sqharaway

Hey folks,

I'm considering getting a set of narrower bars so I'm fishing for advice from people who may have done this themselves. I've noticed that when I'm tucked in an aero position (or as close to one as I can manage) my hands are naturally on the inside of the hoods. Likewise, I'm most comfortable in the drops with my wrists shifted to the inside. So, it seems like I'm having to adjust my position to the bars, rather than experiencing a perfect fit.

What do you think? Does anyone have some sort of metric for determining the ideal width of bars?

Thanks!

pityr

How wide are your shoulders and how often do you go climbing hills? You can always try it out and see how it feels. I've had a 42 before and prefer the 44.

echotraveler

I did this, not on purpose. I rode a 42 center to center. Upgraded to nice carbon m35's size 42... Didn't notice they are marketed as 42 outside to outside. So im riding 40's now...im enjoying the ride so far, the handling is snapier, i feel better on sprints. But really, i just need to get better at riding, loose 15 pounds and THEN look for this tiny details that seem impotant on the forum. But go almost unnoticed in reality.

For example. I should be riding 44's specially because on climbs i could enjoy better breathing... In reality this small detail has nothing on the fact that i weigh an entire bike more than i should. Plus my partners are REALLY GOOD climbers. No placebo will change the facts.

Still if you have $$$ do whatever it takes to enjoy riding, it wont hurt.

Ps. Sorry for all the spelling errors

Ultraslide

My shoulders measure 43mm so my fitter left me with the 44mm bars I already had. Eventually I built a new bike and bought 42s and I am happier with the 42s. I'd probably go wider if I were a sprinter or for a cross frame, for the extra leverage.

tardman91

At my pro fitting they sized me down on my bars from the stock 44 to 42. I was surprised because I'm a really large guy at 6'3", 250lbs. I would have never thought that I would need narrower bars, but they are much more comfortable. They are also a compact drop as well.

carpediemracing 

Perfect fit is a moving target.

I like wider bars when I'm not riding hard. I used to laboriously switch to wider bars in the fall so I could train all winter while pretending I was some Grand Tour contender on the mountains. To put things in perspective I thought a 46cm c-c bar was a bit wide. I rode a 44cm bar for a long time and I considered 42 cm "narrow".

My reality is that I do crits and wide bars don't help in a tight crit. What I end up doing is going as narrow as I can. I find that a 41 cm c-c bar is about the limit. A 40 cm didn't feel quite right.

As it is people make comment on the 41s as being pretty narrow for me.

khatfull

I'm 6' with narrow shoulders and anything bigger than a 40mm CTC and I feel like a tripod. In fact, two of my vintage bikes have 38cm CTC (which was very common back in the day) and they feel just as good.

pgjackson

This is probably one of those "depends" kind of issues. I'm 5'8", 175lbs. With a narrower bar (42) my hands were always falling sleep. With my new wider bars (44) my hands never fall asleep. Felt weird at first, but it is so much more comfortable now.

adriano 

chris hoy checks in at 33cm for the aero.

mmmdonuts

Try wider. Try narrower. Keep the ones you like. That's the metric.

rangerdavid

I've had a set of 40 3T ergonova Pro (the alloy ones) bars for the last 8 months or so. They are too small for me, so they are going up for sale in the next day or so. I've switched to the same bars, but in a 44 width.. With the ergonovas, i didn't realize that they are size 40 (or 44) only at the widest part of the drops. On the hoods, they are about a 38, so when I went from a 42 in the OEM Cannondale bars, to the 40 3T bars, I was actually dropping two sizes. Anyway, the 44's fit me. Want my 40's?

RacerOne

5'11" and I use 40's. Works great for me.

ColinL

6'0" with broad shoulders, long arms, long fingers. I can't do narrow bars for a variety of reasons. My MTB bars are 670mm wide which is wider than almost everyone else I see on technical singletrack. (No DH bikes in Kansas.)

Currently riding 44cm FSA SL-K bars on my roadie and I love them. They're my first carbon bars and the way they have tamed the cobblestones and bumps in my neighborhood makes me think hard about putting carbon on the MTB too.

Anyway, mmmdonuts nailed it. Start with your shoulder width and experiment... one thing I really hated about narrow bars is when I'm in the drops it is not comfortable to spread my arms to give my knees clearance, and then come back in on the bars. With a wider bar my arms are in a much more natural position to the drops with a generous elbow bend.

Dilberto

My shoulders are 42cm but I ride with 40cm bars simply because I like that semi-aero hand position(elbows closer together) on fast flats. YMMV...

karenashg

My hands and wrists were doing the same thing, naturally coming to the inside of the bars. I switched to the next size narrower, and suddenly it felt like the bars were just there under my hands. My first time in the drops I let out a big "ahhh" of satisfaction. I am much happier on my bike now.

Campag4life

No substitute for trial and error. Many like the increased hand room on a wider bar and in particular the leverage of a wider bar when climbing out of the saddle. But...a wider bar can be more uncomfortable to many and you will catch more air when riding along.
I dismiss the width the shoulder thing as well. Choosing the proper bar width is simply preference...like choosing a saddle...and that includes top of bars and hook shape...even flex of the bar matters to me as well...I like the comfortable flex of the FSA K wing compact.