tammons

Old Trek 830 Antelope, and I just upgraded most everything, but it still has the old handlebars.
Not sure if these handlebars are original or not. Most of the drivetrain had been upgraded when I got it.
The bars are 23" wide and feel narrow and twitchy. But I dont want super wide bars either.
This bike is just for general riding.

Is there some rule of thumb, like your shoulder width plus whatever?

2cam16

It all depends on where or what position you're comfortable in. A lot of factors come into play. Best thing is to start wide as you can always cut them down to size. Most modern bars come with width markings on where to cut. I run mostly 710mm but that's me.

70sSanO

Standards MTB handlebar width?

Since it is vintage you might not get as many answers, but be prepared.

Everything from head angle to breathing comes into play.

John

dsbrantjr

I set mine to be a little wider than my shoulders including the grips; any gap the bar will fit through I will fit as well.

fietsbob

Only for road bike drop bars..

some people like the Jones handlebars https://www.jonesbikes.com/h-bars/

70sSanO

Okay, there are probably a few things that you should probably do.

First, If you have a 23" bar it is probably the stock 580mm. Even at 580mm, your 830 should not feel twitchy, maybe narrow, but not twitchy.
I've ridden a lot of miles with a 580mm.

I'm assuming you have the original rigid fork. If it had a suspension fork and someone swapped it out, you may want to make sure it is the right axle-to-crown length. A short fork will make a bike feel twitchy.

Since you are swapping out bars, you should figure out if the setup is right for you or not. If you have another flat bar bike, use that as a guide.

I think the 830 has a quill stem, (early 90's did), so you should look to see if you feel the bars are too low and if you can raise the stem of not. The stem length is probably 100mm, per the catalogue, so if yo feel stretched out you can get a shorter stem. Getting tougher if it is a quill.

You may want to get handlebars with a slight rise. For what you are doing you want to find a comfortable position.

Get a bar slightly wider than you think will work so you can cut it down.

Have fun. It's all good.

John

adipe

1. on a more shallow head angle you will best have wider bars;
2. on a shallow head angle and with wider bars you will best have a shorter stem;
3. on all these - shallow head angle, wider bars, shorter stem - you will best have a frame that has more horizontal top tube length (supposing the seat tube angle is a standard 73 degrees - if it differs than you have to add or subtract from the HTT when comparing)

4. on a road setup you will not like a shallow head angle, short stem, wide bars - that setup above better suits offroad setups or dirt jump etc.

5. changing the fork may change the head angle because axle to crown may differ for different forks;
6. fork offset (or fork rake) should be larger for a more shallow head angle.
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ignore points 5. and 6. unless you would change the fork - which is something i guess is unlikely.
it may be best to just compare bikes that have different setups and figure out your preferences and what geometry suits you; it's not very convenient to change bars, stems while having the same frame. it could be that the frame is not your size - length matters (effective top tube length for a given seat tube angle), not height.

Miele Man

I like a straight MTB bar to be about the same width as my dropbar. That makes it much easier to get into and out of the apartment and also takes up a lot less storage space. IIRC, I took about 4" off each side of my MTB bar.

Then there's the other extreme where I used a cut-down reversed dropbar on an MTB single speed I built for fun. That bike never felt twitchy even though the handlebar was only 12" long.


Cheers