Re: [CR]bar width (was SR Royal)

(Example: History:Norris Lockley)

From: "Daniel Artley" <dartley@co.ba.md.us>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR]bar width (was SR Royal)
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 12:36:39 -0500

As I recall, the C.O.N.I. manual (don't have it in front of me) stated that if the rider preferred a stretched out position on <<the bicycle>>, it was important to have wider bars. Stretching constricted the chest / lungs and widening the bars opened it back up. Of course, back then I was a skinny bike shop grunt and more of a tourist. So now I have a box full of Cinelli 64 bends in 38 and 40 cm widths. Of course, nobody wants mine since they usually have an inch cut off the ends to make up for the barend shifters. That's ok, I hoard it all anyway. And yes, I tend to build my older bikes up with my modern 42 cm width, old logo if I can get them.

Dan Artley Parkton, Maryland

Chuck proposed:

"Tim, you can get use to 39cm. And besides, don't you remember the saying on the New York fashion runways, "You have to suffer for fashion, Darling!" Can apply to bicycles too...

Chuck Schmidt SoPas, SoCal"

Charles Andrews responded:

Chuck, I could not disagree more with this statement. Well, ok the first line...the rest, about suffering, I agree with, as in, narrow bars make for suffering. Bars that are too narrow (and 39 c-c bars are too narrow for almost everybody, imho), offer no upside whatever, and make for some real disadvantages. Every time I put another 42cm c-c bar on a bike I breath a big sigh of relief. I have 44" shoulders, and 39cm bars are like a weird form of torture for me. Steering is lousy, leverage is lousy. Everything is lousy about them.

Why narrow bars on so many of the classic road bikes, even the taller ones? I'm gonna take a wild guess at two reasons, someone please fill me in otherwise: 1) narrow bars make for more room in the peleton. An ancient justification, hard to accept given the advantages of leverage provided by wider bars, esp. climbing hills. 2) for a lot of years, most (not all, but most) European pros were tall, skinny guys, or just skinny, with modest shoulder width, and they could tolerate those ridiculous narrow bars.

Ok, fire away! Nobody's gonna change my mind though. I'm with GP on this one: wide bars good, narrow bars bad.

Charles "where's my 44" Andrews SoCal