Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
I don't have flare and don't see a reason for it. Bar width is supposed to be about the distance between your AC joints which is what I guess you are referring to? I prefer compact bars. I seldom use the drops. I ride in the drops on some fast descents and for long OOS efforts. I ride a lot on the hoods with almost horizontal forearms, which is more aero than riding in the drops with almost straight arms. I base my stack height on that position so on my bike it's zero. I set my bars up so that with hands on hoods, my upper arms make almost a right angle with my torso. So whatever combo of bar and stem that work together to produce that position.
I rode in the drops a lot on trad bikes with French Fit and also got sore hands. I don't get that with modern hoods positions and lower bars.
That's a good point about hoods offering a more aerodynamic position. When I was new to drop bars, i rode with a very high handlebar stack, and almost exclusively in the hoods. This continued for a while, even once my handlebar stack changed to a more reasonable position. Now, I ride almost exclusively in the drops, although I am planning to slam my stem -7° with my new Easton bars to see whether that will open up the hoods as a viable riding position yet again.
Originally Posted by
koala logs
If you stand often to pedal, wider handlebar will give you better control and reduce exertion (push and pull) on the arms.
If you don't like wide handlebar, using a very short stem like those used in MTB (32mm length stem) will also reduce steering effort.
On my gravel bike, the frame is 4cm undersized and also using a 32mm stem on a regular, short reach / compact dropbar 42 cm wide. Handlebar drop is 1.5cm, KOPS saddle adjustment. You're probably imagining it's super cramped and probably it is but it's actually very comfortable and light on my arms and steering is light. No problem with knees hitting the handlebar when I'm standing on the pedals.
I used to ride very short stems two years ago when I was overweight. These days I only do 100-120mm on all my bikes, current or future. Even on my MTB the widest I'll do would be 540mm swept back bars (mounted backwards) with a longer stem to compensate. This would be my preference in riding position.
The last time I stood up to pedal would have been when I was 8 years old, or, surprise surprise, riding a bike 3 sizes too small for me with a very short stem. Coincidentally, I weighed anywhere from 35-55lb more than I do now when super short stems were my thing.
Now, I do understand that using very wide bars would require a short stem, yes. But using *very under or oversized frames is a clear indication that something is wrong, especially if you're changing stems so dramatically to compensate.
Generally speaking, I tend to always aim for a frame that fits on the larger side. I then learned that some bike manufacturers recommend going a size up, if you're stuck between sizes but have a longer than average wingspan for your size. On the contrary, there are bikes which I would consider to be "small" , within my size, Which may not necessarily be built for Extreme performance such as cyclocross but could still work well with a longer than usually equipped stem .