handlebars across ?

20K views 80 replies 60 participants last post by  NordieBoy 
#1 ·
After riding today I was thinking about cutting my handlebar shorter...I know another rider had thought I was already short...I'm curious how wide everyone's handlebars are measured from end to end straight across ?

Mine is 32"
 
#77 ·
6’-2” and fairly long arms, but found that 750 with 12-16° of back sweep equals no joint pain nor issues with our tight and twisty trails.

The only time I wanted wider bars was when doing long descent on trips out west when you live over the bars for minutes on end.

Anyone who needs 820mm bars to get the front wheel off the ground needs to hit the gym ;-)


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#5 ·
My bike came with 820mm bars, but I cut them down to 800mm for tree clearance. I’ve also demo’d a couple bikes with 780mm bars, and those also felt fine.

I tried the whole “get on the floor and do a push-up, then measure your push-up stance thing at some point, but as it turns out my natural push-up position was something like 880-900mm. And even if they bars of that size were made, I don’t think I’d run them (again tree clearance).

I will say, my buddies bike with 740mm bars feel narrow, and my old bike with 660mm bars feels... foreign at this point. I wouldn’t want to ride teither of those widths on my personal bike at this point.

If you have some grips that can slide past the end of the bar, you can simulate bar widths before you cut them down. Just move the lock on grips inboard to whatever width, and run it like that for a while. Just remember the end caps.
 
#18 ·
I'm 5'9 with average height/arm ratio.

I have 780s on the SS, 800's on my new trail bike. I'm pretty happy with anything 750-800.

Edit: I grew up racing motocross, as a 14 y/o on a YZ125, you simply rode what came on the bike, even if I looked something like Dirtjunkie's above pic. I now live in the desert where there are no trees so that's not a concern, would honestly probably not have 800's if I lived in he eastern US forest.
 
#19 ·
These bars are 810 plus about 10-13mm more on each side for the Revelate plugs (for the other set of pogies I have). I'm 5' 10.75". The trees are 750mm apart.

We have lots and lots of stuff like this. You just turn your bars and keep riding.

My other 3 handlebars are fairly normal, 780mm.



I think one thing that's often lost on people is how much more control and ability to ride through stuff without it kicking your front wheel off-line or sideways when you pair a modern-size handlebar with a modern-size stem. When your wheel does that thing where it instantly goes 30 degrees or more to one side, you often endo, especially at slower speed where you don't have the straight-line momentum.
 
#79 · (Edited)
These bars are 810 plus about 10-13mm more on each side for the Revelate plugs (for the other set of pogies I have). I'm 5' 10.75". The trees are 750mm apart.

We have lots and lots of stuff like this. You just turn your bars and keep riding.

My other 3 handlebars are fairly normal, 780mm.



I think one thing that's often lost on people is how much more control and ability to ride through stuff without it kicking your front wheel off-line or sideways when you pair a modern-size handlebar with a modern-size stem. When your wheel does that thing where it instantly goes 30 degrees or more to one side, you often endo, especially at slower speed where you don't have the straight-line momentum.
Nice. I call it "swimming". Kinda like a front crawl motion. I ride tightly treed trails more often than not and regularly resort to that same move. I'm in Fernie BC on a biking vaycay as I type. Trees can get pretty tight/dense here.

800 bar/50mm or less stem on every bike I own. My daughter runs 800 now as well, after giving it a shot on her new bike which came with an 800 bar.

100% agree with the control/leverage point. I cut an 800 bar on a 2015 bike with the intention of addressing a shoulder injury. Lesson learned. The bike handled much less controlled in the rough stuff at speed. Happy to have sold that bar with the bike.

This is likely the 10th thread on this issue, in very recent times. My takeaway? It's a personal preference that few are soon to change based on anything posted here. And somewhat surprisingly, some can get rather passionate in defending their bar width :unsure:
 
#21 ·
Yeah, low speed close trees like the "needle" above, aren't really a problem. As you mentioned, you can just turn the bars and slide on through (within reason of course).

I'm more worried about bar strikes when going downhill at speed, just because that usually doesn't end well. Where I live there aren't tons of tight trails though (especially the climbs), so I'm not overly worried about it (obviously, with my 800mm bars). But my actual local trail system has a few trails with trees close on the downhill portion, enough that I tapped them a few times (actually popped the end cap out once) at 820mm. So that was what prompted the trim to 800mm.

And, I also grew up riding dirt bikes, that may have something to do with my preferences. Narrow ~550mm bars just feel bizzare to me. I feel like I have far less control.

But like others, I'm comfortable in a range. Once I get outside of that range, I start to notice it though.
 
#27 ·
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to DIRTJUNKIE again.
As always, a good catch!

OP, I run 800mm 6° up, 9° back for the pleasure of a trialsy bar that works for a bloke that can pass a hooter across the room without an extend-a-roach or leaving the recliner.
 
#28 ·
One of the keys too is that you MUST place the edge of your hands at the edge of your bars. If you are not doing this, then cut them, but don't run your grips inward or place your hands inward of the edge, because if you do, you will tag **** while riding. Your brain calculates (more like roughly estimates) where your hands are and keeps them from hitting anything, but it doesn't take into account something that extends past your hands.
 
#31 ·
So much this. I've seen so many pics of people riding with their hands on the middle of the grips. I've even seen riders gripping the inner portion of the grips. I used to ride with my hands in the middle of the grip. Then a friend mentioned to grab the end of the grip. It actually does feel better and I'm using the entire width of the bar. That's why I never use grips with lock on rings on the end of the grip. It doesn't make sense to go with a wider bar and not use the entire width. It's like getting a 780 bar...and using 740 of it.

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