Originally Posted by carleton

Generally speaking, track bike fitting is more aggressive than road bikes, even crit bikes.

On the track aero is important, even in mass start racing. The frame you have will allow you to be comfortable now as well as get long and/or low later as you become more flexible.

These days, 37cm Scattos are the reference bars for track racing. 35cm Scattos and even the 33cm Alpina Sprint bars are common. It's not like on the road where 44cm bars would be normal for a guy your size. On the track, a guy your size would max out at 38cm these days.

It has to do with aero as well as maneuvering. A lot of racing is done shoulder-to-shoulder in closer quarters than road/crit cycling. Wide bars actually become a liability, especially if they are wider than your shoulders. You'd rather have some bump your shoulders at 37mph/60kph than your handlebars!

Road bikes use wide bars for waving the bike when climbing.

"But what about sprinting?" Roadies sprint by standing out of the saddle and waving the bikes back and forth. Trackies sprint by sitting down and holding still. Also, waving your bike back and forth in a sprint in tight quarters will make a mess. This is why track bikes have evolved into using bars that are more narrow than road bikes.