Looking for big and wide drop bars for large hands
 

Having recently picked up a new road bike, my older road bike I use to commute on feels off now. The biggest difference I feel is in the handlebars. The new bikes bars initially felt massively thick to me, but now I find I really prefer them as I have large hands (I'm 6'5"). My hands are a little too big for most XL sized gloves when skiing for example.

The new bike has whatever is stock on a 2012 trek madone 5.2, from what I can tell they are 46cm wide and are called the "Bontrager Race Blade VR-C, 31.8mm" but I can't find these in the bontrager catalog, they are alloy not carbon.

I have 3t prima ergo bars on my older bike. Is the easy solution to use thicker bar tape? Wrap a cork tape underneath the gel tape I have on them now? The brake levers feel and look about the same size to me (dura-ace 7700 on old, ultegra 6700 on new), it all seems to be size of the tubes under the tape as far as I can tell.

I realize this is worthless without pictures but I don't have very good shots of either cockpit, just side photo's.

new:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps84dc7642.jpg
old:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...e/ba948f84.jpg



Otherwise, are there any budget priced alloy bars that are similar to what came on my madone?

Check out the Salsa Cowbell 2 bars. You could pad them and wrap. They are cyclocross and flare out a little which makes them feel roomy and easy to get down into.

Any of the bars with ovalized tops like 3T Ergonova or Ritchey Evocurve

Nitto Noodles , you have heat treated ones out to 48 wide..

Dude, how tall are you? Those frames are huge!!

I use PRO Vibe 7 alu bars in 44cm C-C width in compact bend with Fizik bar tape http://www.fizik.it/products/bar-tapes/performance/

I'm all for stiffness over comfort for out of the saddle effort and the PRO bars give a nice thick top for some level of comfort while being nice and beefy for the stiffness factor. The Fizik tape is the best I've come across for comfort for big hands.

The Trek web site shows the current Domane 4 series bikes coming standard with that exact handlebar so it should be available through any Trek dealer. If you didn't already see it, the handlebar size is visible on the front of the handlebar. It's a 44cm on my 60cm 2012 5.2 Madone.

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/endurance_race/domane_4_series/domane_4_3/#/us/en/model/details?url=us/en/bikes/road/endurance_race/domane_4_series/domane_4_3

Thanks I'll have to check at my trek shop than, I was hoping to just be able to order it and get it delivered as they are ~25 miles round trip from me...a bit annoying to make 2 trips to get a part as I'm sure they won't have it in stock.

The bars have 46cm stamped on the face of my 2012 64cm 5.2 madone as I said.