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Is It Really True Your Bars Should Be As Wide As Your Shoulders?

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

Is It Really True Your Bars Should Be As Wide As Your Shoulders?

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Old 03-31-16, 09:56 AM
  #51  
RoderWrench
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Originally Posted by roadwarrior
I have a suggestion....do a little research before weighing in. I know the rules. And the width of the elbows will vary with the rider. There is a literal ton of information to help you.

And if you real close, look to see how his elbows line up w his shoulders.

Not only are you not a doctor, but you are not a bike setup person. But did stay at a hoilday inn express last night.
Look a little closer. His shoulders are hunched. His elbows are 2-3 inches inboard of each brake hood. If that is his actual shoulder width, he would need bars so narrow, that they don't exist. Your right I'm not a bike setup person. But there is no fault in my advice: "as narrow as you are comfortable with, shoulder width is a good place to start." I'm assuming you are a bike fit person. You certainly aren't one that I would seek. Your inflexibility to whatever dogma you were trained in makes you nearly useless and your arrogance repugnant.

And I stayed in my parent's basement last night.
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Old 03-31-16, 10:03 AM
  #52  
TheKillerPenguin
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Not sure why this is so controversial? If you don't have a ton of riding experience and if you don't ride enough for your bike to feel like an extension of self, bars to shoulders is a fine rule of thumb. There is obviously personal preference involved but you can't possibly know what that is right off the bat, and won't ever really discover it unless you ride quite a bit more than I'd wager most in this forum tend to.

Of course it is your right to slam your stem and look pro af should you so desire.
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Old 03-31-16, 10:11 AM
  #53  
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Originally Posted by TheKillerPenguin
Not sure why this is so controversial? If you don't have a ton of riding experience and if you don't ride enough for your bike to feel like an extension of self, bars to shoulders is a fine rule of thumb. There is obviously personal preference involved but you can't possibly know what that is right off the bat, and won't ever really discover it unless you ride quite a bit more than I'd wager most in this forum tend to.

Of course it is your right to slam your stem and look pro af should you so desire.
Hasn't much to do with slamming your stem or looking pro.

I'm 6'3 and broad across the shoulders. I ride 38cm or 40cm bars. That's where I feel most comfortable, anything bigger than 42 and I feel like I'm steering a bus. Mostly one steers a road bike from the hips, anyway. In my view the "width of your shoulders" rule is pretty much bunk.
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Old 03-31-16, 04:09 PM
  #54  
Sy Reene
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Is perhaps some of the varying opinion due to (is this a more modern/recent development?) the trend to bars that flare outward in the drops (usually 1 cm on each side). For me, I ride a 42cm C-C on a 59cm road bike; generally speaking I believe most stock configs would put a 44cm on this size frame. At the same time, my drops are 44cm apart. While I'm ok on my CX bike that has 44cm bars and the drops do not flare out, I think I might have an issue with 46cm-apart drops. IOW, my guess is that that with flared bar ends, most people now opt for next size narrower (measured C-C). Someone really should take over the market and now start offering 41 and 43cm bars
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