Handlebar Width

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heist

Active Member
Location
Norwich
So I treated myself to a new bike a couple of days ago, and took it out with me on the club ride last night. One of the other lads in club mentions that he thinks my handlebars are too wide. Think they are 46cm. How important is having the correct sized bars? They feel fine to me, but then again, I have been riding a wide bar trail mountain bike prior to getting into road bikes this year. I am hesitant to change the bars, because they are carbon aero bars and the price is crazy. Measured the bars on my other road bike and they are the same size, are 46cm bars fairly standard?

How do you size them up correctly?


Thanks
 

Citius

Guest
46 is pretty wide, to be fair. But if you like them then there's no reason to change. Bar width is almost entirely down to personal preference and there's no obvious advantage to any particular width other than that.

There is no standard for measuring either. Some measure centre to centre, some measure outer to outer. Some measure width at the ends, while others measure width at the hoods.
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
upload_2015-5-13_15-12-45.jpeg
 

lpretro1

Guest
If you are used to mtb bars then having a slightly wider set of road bars is no bad thing. Ideally the width of road bars should equate to the distance across your back between the points of your shoulders. I ride road bars that are 'technically' too wide for me but find it more comfortable as I also ride mtb. Again ideally your arms should be able to rest on the hoods in a straight line looking forwards - otherwise you can get discomfort between the shoulder blades - I'd suggest you ride it more and on longer rides any 'problems' will show up :0
 

Colnago Master

Active Member
Someone told me I wider bar opens up your chest, better for breathing. Narrower is more aero. I wouldn't change anything that is comfortable.
 

ayceejay

Guru
Location
Rural Quebec
How do you size them up correctly?
You ride your bike: if they feel comfortable they are the correct size.
I think a lot depends on riding style, if you spend a lot of time on the tops (possible as you came from an MTB) a wide bar will feel right but if you are often in a tucked position on the drops narrower may be better.
 

MrGrumpy

Huge Member
Location
Fly Fifer
To repeat what everyone else says, go with what is comfortable, I prefer narrow rather than wide.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Another vote for comfort. The first road bike I bought has bars 50mm wider than those on the one I usually ride now. The narrow bars seem a whole lot better for me, so much so that I bought an identical set to replace the wider ones. If it feels right, stick with it.
 

e-rider

crappy member
Location
South West
So I treated myself to a new bike a couple of days ago, and took it out with me on the club ride last night. One of the other lads in club mentions that he thinks my handlebars are too wide. Think they are 46cm. How important is having the correct sized bars? They feel fine to me, but then again, I have been riding a wide bar trail mountain bike prior to getting into road bikes this year. I am hesitant to change the bars, because they are carbon aero bars and the price is crazy. Measured the bars on my other road bike and they are the same size, are 46cm bars fairly standard?

How do you size them up correctly?


Thanks
I ride 46cm bars - they feel much more comfortable than 44s to me but I'm quite a big chap

Pro riders use narrow bars to make themselves more aero, but going narrow definitely DOESN'T increase comfort (unless you have narrow shoulders)! Depends what you want. I'm guessing that if the bike came with 46s then it's a very large size bike anyway and you are a big chap?
 
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