What's the Widest Drop Bars You've Used?
 

... and why were you using wide drop bars? My shoulder-width is measured at 43cm. The width of my Saluki's Nitto noodle bar is 44cm, and they feel about right on club rides at moderate speeds.

I'm wondering if a happy compromise for a winter bike can be found with as wide of drop bars as possible, to give as much space between the hands for possibly better steering and quicker response on paved sidewalks in Michigan winters. The happy compromise could also make the winter bike useful in the summer time in areas I woudn't want to ride the Saluki. I can see where having a backup bike with drop bars would be handy.

Nitto noodles come in 41, 44, 46, and 48cm widths. Would getting a 48cm wide drop bar give me quicker and more stable steering on winter sidewalks ... than a 44cm wide drop bar?

What would be the drawbacks of having overly-wide drop bars?

For me, 44 Noodles are it. 46's made my pinkie fingers go numb. And, I think the handling is a bit better with the 44's. The 46's felt so wide that my bike was nervous...but quicker steering might be what you're after.

I rode 46's for almost a year, and 44's for two years, so my observations aren't snap decisions.

EDIT: Climbing was better with the 46's, since they gave me more leverage out of the saddle.

Use the ones that came on the bikes.

On the MTB- about 6 years ago I changed to riser bars . Flats are normally around 24" and these riser bars were 27". Felt wierd at first but now whenever I jump on the Kona with flats- They are very twitchy.

The bike I'm working with is a Trek 730. I took a tip down memory lane when I looked at the 1995-receipt. List price was $450, but I got it on sale for $410. You can barely get a frame, fork, and handlebars for that much money these days.

The handlebars that came with the 730 is a flat bar, 23" long, with shifters built into the handlebar grips. Each grip has a 5" length of space for each hand. Actually, I like this handlebar for rides less than 10 miles, because it is wide and very responsive. But my wrists start to get a bit sore if riding more than 10 miles.

Because I'm taking all the components off the 730, to rustproof and paint the frame, I was wanting to replace the handlebars with today's technology. I'm still trying to figure a good bar, with the Trek 730 to be primarily a winter bike ... and for off-road riding in the summer. I hope this makes it more clear of what I'm trying to figure out, as far as replacement [winter] handlebars. I'm still trying to make it clear to myself on what kind of handlebar I'm looking for.

The widest I've used is 44cm but my bursitis flares up when I go that wide. I'm at 42 cm right now and comfortable.

Almost forgot to mention, that the handlebars I'm trying to figure out as a winter setup, needs to accommodate bar end shifters.

46mm Nitto Noodles are great for me. That is wider than would be suggested for my narrowish shoulders, but I like the way they feel.

Stapfam, that's interesting about the wide MTB bars you use. Most of the singletrack riding in my area is tight, twisty stuff, weaving between trees. Most riders cut their bars down to 21" to avoid clipping a tree. You also rarely see experienced riders using bar ends (I'm talking about the grips, not the shifters). Most have horror stories about a vine or limb snagging a bar end and flipping their bike over backwards or spinning it around.

I've got 46cm Noodles on my bike, and love them. However, I also suffer from numbness in my fingers. Is the width of the bars doing it? Something to experiment with and something I would never have considered. More information if possible please - I'm building a new bike at the moment and thanks to this thread, she'll start with my wide Noodles, but I'll be pulling bars off other bikes to test the theory.

Richard
gee I love this place :D

[QUOTE=BluesDawg;5615320]46mm Nitto Noodles are great for me. That is wider than would be suggested for my narrowish shoulders, but I like the way they feel.QUOTE]

+1. At 5'8" medium build I use 46" Noodles on my go-anywhere bike and 44" on two other bikes. I notice the difference for just a few minutes when I change bikes. I'm pushing past the conventional bar width formula, but find it feels good and "opens up the chest" for breathing.

When I first started riding in the early 80's, the Univega I started with came standard in my middling frame size with 38cm bars.... probably thought to be more "aero" at the time.

Good points from everyone. Other interesting information, if you know it, is to provide your shoulder width along with the widths of your drops. I was measured when I was being fitted for my Serotta, and that's the only reason I know my shoulder width.

I'm not sure what the relation is supposed to be between the drop-bar width ... and the shoulder width. One guess is that for the racing mentality, vendors may be recommending to not have your bars exceed your shoulder width ... because of increased wind-drag at higher speeds ... if your open arms are scooping air into your chest area. But at low speeds such as winter riding, I'm wondering if it matters if the drop-bar width is greater than your shoulder width. Flat bars and risers usually do exceed your shoulder width.

So far, a possible drawback to overly-wide drop-bars is possibility to cause finger numbness? Any other drawbacks to overly-wide drop-bars?

If want to buy me a Serotta, I'll be happy to share my shoulder measurement. :p

I wonder if finger numbness might more likely (than bar width) be caused by too much weight on the hands, not changing hand position frequently enough, or too tight a grip.

All that's been addressed in my case. Sadly I think it's something screwy with my body, but I was hoping for a simple fix.

Richard
anyone got a younger body for sale?

I just went down stairs and measured the bar width on all of my road bikes. They are all 47 or 48 cm (edge to edge). That's pretty wide. I've had some narrower bars in the past and I've test ridden some bikes with narrower bars but they just didn't feel right to me.

Depends on our rule of measuring...many bar makers measure center to center, others outside edge to outside edge.

50cm on the Atlantis, 48 on the Rambouillet (bought the 50s for my singlespeed, but I liked them so much I moved them to the bike I ride most). I'm 6'4", and I'm already worried about how I'm going to replace them. All I see these days is wimply little 46cm bars.

I like narrow bars. Measured c-c give me 38 or 40cm. I'm 6'1" and never been Serrota fit but by my crude measure I think shoulders are between 44-45.

Rather than measuring your shoulders, I just take a broom stick and hold it to see what feels the most comfortable and then measure. Width is a bit of a trade off between having a more open chest for breathing while riding, comfort and aero profile. I went with 42 which I thought was a good balance of comfort and aero since I have not found that my breathing is better with wider bars.

44" on all of my bikes. Pretty broad shoulders and I also like the fact the 44" seems to give more leverage
on hill climbs and out of the saddle sprints

It could be the position of the brake levers on the bars or the shape of the hood on the lever. These are little things that can make a big difference.

44 INCHES :eek:

Man. How do you get on in traffic? :rolleyes:

Richard

I ride 46's and they seem pretty comfortable and stable. If this makes any sense-I don't have any issues but I do wonder about how my wrist are 90 degrees to my forearms while riding on the brifters and if that could be corrected with more narrow bars. I measure out at 42's........