I tried narrower bars again a couple years ago when I had the perfect model bar for a (60cm) project bike, but the bar happened to be 38cm. I'm about 6' with some breadth to the shoulders and have been told that the 42cm bars I'd been using for years were too narrow, that I need 44 or 46. So I assume d that the narrow bars would feel very wrong, but be ok on a bike I seldom ride. First ride on that bike included long climbs and descents and I was very comfortable in every way with the narrower bar. Out of the saddle climbing was very nice, even preferable, with the narrow bar.
One idea is that the narrower bar encourages you to bend your elbows a little more and that's good for smoothing out the ride, maybe.
By contrast, my wife who is petite and rides a 50cm frame prefers a wide bar, and recently found herself loving the 44cm bar I finally put on her on-topic Batavus Pro. Her arms do appear triangulated from the front while she rides.
The CONI assertion that wide bars are necessary to allow breathing if you'r e stretched out on the bike is only that, an assertion. I don't find that to be true in my case at all, and I prefer the position they describe as requiring wide bars.
Mitch Harris Little Rock Canyon, Utah
On 5/24/06, Daniel Artley <dartley@co.ba.md.us> wrote:
>
> To quote a certain vintage racing manual, The Rome Cycling '72 Coni
> Manual, "The cyclist must <<Love>> his bicycle". Whoops! That's one of
> the few quotes I really do remember, but the manual also spoke of bar
> width. Narrow bars only allowed the lungs to expand when a rider is
> arched over the bike. Wider bars opened up the arms when stretched out
> allowing for free-er breathing. I seem to remember the width was suppose
d
> to optimally be the width of the shoulders (wherever thats measured).
> Its been 30+ years since I've read that, so please don't flame me, but
> reading that is what drove me to spread out to a wider 40 cm, and wider 4
2
> cm Giro di'Talia bar. When I went to 44 cm on a tandem, that seemed ok
> for it, but wrong for me on a single and have since backed down to my 42
> cm optimum on road bikes if I can get them.
>
> Getting too many bikes (weren't we just talking about this?) means using
> my older parts bin, narrower Cinelli's rather than my more modern,
> snobbily inappropriate 42 cm other name bars. Another problem is always
> having been a devotee of barend shifters (Campy of course are the
> smoothest), many of my old classic bars are missing an inch to keep my
> knees from shifting while standing on the bike.
>
> Narrow bars sure were more inspireing to ride between narrow gaps between
> cars in those years I commuted in downtown Baltimore when I was young and
> fearless.
>
> Happy trails,
>
> Dan Artley, spread out in the country above Baltimore, MD
>
> Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/
> vous.10605.1113.eml
> Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 20:32:47 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Don Wilson <dcwilson3(AT)yahoo.com>
> Subject: [CR]Narrow vs. wide drops
>
> Ever since Aldo showed a pic of Bottechia and his
> narrow drops tilted downward, I've been thinking how
> comfortable and sleek he looked in the position he was
> riding in. His hand positioning seemed rather like a
> jockey on a race horse holding reins. And the
> narrowness of the bars seemed a virtue leading to
> comfort, dexterity and less wind resistance; at least
> less of all these than I see today with everyone
> riding with these extremely wide handle bars. I have
> tended to prefer wide drops myself. But I went out and
> adjusted a bike with narrow drops and a long quill to
> this position of Bottechias, slipped the brake levers
> up a bit, and liked it, despite being 6'2" tall and
> average shoulder width for that height. It seems that
> wide bars not only weigh more, but would create a
> bigger frontal surface to push through the air.
> Further, wider bars locate a persons hands and arms
> out wider when staying near today's integrated
> brake/shifter controls and enhance the sail effect of
> the body. Why are wide bars so much more in favor now?
> Or have they always been and I've just been around
> alot of bikes with narrow drops for small riders?
>
> Don Wilson
> Los Olivos, CA USA