Originally Posted by
gauvins
Perhaps you have wide shoulders. Looks like you ride drop bars. They are "supposed" to be shoulder width.
I guess I am wide shouldered, but I wouldn't have thought I was all that unusually so. I guess that since I am relatively short and prefer a frame sized fairly small for my height it means that they spec a bar that is smaller on the bikes that I choose.
There is a question of just how you should measure shoulder width. Full width to the outside of the shoulders? Only where the bone ends? At the AC joint? Full width doesn't seem right unless there is some deduction. I am not sure they even make road bars that would fit me by that metric and I am sure there are lots of guys much wider in the shoulders than me even if the typical cyclist isn't. I just checked and I'd need 56cm bars. That seems absurd to me. I just got back from a ride on my old mountain bike with dirt drops and they measure about 39 cm. I have a hard time imagining that I should be using bars that are 17cm (6.7") wider. The other measures seem a bit tricky to measure.
Should I be measuring differently? Applying a deduction. Maybe deducting an inch or an inch and a half for the thickness of the hand? That would at least get me into at least the higher end of standard sizes.
This is probably just an academic exercise since at my age I am unlikely to change my long established habits in this.
FWIW, I do have a flat bar MTB that has pretty wide bars and have no plans of cutting them down. I am inclined to leave all my current bikes that way they are in this regard. The only exception may be the folder whose bars I always hated. I may do something with them.