BITD the conventional wisdom, bicycle urban myths and other BS lore said the professional riders used narrow bars so they could ride closer in the pack...
A lot of the classic riders of yon had slender physiques with narrow shoulders like Coppi:
In the 60's a lot of bikes came with 36cm or 38cm wide bars. 40cm bars were still common into the 1980's. My 1982 Trek 700 came with 40cm Cinelli 64 bars.
The Cinelli 64 bars were originally only available in 38cm and 40cm widths then later 42cm. Eventually 44cm Cinelli 64 bars became available (maybe 43cm too???).
The original Cinelli bars had the
"bastardo" 26.4mm center diameter. At some point they switched to the same 26mm diameter that 3TTT used.
From the late 70's until 2006, most of my riding was off road. I have wide shoulders and I used wide bars. When I got back into road bikes I realized how uncomfortable those narrow 38cm - 41cm bars on my bikes were.
After a little research, I put a set of 46cm Nitto 177 "Noodle" bars on one of my bikes. They felt like a set of bull horns on the hood of a Cadillac pimpmobile.
I've since switched all my bikes over to 42, 43, 44 or 45cm bars measured across the outsides of the tops, not the drops where most bar widths are spec'd.
Cinelli and 3TTT measure across the outsides of the drops. Nitto measures center to center across the drops. Don't know about SR Sakae Ringyo or ATAX/Philippe.
Some bars are flared out across the drops for wrist clearance when riding in the drops. Randonneur bars as well as lot of Nitto models are that way.
Nitto177Bars- From Rivendell
I have a bunch of Cinelli 64 bars but I also like the Nitto 176 bars. They're high quality Cinelli 64 knockoffs but with a standard 26mm center. The Cinelli 66 bars are like the 64's but have a deeper drop.
There was a great website that had a Cinelli time line of all of their classic products with specs and catalog pages. It disappeared into the ether.
I few years back while looking through the bat cave for some bars, out of frustration with inconsistent dimension specs, I measured and documented all the bars that I had including on some of my bikes.
I measured the widths across the outsides of the tops and drops plus the reach and drop. The results were: none were close to the advertised specs! The dimensions varied in the same model and marked bars from Cinelli and 3TTT. Nitto bars were closest to specs. A possible reason is that many of these bars were hand bent on bending fixtures.
I digress per usual....
Getting back to the OP's question about the perceived difference between 42cm and 44cm bars YES!
Recently I installed a set of Nitto B105 bars that I had. They were "42cm" bars with a 25.4mm center. I put them on a bike I picked up that came with 39cm SR bars. I didn't check before hand, but I figured the Nitto B105 bars were 42cm center to center at the drops so even with the flare that would give me at least 42cm at the tops. Wrong!
They ended up being about 41cm at the tops near the hoods were I ride.
After riding them several times and continuously feeling I wanted at least another inch of width I switched to some 45cm Nitto B115 bars and life was wonderful again!
BTW, I have a bunch of 38cm, 39cm and 40cm bars with 25.4mm, 26mm and 26.4mm centers that I want to clear out: Cinelli, 3TTT, Philippe and so on. I'll be listing them in the C&V Sales Forum when I get around to taking some pictures but in the mean time if there's something your are looking for, PM me.
verktyg
