Is one suppossed to follow a formula for handlebar width?

I ride with 42cm handlebars and they are narrower than my shoulders ... still working fine though.

Handlebars should in theory be as wide as your shoulders center-to-center for optimum breathing -- keeps your chest open.

ietrats...
while I have no idea of where your location is, and what city you're talking about....if you've been riding in the city for 10 years and think that your shoulder width is the most relevant in squeezing through cars, then we ride very differently...
mostly the body of cars (down low) and their rear view mirrors ( again, down low) are the determining obstacles for me...if any body part, the width of my hips are most relevant in my experience...
and even whith larger vehicles with protruding mirrors and the like....I find that I am able to move my upper body around (ie...twist my shoulders, or do some boxing stick and move **** with my head) to avoid hitting anything

while you've never hit anything with those bars, I bet you I get through tighter gaps than you...'s all a matter of how you ride
-signed,
uptown

I've got 'em on my KHS.
sold the red fuji to a kid in W'burg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26.../KHSheadon.jpg

If you ride any set of handlebars enough, you will get used to them. Ive seen people ride super wide bars, and super narrow bars. I had a set of Nitto bullhorns, but I never used and didnt like using the bullhorn part. So I bought a super cheap no-brand name pair of mountain bike bars and chopped them as short as I could (there is a taper in the way, otherwise I would go shorter) and put some comfy soft grips on.

http://www.biblicone.com/photos/images/DCP_6762.jpg

http://www.biblicone.com/photos/images/DCP_6770.jpg

i really hate having to duck the mirrors on cargo vans and trucks and ****.

I forgot that I replied to this thread.

I'm of the XY persuasion, and my shoulders are wider than my hips, even with my winter hibernation layer and baggy pants. I'm also taller than average and ride a taller than average bike, so my hips are usually higher than the bodies of cars.

I don't twist and shout through tight spots though - maybe a little bit of English on the bike to sway a bit, but I wouldn't normally try to ride through any spot I couldn't walk through without pivoting my shoulders. Then again, I don't ride that fast either, and I don't take chances riding in traffic unless it violates rule number one of piloting a vehicle on public roads, which is "Just go."

Different strokes and all. I didn't mean to sound hostile or anything; I think I was mostly railing against the moron I know who rides 8" wide bars and no handbrake with a loose stem and headset on a spanking new sparkling pista (and has already been hit a half a dozen times). I'm sure that's not you, unless you happen to live with my buddy Eric.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13.../Photo_176.jpg

i ride those, they're still pretty wide and i think i'm going to chop another inch or so off each side, but they get the job done and i don't have any trouble splitting traffic and such.

I've moved from my chopped risers on a basically flat stem lifted high to this set up (which I'm pretty sure puts me in the jackass category when it comes to common sense) of flat bars on a drop stem at med height. Both sets of bars are pretty short but I started with them longer. It was a matter of personal choice for me to chop em down so far (although the grips are super long ie: are wider than my hand in wool mittens, and i have since put a light and a front BMX style brake on which should give you an idea of how much bar their is) because I wound up never using the wider part and didn't like all that excess junk hanging off so cut em down. Also I switched to a bike that was a little bigger and liked the sprintier feel.

note: the stem has since been changed to a 100, the 90's on the drop bars on a bigger bike that needed it.

I just got some 46cm nitto 'noodle' bars mod 177.
http://www.rivendellbicycles.com/web...ape/16111.html
but just because I linked to riv doesn't mean that I'm an old fart of some sort...I just like comfy bikes and comfy bars.

my kitty loves her riser bars. she wants me to shorten them up a bit though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../kittybike.jpg

if they made a narrow version of these i'd definitely give them a shot. i like how the grip areas are angled in, it looks comfortable.

or a chopped version of these...

oops, sorry about that pic ^^^

this is the only bike i've ever seen that i think risers look good on
http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2006...ennethAlan.htm

Cyclo-cross cross-top levers are the way to go huh? If you are using straight up road brakes?

Any other feasable options, within a budget of course?

id cut em down to however wide your pedals are- if they cant get thru easily what else can? mineses are bout 38 cm- not too narrow though, you gotta breathe. just a thought.

something tells me (and this isn't a harder-than-thou post) that y'all with narrow risers don't ride up many steep hills. I've got 40cm bullhorns, and I wrench the crap out of them getting up the hill into diamond heights here in SF. I couldn't imagine riding on some of the bars posted in this thread.

^^^^ agreed ^^^^

i cut about 2 inches off each end of a set of normal mtb risers and that is as narrow as i will go.

chopping your bars SUPER narrow might be nice till you got to climb a big old hill.

thank you! people are always telling me to cut down my risers because they look to wide but i would never want to give up all that extra leverage. they do look cooler cut down but it's not worth it to me.

sorry but i have to ask:

where are the hills in florida??? :D

56cm bars in SF and no problem at all with this width.
Leverage is nice for more than just climbing.

risers are great for bar spins.

you can ride any bars up hills. i've ridden risers of all heights and widths, bullhorns, straight bars, and preacher bars and it's just easier with more leverage. but then again, it's easier to coast

i wasn't saying i just like them for hills but you can accelerate much quicker and i feel like i have more control of my bike when it comes to quick decisions.

anything I cut is to my shoulder...or hip width....gives me a natural sense of where I can fit. Cept...my MTB.... i like the control of the wider bars.

parking garages! :D

The latest hipster trend around here is to cut off a set of cruiser handlebars and run them upside down so the bars trail back and down...like cafe bars on a classic motorcycle...how tight is that!