Nate552

I miss it. The reduced frontal area, the lightness, the svelte lines, the smaller stem face..... I held out as long as I could, but alas, 31.8 has been shoved down our throats, possibly due to "the Italians lack of butting and swaggin technology in the 1990's." I used to hold onto my faith that 31.8 was just a fad, and took comfort in Morgan Nicol's words,

"For mountain bike it makes some sense and it looks good - going 25 kph. For road bikes it is a bad idea. For TT/triathlon bikes it is really ridiculous…. Oversized: Fatter, Heavier, Slower! (Good tag line, huh?). ......The teams know with good quality, triple butted alloy or carbon fiber bars there is no performance reason to choose oversized bars. There IS a penalty however when you add 20% more frontal area and 10% to the weight. This performance factor will grow and grow as more teams realize aerodynamics is more important for road stages than TT stages. Backstedt is 6'4”and weighs over 200lbs and is their cobbled classics specialist and he's going 26.0."

But it was not to be. Now, it's a challenge to find new, light bars in 26.0, so I gave up. I already have a 31.8 bar in my garage, ready for my next build.

darb85

k.

DinoShepherd

I felt the same way about 10-speed and BB30.

Resistance is futile...

- Z

brianappleby

Here it comes.

Carbon Unit

When I bought my bike it has 26.0 bars and stem on it, but the bars had a crack and didn't fit my hands anyone so I upgraded. I wanted a ergo shaped wing style bar and they were only available in 31.8. It has been on the bike for 5 years now and I am happy with it.

The same thing happened with 1" forks. They are still around but hard to find now.

pdxtex

me too but i fell in love with a deda zero stem so i bought a 26mm to 31.8 shim!! old trusty handle bars meet new stem hotness. 9 bucks. works great!

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...ls.php?id=7414

BentLink

It was even better before this whole "wheel" thing took over. Walking or riding a horse/camel was much more relaxing. And what about all this "pneumatic tire" stuff...clearly a mere fashion.

Luddites unite!

caloso

What??? You can still find plenty of good bars in 26.0. ITM, 3ttt, Ritchey.....

redtires

The absolute funniest thing about this post...............is that it's on the internet.

mrvile

I couldn't seem to find compact bars in 26.0 so I ended up making the switch to the 31.8 FSA Omega bar a while ago. I haven't noticed any functional difference between the two sizes.

vettracer

Well I just did a 30 second search on Universal Cycles and turned up 16 different 26.0 drop bars and 15 different 26.0 threadless stems. Doesn't seem to be a shortage of either.


Lawrence

Bob Dopolina 

I am in the opposite camp.

I find the 31.8 bars more comfortable on 4+ hour rides. I also like the flat tops that the newer carbon bars have.

Part of the reason to switch to 31.8 is that they look more proportional on all the new frames with larger dia tubing. There are also structural and manufacturing considerations that favour 31.8.

Basing any buying decision on what pros use is not always a good idea as you have no idea what motivated that decision. It could be personal preference, sponsor related or superstition. Ride what works for you and makes you want to ride more.

Me? 31.8 all the way, baby!

Nick Bain

I like both. the bigger the stiffer obviously and less chance of creaks since I am a sprinter. The smaller for touring.

MrTuner1970

While I'm certainly not an aerodynamic scientist, I seriously doubt you could measure any performance difference between 31.8 and 26.0 handlebars. There would be a theoretical difference, yes; but a practical one? I'd say it would be unmeasurable in a real ride. It's the human body that causes so much drag.

Nick Bain

what I really like is the ease of adjustment of the quill stem, perhaps I will start a thread on that to keep the spirit of "i was perfectly happy with" threads alive.

clink83

Whats funny is people making serious posts in a parody thread.

StanSeven

I'm used to the larger ones. I have an old bike with 26 I took on vacation and it wasn't comfortable- like grabbing on to a pencil.

^oZ

It is not.

canam73

It seems some of you don't realize that 26 or 31.8 only refers to the clamping area. It doesn't effect the thickness or shape where you hold them and doesn't make them more or less comfortable.

Bob Dopolina 

Many 31.8 bars continue that dimension where you do hold them (on the tops) or flatten out somewhat whereas the 26.0 or 26.4 bars do not. That does make them different.

canam73

I agree. I'm just saying the 26/31.8 is a clamp spec and nothing else.