Improve your ride - cut down your MTB handlebars!
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- So whether you ride short bars or long bars it will make a difference. What's the right MTB width for you?
On my Chinese carbon MTB I had ridiculously narrow bars with a super-long 110mm stem. Twitchy as heck. Would wider bars and a shorter stem make the ride feel better? Maybe, but let's do some pseudo-scientific testing and check out the angles.
I don't know if you'll be surprised by the results but I was.
#mountainbike #mtb #mtblife - Sport
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Thanks!
At 6'3 with ape hangers for arms, if I don't have 800+ mills in bars I feel like I'm riding a child's bike. It may not be a matter of degrees of turning or anything but feel and comfort on the bike. My elbows thank me for the longer bars every ride
Ha, well you're a big dude so yeah things are different. There is definitely something about shoulder width and type of riding that should be taken into consideration.
560mm flat bars is PERFECT for me (I am 1,82m tall) on my road bike (I prefer flat bars to drop bars), the handling is amazing and super responsive on the road. As for my MTB I think the flat bar is like 740mm wide. Good for technical paths, it can't be beaten, but on the road it doesn't handle well, it's not precise and you can't maintain a good straight line like on my flat bar's road bike.
The shorter stem only matters how long your reach is, the older bikes had shorter reaches and needed the longer stems. It will definately sit. you more up right, then add wide bars to actually lower your reach.
True, the reach is just so short on the older 26" bikes.
I rebuild my Giant XTC 1 aluminum from 3x9 with 100mm stem/ 586mm bars. to a 1x11 with 75mm stem and 750mm bars. But What i did after that was, swapping everything on a Giant XTC3 carbon frame. Only thing I need to do now is hitting the trails and feel how it moves.
Nice! I'm glad I went with slightly wider bars, feels more solid. Good luck with your new ride!
The long stem was mated with a steeper HT. Using a short stem will reduce your reach noticeably. Better have enough room to jack the saddle back or a long TT, or you will be more rear center biased. Head tube angles are designed to be mated with certain stem lengths... you can probably get away with about 10-15mm changes w/o really changing the bike fit. Proper stem length keeps the bike balanced. That being said, the original stem was ridiculous. It looks like a 90's part they found in a bin. Lol.
You should see the 120mm raceface I have lying around!
I run 760mm on all my mtbs, with 30-40mm stems. Sweep also makes a difference too. My Enduro has 40mm stem but 12* bar sweek, while my trail has 32mm stem with 8* sweep.
You bring up a good point, it definitely impacts turning. There's also head angle to consider... It can get complicated.
I thought my bars were wide until I measured them... 650mm. Rides fine for me. I was thinking of going a little narrower to shave trees closer but we'll see.
That is old-school narrow! If it works for you stick with it. Are you going so fast around trees you're getting hooked?
@@VisionMTB The faster the better! My handling skills are too good to get hooked : ) If I want to improve on the strava leader board I'll chase any advantage I can. At 5'10" and 158 lbs, I'm not a big fella and my bars just feel right.
@@samj1185 Alright, alright. Good luck!
@@VisionMTB you as well. The most important thing is to just ride.
750 is a pretty good sweet spot.
Yeah that's a good width.
Great trails. what part of the country do you ride? looks like northeast. I'm on Long Island.
Hmmm, Edgewood, Stillwell usually.
I can't stand old school geometry. it hurt's my back, neck and upper body in general, same with too small bike, too lock cockpit, which all are worse on an old school bike.
A modern enduro bike feels right to me. So anything else feels wrong now. Even a trail bike feels so twitchy😀 My G1 with 62.5 Head angle ruined regular bikes like 64 deg for me I guess. I can get used to it quickly, but feels worse.
I need 800mm, that's the minimum for me or my elbows pop out of place. On 720 they do all the time, super annoying.
For with I recommend doing a regular push up, measure distance between each of the hand sides. This gave me 800mm.
Trail 1 on Edgewood is unmistakable.
Haha! You know it. Great time of year for that trail too.