Originally Posted by Maelstrom
My min is 66cm. Thats on my xc bike. Likely the size of my back/chest but anything smaller is too noodly and I can't breathe.
66cm is pretty darn big, for a back/chest. I'm no small guy (6'2"/1.88m 225 lbs/102 kilos, not completely soft, but i have a belly) and my shoulder bones (from the back, the pointy parts right above the socket) are right at 46cm. If you go the outsides of my shoulders, that adds another 5 or so cm on either side, making me ~56cm across. An extra 10 cm (4 in for us bass ackwards Americans) would make you a barrel-chested SOB. I can see why you'd like your bars wide, and drop bars that big would look ridiculous.