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Not got much (any) experience with drop bars.
Bike has 460mm bars with very little flare. I’m 187cm tall with longish arms. Feel that the hoods would be nicer about 2-3cm further apart and would like more flare in the drops for stability- I ride a Geometron with 780mm bars mostly so not used to something so narrow).
But everything seems to jump from 460 to 520. How different will this feel?
was in a similar position to you, my boardman bars were 420 slightly flared, im 172cm and used to 780mm bars..
had a lot of trouble getting stable.. couldnt pedal out of the saddle.. just took a little learning..
after a few rides i realised i wanted more flare to get my hands comfortable on the lever so went up to 440 and more flare and that suited me down to the earth, i might knock 10-20mm off the stem in future once im certain i have my bars right
I'd try to get more used to what you have on the bike as 460 is considered pretty damn wide on drop bars, i did buy some 500mm super flared spanks for a build but never fitted them to try out..
I had a similar issue with my gravel bike, went with a PNW bar and Stem.
Bars are 520mm and flare out to just over 600mm, no drawbacks for me as o treat the joke like an xc mtb and used to 800mm bars on my proper bikes - these feel spot on.
I'm slightly taller than you and run a 46cm Ritchey Beacon bar.
Decent flare but more importantly (for me) a very shallow drop which makes it really easy to swap hand positions, especially when doing down something fast & rough.
I tried flared bars on my singlespeed for a couple of years - I struggled to get comfortable on either the hoods or the drops and the tops were so narrow I needed my hands right by the stem. I swapped them for a pair of 46cm compact drop bars I used to run on my CX bike - perfect! I also have a Diverge with stock bars that have a mild flare - no problem with those either. I ride 99% of the time on the hoods on all my drop bar bikes.
I've got Funn G-Wide bars on my gravel bike, they come in 480 and 500mm width. Reach is quite long though, so might need a shorter stem.
Guess I'm the odd one out.
I run 42cm bars hood to hood with a wee flair to 44 cm on the drops. I spend a lot of time on the hoods and anything wider and twisting my hands and wrists to get them inline with my shoulders and it get uncomfortable.
Guess I’m the odd one out.
Nope, I have 40cm bars on my gravel bike just as I did on my CX bikes and road bikes when I had them.
40cm is perfect for my shoulder width and give a perfect position for hands.
I can control the bike just fine but then I have been riding 40cm drops for a long time.
Just for contrast I run 580mm flat bars & bar ends on my road bike. Horses for courses. Go wider if that's what works for you.
Ritchey have a great range of bars, the current choice out there is huge, just bear in mind that the greater the flare the more angled the hoods will be, depends where you spend most of the time I guess.
https://ritcheylogic.com/gravel-bike/handlebars
It really depends on your frame, stem length, flexibility and intended use.
Some gravel bikes are basically road frames with larger tyres - AKA long and low for aero. This would be more suited to a road width bar - 420mm for example. If you stuck super wide bars on this type of frame, I would imagine, it would be extremely uncomfortable.
Other gravel frames have more of a MTB style geometry; with a much shorter reach and high front end. These would maybe suit some of the wider gravel bars you are talking about - especially with a shorter stem.
I've got a Topstone - the geo isn't too far removed from my Giant TCR - slightly higher and shorter. I have fitted Pro Discover 42cm bars with a 20 degree flare - I think they suit the bike really well and wouldn't go any wider. Moving to these bars really helped when riding technical MTB type stuff as the drop is so much less than the stock bars - therefore, my back isn't under so much pressure when riding in the drops for an extended period.
I'm 6'4" and found the stock 46 cm bars on my Norco Search XR A1 too narrow. I now run a Spank Flare 25 vibrocore bar, 500 mm across the tops, 25 deg flare on the drops - its loads better (for me). I also changed the stem to a shorter one as the stock one was too long initially and to account for the increase in bar width effectively increasing how far forward you lean.