Originally Posted by
AeroGut
FWIW, I use 680 with a 100 mm stem for fairly technical cross-country riding. But I got my first MTB in the early 90's when short bars and long stems were standard (bar width on that first bike was about 550), and I've only slowly moved to newer geometries. I'm also a pretty small guy (a couple inches shorter than Nino Schurter), so 680 is pretty wide for me. I ride road bikes with 39 cm width drop bars.
I started MTBing in the early 90's and all my bikes have been your standard 26" race bikes. The positioning people have today sucks. Bars three feet wide and short zero degree stems on bikes that already have super tall stack heights because of the long travel forks have today. I can't climb and ride aggressive sitting so far back and my hands so high. Even doing jumps sucks.
Last year I bought my first "modern" bike (Jamis Dragonslayer 26+). The top tube length is the exact same as my '07 Cannondale F4 but the stem is 80 vs 120. And it's zero degree angle with riser bars. I just swapped on a 100 that has a -6 angle and the difference is night and day. I cut the bars down to 680mm and even that's wider than anything I had before but not too bad. I'm going to buy a 110/-6 stem and some flat bars that will be cut down to my standard 620mm or so.
It seems the MTB scene has gone more to the adventure/trail riding type of deal instead of XC racing style. I used to sign up for every race in my part of the state and there were many but today there's hardly any that don't require a road trip and hotel reservation. It's kind of died out. I can't even figure out what the "proper" riding attire is supposed to be now. Everyone looks like they're wearing regular clothes flapping around in the wind that happen to be designed for mountain biking.