This is not really a touring question, but I thought i would find more flat bar users here than in the "road riding" section.

I am building up a new road bike for my wife. She never grew to like drop bars, and wants to try a flat bar. That point is for now non-negotiable.

So, my question is: what width to shoot for?

I know that the best answer is "go with what feels right", but I have found (from previous experience on her road, mountain, and commuter bikes) that she is not very good at telling what needs to change in her setup. Just that she is happy or not happy.

So I am curious what a good starting point is? I have several flat bars that I can cut down, so if we end up going too narrow I can just grab another bar from the parts bin.

She rode 40cm (center to center) drop bars and seemed OK with that. her mtb and town bike both have 660mm wide bars, but i don't think that is going to work well for a road bike that she will be doing a lot of miles on.

The narrowest bars I have are 580mm (from my early mtb days in the 90s). I have the 580mm on there right now and even that seems really wide even for me (even though I run 750mm bars on my mtb)

I was thinking of cutting these down to 550mm. Is that a good starting point for this? I'm using ergon grips with the integrated bar ends.

I am just curious what other people's experience is with this.

Set everything up but shifting and braking. She can hop on and ride it. With nothing interfering her grip, she can figure out what width is most comfortable.


...or get trekking bars since its a diverse flat bar withna ton of hand pisitions and angles.

My sense is that anything under 650mm or so will be so narrow as to make the bike feel overly twitchy. Flat bars, in my experience, just can't be as narrow as drops.

I have Cut Down the Width of straight Bars, that were too wide..

A used Score, of a Bull Moose Quill stem-Bar combination.. Last.. Bike Shop saw guide insured the cut was square.

I too Vote for Trekking bars .. No cutting , they are typically 57Cm wide but other than the sides there are narrower hand holds.

My wife is in the same boat. She prefers flat bars with the Ergon grips and bar ends. The width depends on the bars you want to use. The riser bars my wife uses only have so much room for the brake levers, shifters, and grips. If I cut them too narrow everything wouldn't fit before the curve in the bar. Her bars are probably in the mid 500s.

Width should also be determined by the front end geometry of her bike. If her bike has a shallow head angle (69-71 degrees) and little fork offset (43-47 mm) she'll probably want wider bars to increase leverage against the high trail. If she carries a lot of weight in front panniers, wider bars would also be an advantage. Bars that are in the mid 600s would probably be good.

I highly recommend that you consider the Jones loop bar.

Shoulder-width is a good start.

Joe

Just make sure you measure once and cut twice.

if you're absolutely sure:

1. she definitely, positively wants flat bars, and
2. you have the skills/tools to cut the bars to length,

just get a longish bar, and a temporary set of grips and clamp-on bar ends.
load up and go for a ride, move the grips/barends as needed.
shouldn't take too long to figger out where the piece-parts should be.

Thanks for the replies so far.

I am not too worried about the handling right now. This is on a nearly same sized frame (in terms of reach) as the frame she ran drop bars on, so she will end up with a fairly long stem, so I am not too worried about it being twitchy. Will not be caring loads on the front.

I am mainly thinking of what is comfortable on longer road rides.

Re the jones bar: I've considered a bar with a bit of backsweep, but we are startihg with flat bars because it is what I have laying around.

1- definitely sure she is done with drop bars. Flats bar is the next step, backswept bars may follow.
2- no issues there, done it many times.

I may end up doing what you suggest with moving everything around on the bar and then cutting it to length, the only problem is that with the integrated bar ends, you can't slide the Ergons farther onto the bar.

Ergon Grip/bar ends will need the Bar Cut off to Be Square.

Not a problem. I've always gone with a pipe-cutter (for metal bars).