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Old 09-12-19, 12:02 PM
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u235
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Originally Posted by Clem von Jones
Recall your comment after you crash when oak branch branch reaches out and snags the bar. That's happened to me a couple times. Every time I upgrade my bikes I've chosen narrower bars and a lower center of gravity position. What's happened in recent history is that mountain bikes have become accessories to ski resorts and are mere downhill rides that require seasonal ski pass tickets. They're just recreational "rides" and are no longer real bicycles in the traditional fully-functional sense. The geometry of modern mtbs is designed to mitigate the risk of breaking your neck when bombing downhill at break-neck speed. They won't prevent your neck from breaking though. Gravel bikes have moved in to fill the niche that mtbs have now abandoned.

My gripe with modern bikes is they've gone from something developed incrementally by evolution over a century that had real utility to something concocted by a gimmicky marketing doofus between coffee breaks.
It's not a myth that wider bars on a bike give more direct control per given amount of effort. How wide you want to go and anything you see as a negative side effect of that is up to personal preference. Applies to flat bar and drop bars with width or a drastic flare. Your description is close to a similar analogy that reducing the capability of front brakes might save you from flipping over the bars.

Last edited by u235; 09-12-19 at 12:15 PM.
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