Road Bar Width Question.
 

Is there some sort of rule for deciding on what width for road bars? I just got my Dawes SST AL (50cm) and the road bars feel a little wide (44 c-c).

Any recommendations under $30? I was thinking about going with the Easton EA50.

Any recommendations on stems too?

Thanks.

I really like these bars and you can them right now for $10. Before you blow a load of cash try these in 42cm if 44 feels too wide. There is a matching stem available for less than $8.



http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/177...d-Bar-31.8.htm

The general guide for sizing bar width is to make them the width of your shoulders. Adjust from there to taste.

nevmind, Steev beat me

Those bars are ridiculously wide for that size frame. They would typically be used on a much larger frame for a proportionately much larger person. I had the same problem with my 43cm Motobecane Messenger, which was supposed to be supplied with 40cm wide drop bars, but instead arrived with 46cm bars. They also sent a long 120mm stem instead of the specified 90mm stem. I think the factory just packs the bikes with whatever oddball parts they have available when they ship it. Anyways, my guess is that if you have typical proportions, you will want about a 40cm c-c wide bar.

The old school method was drops roughly the width of your torso/shoulders, but the tastes seem to have moved on to wider these days, I would recommended you leave them as Wider bars=more power, lower your saddle or shorten your cockpit length, ride it for a month, next time you ride a bike with narrower bars you'll wonder where all your power went, 44-cm bars on a 50 is pretty standard these days.

It might be worth your time to have a local shop or a friend fit you on the bike, regardless of what people tell you it's pretty much impossible to fit yourself 100% on a bike, you can get close, but if you really want it dialed it's two man job.

Power from bar width? Are we talking steering power here? I understand wider bars = more leverage turning the wheel to steer; not sure what other power this could be referring to.

I would think the general road preference was to go in narrower for a smaller frontal area for aerodyamics purposes; but I won't pretend to claim authoritative understanding there.

Power for sprinting, not steering. Wider bars means more leverage when you're out of the saddle and really honking on the drops.

They also open up your chest for lung capacity.

Maybe for high end racers that really need to reduce all the drag they can, otherwise get your body lower for an aero position. You need to watch out with narrow bars. I tried them, 38cm vs. usual 44cm, for a few months and I remember weird back pains developing. So I'm not good with narrow bars but others may be fine :P

So what's the disadvantage in having too-wide bars? I've never measured any drop bars that I've used, but have never felt they were too wide or too narrow.

This. I had some 38's on an old road bike b/c aero was all the rage at the time (80's). Replaced them with some 42's and immediately felt a difference. It's like a boost in breathing. Took a brief ride on my friends bike with super narrow bars and starting feeling that "restriction" again. Match the bars to your shoulder width like others said.

Too-wide bars might lead to bad riding habits (locking elbows). Aside from that it's mostly just feel.