I currently have mustache bars, with the brakes at the ends, on the bike I use for all my riding, including touring. I love (love!) the mustache bars around town, but on tour....not so much.

I recently purchased an older Novara Randonee that I'm going to turn into a good touring bike, and I'm looking at handlebars etc. I'm pretty sure I'm getting the Salsa Poco bars (they're really shallow, have a short reach, and an ergonomic place to put your hands in the drops), short-reach brake levers from Tektro, and I haven't decided on a stem, just something that gets the handlebars the same height as my saddle. I am a short-ish lady (5'3") with long legs for my height.

But....I haven't decided on the width. My shoulders are apparently 41cm wide, and they offer a 40cm and a 42cm, and I can't decide which to get!

I know it's a really small difference, but I have shoulder problems going back years. On long rides (and this used to happen when I had narrow randonneuring bars too) I have a sharp pain from between my shoulder blades up to my neck. I stretch every time I get off the bike, I have my boyfriend give me massages, and I end up taking advil several times a day if I ride any more than, say, 15 miles. (I go through a LOT of advil on tour.)

So,....should I get the handlebars slightly wider or narrower than my shoulders? And does anyone have any other good advice on reducing shoulder and neck pain?

No experience touring, but recently bought a roadbike which had significantly narrower bars than I was used to. Made a huge difference in the shoulder pain department. They're significantly narrower than my shoulder width. I'm 6', size 42-44; the bars are 39cm.

Hi Seedsbelize,
I am assuming that the narrower bars lessened your shoulder pain. Am I correct in doing so?

Probably there's more going on than just bar width, might be other bike fit issues as well. Unless you have some shoulder injury that makes bike fit irrelevant. Upper body weight work is often the thing. Horizontal rows, benches, dumbbell presses, shrugs, lat pulldowns, behind the neck presses. I'd go for the wide bars on the theory that more leverage is better than less, and you really don't care too much about aerodynamics. Possible that your top tubes are always too long and you need a shorter stem. When you pedal with hands on hoods and forearms horizontal, your elbows should be something like 2" in front of your knees.

You can always narrow wide bars when you grip the tops .. closer to the stem..

Ive had two operations trying to fix my should and as a result obviously i have shoulder pain, in my experience with it ive found that the wider the better. Im not sure the problems that you've had with shoulder problems but my doctor was a big help in finding a solution in easing the pain some. It still hurts pretty bad if i stay riding for two hours or more but i just take a small stretching break every hour or so. I have 44cm shoulders and am currently running a pair of 48cm bars i found used on CL. Part of my problem is the shoulder staying at the same degree for too long and with the super long bars i have room to spread my arms away from and closer too each other. If you already have a sports med. DR ask them if not find one they are very helpful.

This was the first surgery i had done which didn't work wellhttps://www.orthop.washington.edu/uw/...s/Default.aspx

This is the second one i had done ive had better results with this one but still have painhttps://www.surgeryencyclopedia.com/P...hroplasty.html

I wonder if there's something about your posture that exacerbates the shoulder pain, I can't imagine a couple cm width would make any difference given the range of hand positions possible. Maybe your back is arched too much or you're stretched out too far or your triceps aren't up to the weight. 5'3" with long legs makes for short torso. Have you had useful feedback from knowledgable folks about your posture?

When I rode a lot I developed a series of stretching exercises and shoulder movements to do while on the bike in order to stay on the bike for hours. Taking anti-inflammatories as a regular practice is treating symptoms.

If you're using moustache bars at the ends, chances are you are used to a really wide bar, I think my pair measures something like 56 cm center to center. You're not going to find much in the way of drop handlebars in that width, but that does seem to indicate you would be better served by wider bars.

I have my mustache bars set up with the brakes in the front,
so when my hands are near them
they are not on the widest part of the Handlebars..

One thing that a doctor may propose is part of physical therapy for most shoulder injuries or surgery's, is when your riding keep your shoulder blades "in" and down. Pretty much try to keep your collar bones flat and parallel to the bars if that makes any sense. Its kind of hard to explain, and even harder to practice i have to do it when im using my right arm for anything other than hanging so ive gotten pretty used to it. The problem with a lot of shoulder problems is changing hand positions doesn't alleviate the pain, ive found just changing up how close my hands are together to be the biggest help. Once again im not sure if we have similar problems as most this advise is for torn muscle and tendons, i dont know how much it relates to other shoulder injuries and problems. Good luck and you should see a DR they will have the best advise

I've had shoulder problems due to an old soft tissue injury on one side and two separations on the other. While I see a lot of advice for wider bars, I got a new bike this year that had narrower bars than I had ridden for decades and they feel so much better than what I had. Both bars were shallow drop and not that different, so I'm thinking it's the width (I've played enough with reach and drop to rule that out). The bars a touch narrower than my shoulders, which is how they used to be sized up through the eighties. The handling took a little getting used to but now that I'm used to it, it's just as stable. Haven't noticed any difference in being able to breathe (one of the reasons wider bars are recommended lately).

Have you heard of butterfly handlebars? Lots of touring folks love them. I've never used them personally so I won't try to describe the benefits/drawbacks but I've seen some positive reviews of them by folks here.

Mine stems from an old judo injury(tore the ligaments connecting the shoulder to the collarbone), so I only have it on the one side, but the narrower bars have allowed me to stay in the saddle for two or more hours, instead of the 45 minutes I had before. Granted, the entire bike fits me better than the old one. I rarely ride on the hoods at all, and when I do, the pain comes more quickly. I feel like the narrower bars naturally spread my shoulders, and the wider ones compress them. Might be my imagination.

significantly.

Bar width/height may be part of the equation, but after two bouts with serious frozen shoulder and other associated pain, I've discovered there is another factor. A prolonged riding position - any position, will start to change the alignment of muscles in your shoulders. Things rotate forward and make one more prone to pinching nerves and tendons, creating pain. You get strains and pains and favor them by restricting your movement to avoid pain. That makes muscles weaker, they move more toward pinching positions, and the situation feeds on itself.

To cure and fend off such problems, one actually has to do stretching and strengthening exercises. strengthening muscles that keep shoulder properly aligned and having strength through a full motion.

yes, makes lot of sense. It's what I learned to do in order to put out power while seated and climbing. Use your lats to help keep the chest open and not closed in.