WGB 

I picked up a junked 1980's Supercycle with really small bars.

I mean really, really narrow width bars (see photos). They are 38cm and I normally have 40 or 42cm bars.

The frame is a 24.5 or 25 inch frame depending on how it's measured so it was meant for a larger person. I get that smaller bars might fit for a race situation on a track but in the real world do they work safely on streets? I'd think that they would mean a more twitchy ride.

Should I switch them for safety or ride with them and see how they work?

I mean reakll

Aubergine 

LesterOfPuppets

They look like track bars, and some crit bars were like that.

T-Mar

The philosophy on drop width has trended towards wider bars over the years. When I started out, 38-40cm was the most common and you were hard pressed to find anything over 42cm. Also, it was common practice to spec one common bar and stem size for all sizes of frames. This mass volume purchasing philosophy to pinch a few extra pennies was especially important on entry level models for private label brands like Supercycle. Finally, when we're talking low end product like steel bars, it was common for the manufacturers to use the same philosophy and offer only one size. Since many of these bars were sourced from Asia where the tooling had been established based on the smaller Asian physique, it was common for these bars to be 38-39cm.

prathmann

I don't see it as a safety issue since I can steer just as well with my hands in close to the stem as farther out. I'd give them a try and see how you personally either like or dislike them after riding with them for a bit.

zukahn1 

I don't like this style of bars and brake levers that came on most 70's and early 80's Japanese bikes you have a fairly narrow set of old style bars wider on the drops with fairly narrow top and safety levers. They are really intended to be road in drop position almost exclusively yet the safety levers don't brake good from the full drop position. I would say change them and the levers if you want to ride the tops or corners some. If your fine riding mostly the drop position I would suggest you change the levers to some nice classic drop levers with no safety turkey levers.

obrentharris 

What have you got to lose? Take 'em for a ride and decide for yourself. Wear some gloves and you don't even have to wrap them first. You'll get an education in the process.
Brent

cb400bill

Thread moved from Appraisals to regular C&V.

iab

Yes. They work fine on the "streets".

No. They are not twitchy.

Kilroy1988 

I'm 6'1" and regularly try to find narrow bars for my bikes. I prefer to be tight over the cockpit rather than having my arms spread out while I'm on the drops or over the hoods. I've never considered them unsafe or twitchy - the latter should only be affected by how far forward your controls are over the steer tube (i.e. stem length).

-Gregory

canklecat

One theory is that if the narrow drops don't suit your body, you'll find yourself flapping your elbows outward to compensate.

But that seems to depend on overall fit, not just the bar width. When my Ironman (original drops, 40 or 42 wide, depending on where you measure) had the original longer stem I tended to bow my elbows outward on longer rides as I got tired. After switching to a shorter stem that suited me better I was able to maintain a natural aero tuck more comfortably longer.

The narrowest bars I've seen recently are flat bars, no arc at all, 30-32 wide, on some pawn shop specials. Looks more cosmetic than functional, aping the trendy messenger bikes without actually being the sort of bike a messenger would actually want to ride. I'd bet the original owners got tired of that pretty quickly. Our streets aren't narrow enough or traffic crowded enough to give narrow bars any advantage.

WGB 

Thank you all!

I shall test them and see what we will see. If they don't fit well, the world is full of spares. Just never ridden anything with bars that narrow but then Thursday was the first time I ever wore cleats and now two days later i am married to them!!! The world is full of opportunities.

stanman13

I would try 'em. Don't wrap them and leave the cables a little long. Ride them around a bit. If you like them, trim the cables and wrap. If not, no harm done.

Spoonrobot 

What's the trail on that bike?

Bar width can correlate to trail but I'm not entirely convinced it makes a huge amount of difference, mostly preference for road riding I suspect.

Prowler 

jimmuller 

I don't think I would like that style but the overall width would be fine. I have 38's on some bikes. They feel narrow if I've been riding one of the others but it doesn't take long to get use to them.

big chainring 

Narrow bars. Yes 38cm bars were the norm for quite some time. I often say that back in the day... we were just a bunch of skinny kids who liked to ride bikes. 38cm seemed normal and thats what was available. It wasnt until 1984, when I was working at a bike shop, I ordered some Cinelli 40cm bars. Wow were those wide bars! Up thru the 70's you took what you could get. And 38cm was a good fit for most people.

Big Pond

The Golden Boy 

Most of the reason I prefer wider bars- I use Suntour Command Shifters- they mount inboard of the brake levers. With bars narrower than 40-41 at the hoods it's difficult to get the shifters to work with a handlebar bag.

I think most everything I'd ridden was 38-40 prior to ordering a set of 44 Nitto B177s. Since then, I've found that size to be most comfortable for me and works best for the Command Shifters.


IMG_2402 by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr




BTW- a lot of "normal" sized bars give me trouble with the bag and the shifters- even the widest B132 or the widest Compass bars are too narrow at the hoods for the shifters and bag. I'm using narrower bars on bikes that I don't use a front bag on and/or have bar ends (and the one DT shifter bike).

ryansu

+1

dddd

Not just the Japanese bikes, but French bikes and many others came with narrow bars.

I have an old Gitane Super Corsa in 60cm size with original Pivo Professional stem and bars that measure 8cm and 34cm (not a typo, and no, they aren't crash-damaged) respectively.

The bike rides fine with the original narrow bars, feels a little odd at first but still fine for spirited riding in the foothills.

The old stems often weren't made to resist much torque, so in lieu of any twisting (using the length of the bars as a lever), one just applies lateral force at the bars to counteract out-of-saddle pedaling forces so the lever becomes the vertical distance between the bottom bracket and the handlebar grip area in use. It's force times distance either way.

Wildwood 

6'1" and prefer 38s, but that's what I started on 38 or so years ago. Reasonable bike size range is 58cm up to 62cm.

Ride what's comfortable, but don't believe that you can't breathe adequately if the bars are narrower than your 'stand tall/military' shoulder width.

The primary reason handlebars got wider is to support all the electronic stuff 'needed' on a bicycle ride in the modern world.

edit: I do have wider bars on the tandem.

John E

Interesting thread. I have noticed variations in bar width over the years, but have not given the matter a great deal of thought.

1960 Capo Sieger -- deep-curve, narrow (35cm!), track-like bars with Ambrosio adjustable-reach stem.
1959 Capo Modell Campagnolo came with 36mm bars, which I subsequently replaced with 39s.
1982 Bianchi -- 39cm

skidder

38mm bars were also standard on the 1960s-early 1970s Schwinn Varsity and continental bicycles. I prefer a 44cm bar for general riding, but use a 46cm bar on a light touring bike that has only front panniers - the extra 2cm may seem inconsequential, but it seems to give me better control of the front end with the panniers on it.

Bandera

Basic boom era 10 speeds like that were ridden around the block a few times and put away in the garage or basement for the past few decades, the width of the bars or the material they were made of were as relevant as the color of the bar tape to their "performance": Not at all.

-Bandera