Should I chop my XC handlebars?

For purely reference purposes, can anyone tell me the widths that XC pros use?
I saw that MVDP (184 cm) has 720 mm bars and I think I read that Schurter (173 cm) has 680?
Interestingly, these are very close to proportional to their height…

Not that I’m going to copy pros my height, I’m just curious what sort of range is common.

Before I cut my bars down, the last several times I got new bikes/equipment, I moved my controls and grips inbound, and played with it for a few weeks, until it was just right. Other than it looks odd having some excess handlebar, anyone can avoid cutting the bars to short.

Also, dimensional ratios on bars vs. rider height, vs. stem length, are flawed at best. When people hire a professional bike fitter, the fitter typically evaluates flexibility, and biomechanics. They don’t look up heights and lengths in tables. Bars come in all different shapes (even the subset of XC bars), as well as mounting angles. Stem length can be adjusted to tweak/fine tune effective reach. When something gets longer/shorter, angles may need to change for brake levers and/or handlebar - stem rotation. I’d suggest to anyone, try it out, tweak it, try some more, and then cut only after you are happy with the results.

My 2.5 cents.

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Fair enough, but I’ve been riding with them at the stock length for months and my position is definitely not going to get any wider.

About two weeks into owning my then-new mountain bike with significantly wider handle bars, I had pretty much the same experience … except that I didn‘t make it :smiley: :sweat_smile:

I guess I was so used to eyeballing where I‘d fit with my old bike that I simply didn‘t pay enough attention. Put a hole in my favorite softshell jacket :cry:

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Keep in mind Schurter had already put his 10,000 hours perfecting his riding form when 26" wheels and narrow bar hardtails were all that existed for fast XC. He’s learned to outride all the limitations you or I would run into if we cut bars that short.

Looking at the younger pros it looks like a lot of 720mm bars with longer & lower than standard spec stems at the world cup level. It definitely makes sense at that level, but it is very marginal gains in areo & steep uphill climbing control with a tradeoff of more sketchy downhill handling when compared to a shorter stem & 740/750mm.

Trainerroads go to mountainbike coach Lee McCormack have lots of thoughts on the subject:
Rider Area Distance - Setup

TL:DR: Simple measurements that take all nuances like stem length, bar width, reach etc into account and translates it to one length and one angle. Pretty effective to dial your bike fits among different bikes

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Lee McCormack's Guide to Finding the Handlebar Width Sweet-Spot - Pinkbike Here is the link for bar width.

By lee’s calculations, I need an 850 mm bar!

For perspective on the wider side, I ride 800 mm but I am 6’4 with broad shoulders and a pretty big wingspan. I do hit a lot of trees. I find that sweep is the best way to get my hands in the most comfortable place. I ride the Salsa flat bars with 11 deg backsweep on my trail bike and my wrist feels so much better.

I always tell people to think about push-ups, if you need to do a plank all day then ya a narrower bar is the best. But if you want to be active and let’s say do push-ups while someone is trying to push you over, you widen your hands flare your elbows to activate your chest and back.

It’s all compromise choose what feels best.

I find the bar width to be too wide myself per his calcs. too.
But I like the general idea, trying to distill endless options down to just one length and one angle.
This approach seem to work very well if you already have a bike that fits you like a glove. Just do those 2 measurements and take them to the bike you’re trying to fit. Rather than spend endless time comparing all the variables, stem lengths, spacers, width, sweep etc etc

According to his calculations, I’d need a 770mm bar…LOL. Not a chance in hell I am riding bars that wide.

Have you tried though?
Properly tried, meaning adjusting stem, spacers, bar rise and sweep to account for the increased width? Just throwing on a wider bar to a setup that already fits, will throw the fit off.
May not be as bad as you think!

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Yes…I know my fit and a 770 width bar would be ridiculous for me. Current stem is an 80, IIRC.

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What type of terrain do you ride?

Smoother trails, tighter lines between trees → narrower bars

More technical, steep, rocky terrain → wider bars

I’m 5’9” with 750mm bars and 30mm stem. That’s a good combination for me. I do clip trees every now and again on tighter trails, but the control on rocky descents is worth the trade off.

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One more option that you can consider:
Bar end inserts

Ibis makes these clever bar end inserts. Effectively allowing you to experiment ± 50mm, The inserts are 25mm each, but can be trimmed to any length.

Those are nice, but only compatible with the specific Ibis handlebar.

For a more universal option, something like these is better:

Guess this mean all of us old timers are perfectly optimized, too, I hope.

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Q: “Why don’t you run 800mm bars?”

A:

(Edit: The last time I rode in western Colorado, I saw several trees, some of which were within 1/4 mile of the trail.)

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I am not going to second guess what does and doesn’t work for you.

However, 80mm is VERY long. Think I am currently on 60mm with my XC bike. My enduro is 45mm.

How tall are you? 80mm seems pretty reasonable for XC these days. My stem is 80mm and I’ve got my bars at 730mm which both seem the ideal compromise for what I ride and my position on the bike.

I felt that same way when I got into MTB from a road background. My advice would be not to do so and ride a few seasons (or at least a whole season) with them as is.

You cannot uncut them once it’s done. In my experience, I disliked it when beginning but now I appreciate it bc the wider bars give more leverage when putting out high torque out of the saddle. You’re riding style will develop in MTB and you may come to appreciate it too. Otherwise, just cut it next year if you still dislike.