[Closed] Short arms and bar width - help

I had this problem too,try slackening your grips and control clamps,put the grips where they feel most comfortable ,then go for a ride .This gave me a much better idea of what bar length I needed HTH

However it just doesn’t seem right – I’ve got quite short arms (even for my 5’7” height – short legs too) so maybe I am not as well suited to very wide bars?

A case of fashion over function I'm afraid. Definitely sounds like you need to chop them down to suit your frame. I don't understand why most manufacturers don't spec narrower bars on their smaller frames (although I know at least one that does). Actually I do understand, it's a fashion thing and helps to sell bikes. FWIW I'm 6'1" with arms like an Ape and 760 feels about right for me. My wife is about your height and 700 feels good for her. 800 would be a comedy width for her.

I don’t understand why most manufacturers don’t spec narrower bars on their smaller frames

It's quite simple. It's because it's not just fashion, it's also personal preference. And you can chop down bars that are too wide, but the other way...
Can't you just accept that other people have different preferences? Doesn't make them wrong, or fashion victims.

My best mate rides with 800s and certainly doesn't hang about, and he's about 5'8. I'm a shade over 5'10 and tend to chop mine to about 770. But I buy 800s so I can tweak them to how I want.

No one who rides round here with more than 760mm bars has a full complement of knuckles due to tree proximity to trails.

Keep cutting off 10mm each side until you feel comfortable. Ride for a week or two each time.

It will feel different to how your bikes with 640mm bars felt so give yourself time to adjust before you go below 740mm.

🙋‍♂️ unfashionable 740mm bars user here.

What wwaswas said.

I'm 5'7" and use 740mm bars, I've not tried wider. 800mm seems crazy for someone my height but then 740mm seemed crazy back when I was running 660mm.

Bit then as others have said you can always cut down wider bars.

Thanks all. I have DMR death grips so can’t slide them in but I reckon 10mm off each end I will try first. My first ride (for a long time) had me trying to shuffle my hands in a bit all the time so they certainly need to be narrower.

“A case of fashion over function I’m afraid.”

Except for all the riders with long arms and/or broad shoulders for their height who are riding trails that are on the faster, more open and rockier end of the scale.

It’s much easier to shorten a bar than lengthen it. Also, if you do need to swap to a shorter bar because it won’t cut down as far as you need, you’ll get more money secondhand for the same bar in a longer version.

Next you’ll be telling us that modern geometry is fashion over function, again...

“I have DMR death grips”

Death Grips add 10mm to your bar width.

A good guide to bar length apparently is to lay down and put your arms out at right angles, with the arms bent at right angles too with hands straight. The distance between the middle fingers of each hand is a good indication of an appropriate bar width (well length really).

I happen to measure 780mm amd this size bar works great.

That 90 degree shoulder and elbow method puts me at over 900mm (at 5'10" 178cm tall). Am I freakishly proportioned? Never considered my chest/shoulders to be wide nor upper arms really long.

, it’s also personal preference.

Sure, but if you are over 6' with long arms, you would expect to need wider bars than someone who was 5' 7" with short arms like the OP. Or are you thinking bigger bikes should really come with 900 mm bars?

Except for all the riders with long arms and/or broad shoulders for their height who are riding trails that are on the faster, more open and rockier end of the scale.

Sure, but 800 mm bars on a bike fitting someone 5'7" with 120 mm forks doesn't seem like it would be a great match for the majority of riders in that range. I think that's what the OP has discovered anyway. Yes, you can always take a saw to them, except for some carbon bars.

Can’t you just accept that other people have different preferences? Doesn’t make them wrong, or fashion victims.

So there's no fashion in mountain biking at all then? Righto.

At 166cm tall, I am not. Tall that is.
I went out a few summers ago to a nice dry loamy decent with loads of corners and drops.
I started with 800mm, and moved my grips in and out until I was happy I tried few lengths from the 800 down to 720, rode the same trail twice at each setting. I kept gears and brakes the same distance from the grips, except that at some point around 730 I ran out of room and had to squish them up a bit.
I ended up at about 780. I really do feel comfy there and don't get as much pump as I did before.
Then all the formulas and ideas fall by the wayside.

just tried that test...and sure enough my width is 760/800 ish.. i'm 5ft 8 and run 800mm bars (because they were cheap CF items on sale) and deathgrips..
took me some getting used to (lat bike i had ridden was a 1990's long stem and bars more like 500mm)
the most critical part i found was the setup.. getting the bars rotated so that the pressure is evenly distributed on my hands
i really couldn't tell the difference between 760 and 800 etc....

The wider the bar is, the more backsweep you need to keep your wrists comfortable. If you've got short arms, you're going to need more backsweep earlier than someone with longer arms. All about the angles!

5'11, 780mm bars with 12degree backsweep here. I like how they feel, and my elbow hurts less than with the "standard" 780s I was riding before. I might still lop a wee bit off then ends, too.

^^ won't the backsweep also be a factor on how far the bars are away from you also? i think mine are quite shallow like 6 up and 6 back? from memory, but i do have to get them in the exact place or it isn't good for me

I'm 5'10" with not the longest arms and tried some 800mm bars but have gradually shaved them down to 770 and it feels so much better. I was getting sore wrists and elbows with the 800s and the bike felt unwieldy in tight spots, plus I still tend to move my hands inwards a bit for tech climbs and fast flowy, pumpy stuff

Death Grips add 10mm to your bar width.

Yeah they will won’t they? Good point.

I think I’ll start off by taking off 10mm each side and see how I get on.

Nice to hear that a lot of people run bars a bit narrower than 800mm.

It's got nothing to do with height - if you look at the pro DH riders, many of the women ride with wider bars than the men.

I'm 5'9 and ride 800mm bars and they're spot on for me. I've got pretty narrow shoulders and the extra leverage of wider bars makes a big difference for me on technical stuff and rock gardens.

If your Death Grips are adding 10mm to your bars you've not installed them properly - you need to whack them with a rubber mallet to get them on fully.

JP

6:2ft and riding 680mm bars on my Giant Anthem, works fine and I can wheelie over 600m on a decent surface 🙂

720mm here, stock that was fitted to the bike 3 years ago. Still massively wider than my 90's MTB where we hacked the width off as we were all roadies, and as was the fashion then. I've since had to replace them with quill stem compatible bar of a huge 680 - couldn't find much bigger and it wouldn't look right much bigger as 90's bikes were much smaller than today's.

“If your Death Grips are adding 10mm to your bars you’ve not installed them properly – you need to whack them with a rubber mallet to get them on fully.”

I’ve hit enough Deathgrips hard enough with enough mallets onto enough handlebars to know they add 5mm onto each end of the bar!

5'9 3/4 here - 700 - 720 bars is as wide as I feel comfy on.

“If your Death Grips are adding 10mm to your bars you’ve not installed them properly – you need to whack them with a rubber mallet to get them on fully.”

I’ve hit enough Deathgrips hard enough with enough mallets onto enough handlebars to know they add 5mm onto each end of the bar!

Well, I've just measured my bars with Deathgrips on and they're still 800mm, like they were with the last pair.

JP

@boombang I clearly typed utter nonsense... I'll go back and check the book!!!
(Just did it myself and am 960 so the method must be different)

you need to whack them with a rubber mallet to get them on fully

You are doing it wrong if you need a mallet

“Well, I’ve just measured my bars with Deathgrips on and they’re still 800mm, like they were with the last pair.“

Well, my 760mm Renthals measure 770mm with the Deathgrips, my 800mm RaceFace SixC measured 810, my cut-down to 740 RaceFace Turbine measured 750, etc.

I may be being rather particular but how can the plastic end cap to the internal sheath and the rubber end cap over that (I can see that’s how they’re made because at least one of mine has worn through) have a thickness of almost zero mm?

I tried the ‘falling into a press-up position’ technique. Your hands naturally fall and land at the most supportive width. Makes it easier if someone can measure for you- outside of hand to outside of hand. I tried it multiple times and was pretty consistent at 740mm for my stumpy 5’6” height

Yep RicB that's the technique I misremembered and how I came up with 780 for myself.
... I also heard Brendan Fairclough talking about maintaining a strong press up position on the trail which makes sense to link to bar width I guess.

I think I’ll start off by taking off 10mm each side and see how I get on.

10mm a side is 20mm a time, so in short order you will be down to 700mm and wondering where your bars went..
Thats why you experiment with the grips to find your position.

“10mm a side is 20mm a time, so in short order you will be down to 700mm and wondering where your bars went..
Thats why you experiment with the grips to find your position.”

Also, the best way to set up anything is to go past the target and then revert - whether that’s tuning suspension, finding saddle height, EQing your amp, choosing paint colours, etc etc.

But for some reason the bike industry has avoided this, preferring to incrementally change geometry every few years - hence it’s taken decades to make MTBs roughly MX bike shaped rather than road bicycle shaped!

Buy some grips you can slide in, otherwise you’ll probably cut too narrow or stay too wide for fear of the former.

I tried the ‘falling into a press-up position’ technique.

If you wanted to bring some science/setup into the equation I found this book to be absolutely brilliant in terms of getting the right setup *for me*..

https://www.llbmtb.com/product/dialed-the-secret-math-of-a-perfect-mountain-bike-setup/

Get some cheap open grips for a few quid if you haven't got some old ones knocking about, slide them in to 740mm then go ride, if too narrow slide out 10mm, go ride again, if still too narrow....you get the picture, once settled cut down and put deathgrips back on. Cutting down again and again would be a pain in the arse.