Handlebar widths

[camelman]

Just bought the lady in my life an Epic Expert 29r. She is 1.63 and rides a small. What handlebar widths do people out there ride. She has a Syntace Duraflite 640mm/8deg on her Scott Scale and it seems ok. The handlebar on the Epic is a 700mm. Do we go up to 700 or go down to the 640?

 

Your input is appreciated. Just add your riding style, height, handlebar width and back sweep on your comments so I could make an educated guess.

[Vetseun]

My personal choice. Stay wide

[gummibear]

Wider bars = shorter stem.

[flat29]

680mm

[camelman]

Just put 720 Ritchey Trail ones on my XTC Hard Tail. They are great, but get caught everywhere

[maddox]

Just bought the lady in my life an Epic Expert 29r. She is 1.63 and rides a small. What handlebar widths do people out there ride. She has a Syntace Duraflite 640mm/8deg on her Scott Scale and it seems ok. The handlebar on the Epic is a 700mm. Do we go up to 700 or go down to the 640?

 

Your input is appreciated. Just add your riding style, height, handlebar width and back sweep on your comments so I could make an educated guess.

 

My personal choice is to stay with wide bars.. But its her bike.. When I upgraded my wife (medium frame, 170cm height) from a 26er Anthem to a 29er Anthem she found the bars too wide so I changed it out.

[leona]

mine came with 690, i would definitely not go narrower on a 29er. ran 580s on my 26in which were fine but big wheels need big bars for steering. i got 710s with the idea to put on bar ends but now I'm used to the width it felt too narrow with bar ends. 710 feels perfect to me and my epic is small. I'm prob 157cm tall or so. mine are 710 flatbar with 9deg sweep

 

id say to her to stick with them for a bit and see how she gets on before chaining anything. its a different bike so she needs to get used to it. no sense changing anything yet.

Edited December 5, 2013 by leona

[gummibear]

Just put 720 Ritchey Trail ones on my XTC Hard Tail. They are great, but get caught everywhere

 

720mm may be a little wide for a lady.

 

Try cutting them a little shorter

[DubbelBuys]

740mm, but bought 785mm recently as I wanted to go a tad wider than 740mm.

 

Yes the 785mm is very wide I know!

 

Guess I'll settle at about 765mm (personal choice)

 

 

Fair middleground I would suggest:

 

+-720mm for the guys

+-690mm for the lady

[mataz]

I cut both mine and my girlfriend's to 660mm, she is 1.65 and rides a small, I am 1.75 and ride a medium. We both find the 700mm to be too wide and had 660mm on our old bikes, which was perfect.

[bolt67]

Stay wide on a 29er ! Had the specialized alu 680 on my Epic. Now running Ritchey 2X Trail Bar at 710 mm - need to be a bit careful through the tree lined singletrack.

 

29er shorter stem and wide bars = better control !

[whattingh]

there is no hard rule. personal comfort is the aim. and to say guy must ride wider bars that lady is a generalisation that will fail some times as some men has narrow shoulders and some lady's have wide shoulders.

 

 

things that factor in together:

bar width

bar sweep

stem length

frame size( stretch en short)

shoulder width

riding style

 

I swap my 720 8deg for a 700 9deg for a test. immediately i felt cramped for space.

 

what ever you do not cut a bar to quickly.

just my 2c

[patches]

[shade]

LOKL @ Patches

[Eldron]

there is no hard rule. personal comfort is the aim. and to say guy must ride wider bars that lady is a generalisation that will fail some times as some men has narrow shoulders and some lady's have wide shoulders.

 

 

things that factor in together:

bar width

bar sweep

stem length

frame size( stretch en short)

shoulder width

riding style

 

I swap my 720 8deg for a 700 9deg for a test. immediately i felt cramped for space.

 

what ever you do not cut a bar to quickly.

just my 2c

 

I'm with this guy.

 

Let her ride the bike a few times and if she feels the tendency is to move her hands towards the centre then lop a few cm off. Keep doing this until she is comfortable.

 

The actual measurement is irrelevant - the right width is the one she's happy on.

[Skylark]

As wide as is comfortable and feels right.

Don't cut them yet just play around by moving the grips and all he controls in our out as needed, hopefully you have lockon grips though.