Bar advice

Ezy all. Blind curiousity here but is 57mm (ish) width particularly short for handlebars? In the middle of my pre-build and I'm undecided about whether to go riser bar or flat. I suffered from the usual back ache with my previous bar and bar end set up and wondered is a wider flat bar (or indeed) riser bar would help. I know it's not retro but there comes a point when comfort > retro

57mm is pretty short even for retro bars
57cm though is about the norm for retro bars - 22.5".
Personally this is the area I find it most difficult to stay retro if its a bike I ride. Narrow bars just ruin the ride for me, I remember when I first swapped from a set of pace renthals to scott riser bars BITD the extra width was a revelation. Its amazing what a difference an extra inch makes (stop sniggering at the back!)

On one of my retro bikes I now have a set of Fat chance bars which are 24" wide with good sweep and these are great and period correct but rare (why oh why did we move from this style bar onto the silly narrow ones?). Alternativly you can buy new bars from Salsa and a few other smaller manufacturers that are 25" plus with a good sweep. I've just this last week been busy polishing a set of Salsa flat bars to go on my Orange (why can't you buy polished bars anymore :cry: ).

Steve T.

p.s. if anyone handy with a lathe / cnc machine can knock up some bar extensions with an internal wedge thingy I'll buy half a dozen. I tried to make some but they sucked due to poor tolerances. It only needs to be 1/2" each side so wouldn't be as risky as it sounds...

57mm is a very short handle bar !!!!!!!
57cm, which is about right for an xc bar, but my advice would be to ride with what ever width feels comfortable.
I am guilty of riding xc with a riser bar and bar ends, I know it's not too stylish or trendy but I find them good for my back and gives my hands a change of position

Personally, I hate wide bars, I hate a lot of sweep and I hate risers. But I thought the reason why people use wide bars and sweep bars is to do with a feeling of greater leverage in cornering, nothing to do with comfort? Personally I find them less comfortable than a 56cm 3 degree, but each to his own.

I thought the one that specifically addresses the bad back issue is the riser bar. A higher, shorter position can obviously reduce the strain on your back, and as riser stems look dorkish, and looks matter, that leaves riser bars as the way to go for bad back sufferers.

Be best to decide after the build, wait and see what the length of the toptube and stem is and also the bar to saddle drop. Then use risers or flats to tune your position. If you have to choose now go for a riser. Also if you really want to through caution to the wind look at some of the swept bars marys', Titec hellbents, Salsa, Groovy, even Zoom do a cheap version. I'm a swept bar convert but admit they can look terrible

al-onestare":1munsup6 said:

....is 57mm (ish) width particularly short for handlebars?....

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That's only just wider than my stem clamp!

Talking about short bars, one of my mates who raced XC bitd shortened his bars down to 450mm! :shock: It was funny watching him tear through the singletrack whilst some of the other racers had to slow down so they didn't catch their wider bars on some of the narrower sections.

narrow

Xesh":2ccoqgsw said:

Talking about short bars, one of my mates who raced XC bitd shortened his bars down to 450mm! :shock: It was funny watching him tear through the singletrack whilst some of the other racers had to slow down so they didn't catch their wider bars on some of the narrower section.

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That's really retro. I just bought a 94 bike with Bontrager/Titec ti bars and was disappointed to find they'd been cut down to 51cm. But I guess that was the racey way to go BITD. Still good for a commuting bike I guess.

The mission control on my Klein has been chopped to 540mm,I usually use 620mm bars,I find it makes it 'extra' exciting to ride :shock:

Anthony":2z9pvv0y said:

.....with Bontrager/Titec ti bars and was disappointed to find they'd been cut down to 51cm......

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I bet they used a few hacksaw blades doing that!