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For a "gravel" bike
Is it based on shoulder width?
Presumably the extra bar width helps offroad?
Hip and trendy flared drops are apparently the in-thing. 😉
How wide are your shoulders? For a small framed male of otherwise average height (179 cm), I have disproportionately wide shoulders. I ride a 44 on my road bike and a 46 on my cross and fixed bike. The extra width helps with leverage, or so I convince myself 😉 . In reality it makes little difference, but you may want a slightly shorter stem with wider bars.
I use 42cm road bars, currently for CX & mixed riding Salsa Cowbells which have a slight flair. Herself has used slight flared bars for 15 years or so, ending up with Cowbells as itm & 3T stopped making them.
relating to the topic; will a wider non-flared drop, ex. 46cm, substitute a narrower 44cm cowbell ?
is the flare just superior ?
Why are road bike bar widths in cm and mountain in mm?
thanks all
that's what i'm thinking too - a wider bar overall will be equivalent to a narrower flared bar
I'm guessing it's a hangover from when mtb bars were made in inches and the length converted, so they needed the mm for the messy metric width, but road bars were in cm, so 46 is 46. ish.