Wide bars
 

What's up with the ever increasing handlebar width? Just a trend...or do you think it is here to stay? Personally, I do not like them, at least not for the trails we have around here.

Maybe they are great in big open areas, but whenever I switch back to my 29er I feel like there are times I could snag a tree (maybe one day I'll cut them if I don't pop on a rigid fork and make it a drop bar conversion first). As a result, I think the narrow bars on my old stumpy are better for my trails.

Recently, I took a Cannondale Cujo out for a test ride and absolutely hated the cockpit! It had a 760mm wide bar on it and I just couldn't imagine taking it on a tight trail.

I know, it sounds like I'm doing a lot of complaining. For those of you riding on wide bars, what makes you like them? Do you ever feel like you are compromising maneuverability in tight spaces? I'm not judging anyone, bc all of us should ride whatever the heck we want and what works for us. I just want to know if I am in the minority with my ( admittedly luddite) feelings.

As bar ends went out of fashion, bars became longer to provide better leverage from the thumbs-in hand position.
I like the thumbs-forward grip and keep using bar ends and shorter bars.
I can ride the wide bars well enough, but don't see the point.

It makes sense. There's definitely more leverage, and less a tendency to be twitchy on climbs. I can imagine downhill bikes work well with more leverage. When does it get to be a "too much of a good thing" scenario?

It helps for leverage.
It helps for breathing.

It hurts for navigating tight trails.

I put some 74mm bars on a recent build and they are certainly wider than any of my old bikes. Not too comfortable yet as i need to now figure out a stem length and angle that effectively places me in the same position as before. I get that shorter stem is for a wider bar, but there is still some tweaking that needs to be done because of the wide bar. lame.

Personally I like them to a point. I've compromised on 750's for my XC, trail and fatbike. That being said, I have gotten wedged between trees during XC races with the 750 bars. I run 780 on my rigid SS. I have some 800s laying around, but no bike for them right now. I felt cramped up when running 700 or less bars, but I have a bit wider than normal shoulders.

It sure makes the ride interesting when you are flying down a twisty trails and suddenly wonder if you are going to fit through the 2 trees. They were close, very close.

I swear sometimes trees like to move as well...

Like any other change you get use to it. When I went from 5xx something bars to mid 600s I thought they felt funky and smacked them on trees all the time then I got use to them and stopped hitting things. Now I'm on 750s and again thought they felt funky and smacked them on trees all the time and now I'm use to them and rarely catch trees. If you just flat out don't like them nobody is forcing you to run them.

640-666mm is the sweet spot range for me. I usually have some 780mm bars on one bike, but I don't like 'em for the trail riding I do, only for short, screwing around kinda rides.

I have always liked wide bars...700 was my minimum and I found 680 a bit too narrow. I do have long arms. I now use 740 and has moved to 780. Most of our epic and long trails are more open with not too many tight trees. Some trails do have that and I have to be careful 5-6 times per ride. Still, I could never get used to narrow bars again. I would not go more than 780. 760-780 is perfect and I only used ENVE or Syntace since I think they are the toughest

I love the Enve DH bars on any MTB. My areas has a lot of very tight treed areas, and I got used to 760s after 30+ years of MTBing.

Over the course of 15 years, my bars grew in steady increments from 580mm to 750mm.

Not sure I can explain WHY I like the wider ones, I just feel more in control and stable.

Yeah, there are the occassional tight squeezes I need to be careful about, but those few instances are more than made up for by the increased control the rest of the time.

I think about shoulder width feels good. 800s on my santa cruz feel good.