Originally Posted by
Vintage Raleigh
Hi, the centre of the handlebars where it bulges to be clamped by the head stem is 22.2 in diameter. The bars are 360mm approx wide so want to find some bars around 400-420mm that will fit though the GB stem.
I'll recommend you just wait - go ride the bike for a few hundred miles first. A few years ago I drank the 'wider bars' Kool-aid and got 42cm bars for my Cannondale. Worked just fine. BUT I then bought my Raleigh Pro and the Nishiki Int'l which both had 36cm bars. I now really like the narrow bars. They are very comfortable and do not constrain my riding since I don't race nor seek max output. Now when I switch back to the wide bars it feels like I'm steering a wheelbarrow for a while - that feeling goes away but the wide bars are not better for me. I even think about swapping them out for narrows (too much trouble right now).
just an alternative......