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Home / Culture / Survey

How Wide are Your Mountain Bike Handlebars?

When it comes to mountain bike handlebars, wider is better... up until a certain point.

By Jeff Barber
February 9, 2020

26 comments

Singletracks may receive compensation for purchases made through any affiliate links in this article.

When it comes to mountain bike handlebars, wider is better… up until a certain point. Wide bars can offer greater control and comfort — or worse control and comfort if they’re not properly sized. Plus there’s the whole issue of getting caught between tree trunks on rides in the forest.

Over the past several seasons many riders have been experimenting with different handlebar widths, finally settling on the number that works for them.

How has your handlebar width changed since you started riding?

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Jeff Barber

Jeff Barber has been mountain biking since 1992 and has tested hundreds of mountain bikes and components. He is the co-founder of Singletracks and serves as Editor in Chief. Contact him at [email protected].

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26 Comments

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SteveHunt Florida // 2012
Feb 16, 2020

670mm. I rode some Specialized Demo bikes at Mulberry Gap one time and they felt like beach cruisers.

1 reply

strawberryletterno.23 2020
Feb 9, 2020

745. bought 760 but honestly i didnt feel i needed more than the 45. also felt like there was a lack of support that might see me over the bars. im 6'3" with long arms so dont really understand people going so wide. and dodging trees etc is just a massive pain in the arse going longer.

p.s. i also run barends for anti tree protection 😄

1 reply

Jetmo New York // 2016
Feb 14, 2020

A familiar topic but I still like hearing where people are at too. But I always think a person’s relative size adds clarity. I’m 5’ 10” with not long arms and ride 740 on a large Ragley hard tail and 760 on a large and medium Vitus pair of bikes. The reach and stem on each bike plays a role in how I fit things. For example, on the large (or 19”) Ragley I wanted longer reach (thus the large frame vs medium) and a shorter stem but didn’t want my torso weight overly pulled forward or too stretched out so I kept the stock 740 while swapping the stem to 35mm as an attempt to balance things. Having said that, 760 feels a little more comfortable on my other bikes and would probably be fine on the Ragley too I’m guessing.

1 reply

Oldandrolling South Carolina // 2018
Feb 11, 2020

Hey Jeff,
Since you got the ball rolling, how about you survey stem length vs handlebar length or the ratios? I have found they are highly dependent on the comfort and fit of a bike.

1 reply

Oldandrolling South Carolina // 2018
Feb 10, 2020

I did some experimenting last year. Anything over 680 and less than 800 are comfortable. I use 740 on my XC and 780 on my trail bike

1 reply

bhambrit Missouri // 2022
Jun 14, 2022

580mm with ski bar-ends for extra sprinting/climbing power!

0 reply

rajflyboy North Carolina // 2017
Feb 11, 2020

740mm

0 reply

FrankS29 New York // 2019
Feb 9, 2020

760mm on my bikes.

I slowly worked my up from my old 580mm XC bars that I rode forever.

Any wider than 760mm is too wide for me, and too wide for most trails in this area. Had a buddy try 800mm bars. smashed fingers and couple of bar grabber crashes later, they were cut down right away.

0 reply

rhut Colorado // 2017
Feb 10, 2020

820 Odditys on all the bikes. I ride on the front range and in the desert, if I rode in the trees, that'd change my mind

0 reply

Northernlights Arizona // 2019
Feb 13, 2020

Desert Southwest. No trees. 800 mil for the win....

0 reply

Rick Richter California // 2015
Jul 31, 2022

I had narrower handlebars and went to the 760s. I live in the desert and there is no way that I would use less than a 760 for when you hit nasty things like deep sand, they really help. Other side of that coin, I had an insanely tough thorn bush grab my left hand and grip hard enough that it ripped my glove and my grip, not to mention my hand, and forced a 45° turn at high speed into the front of a 3-ft tall flat faced Rock. Long story short - broken parts on the bike (mostly just the front wheel and cosmetic), and broken parts on me that required three surgeries and time off the bike for a year and a half to heal. Well, my bike is healed and so am I; and there's no way in hell I will ride with less than 760 bars again. I just need to maintain the awareness of how wide they are in a world where we frequently brush against bushes and such. The minor risk of snagging another handlebar is worth it with the wider bars.

0 reply

eh-steve British Columbia // 2019
Feb 13, 2020

I have a 6'1" arm span and ride 800mm (in the PNW). There are a couple of trails that are impossible to clean with a bar that wide, but they are old trails built when people were riding sub 700mm bars. Oh well, not going to cut my bars for a couple of trails, everywhere else they feel great.

0 reply

Sunspot Colorado // 2019
Feb 16, 2020

I rememeber the days of bars so narrow you could ride with handcuffs.
70mm stem with 800mm, 25mm rise, 10 back, 6 upsweep for a trialsy good ride.

0 reply

ronsterlee Massachusetts // 2021
Dec 13, 2022

I widened up to 740mm from 680mm. It does make steering feel less twitchy, but even with my wider-than-average shoulders, 800mm seems obnoxiously wide.

0 reply

vapidoscar Ohio // 2018
Feb 9, 2020

I'm going from 710 to 780. Will see how that goes trying to get around trees but they don't seem that much bigger.

0 reply

m.krupp Kentucky // 2018
Feb 13, 2020

Just put new wider bars on both my bikes. Bumped up from 760 to 800. One of my bikes had a longer stem and shortened it up at the same time. Being winter and so wet I haven't got a lot of time in but the couple of shorter rides I have had on both I like. Feel I can maneuver each bike a tad easier. Only one tight squeeze noticed so for but just ups my concentration and working to be a better rider. Maybe drop down to 780 if I find myself smashing fingers. Right now I like it. I am 6'1" and this feels right. Couldn't imagine going wider but a taller rider may prefer it.

0 reply

k9 Australia // 2011
Jun 14, 2022

My bars are 730 mm these days, up from less than 600mm 30 years ago. I'm 160mm or 5'3" tall and pretty bloody old 🙂

0 reply

sprocket62 Kentucky // 2017
Feb 16, 2020

My current bars are 700 cut down from 740 on my 29r. My 26r I was running 530s, I could fit between some small spaces...lol

0 reply

TwoWheelsGood Ontario // 2015
Feb 13, 2020

My medium 2015 Trek Superfly SS came with 690mm bars and I thought they were huge at first but find them perfect now when ripping singletrack. My previous bike was a 2010 Gary Fisher Rig and it had a curved-backwards bar so the actual hand distance was likely not that wide. I'm not a big guy (5'9" and 145lbs) so I think going too wide is going to stretch you out too much. My 2019 Specialized Fatboy came with 750mm bars and an already short stem. I am thinking of trimming them down a bit as I feel too spread out and it is always making me tend towards the front of the seat putting too much of my weight on the front of the bike, which is not good in loose snow. I put a pair of 710mm or 720mm on my son's bike and they feel okay so I think the proper size for me is in the 690 to 720 range. Maybe they can't be too wide on a singlespeed bike as you are out of the saddle so much and when standing you don't want your hands way out from your body. Just thoughts from an old guy!

0 reply

williedillon Georgia // 2012
Feb 9, 2020

My new bike came with 780mm bars, and my old bike came with 680mm bars. I feel like 780mm is a tad too big for our tighter, heavily-treed trails in the southeast so I'm thinking of cutting them down to 740mm.

0 reply

Pisgah West Virginia // 2019
Feb 12, 2020

One bike is 770 the other is 780. The 770 is less stressful.

0 reply

Zoso 2016
Feb 9, 2020

Ran 740mm for a few years, 760 now. I *may* go 780 but 800 is unwieldy.

0 reply

atbscott 2016
Feb 10, 2020

Riding 760 on my Switchblade and had 730 on my older bike. 760 feel OK but may take about 10mm off each end as there are places where they feel a bit wide. TBH I have 660mm on my old single speed and they feel fine. I think that bars have gotten kinda ridiculously wide the last few years. If you ride in any sort of tight technical stuff, through trees, along rocky ledges, etc... I can't see where having 800+ bars offer any sort of advantage, unless you are huge with wide shoulders.
Horses for courses - I think everyone should just ride what feels good to them. Just my $.02

0 reply

bikerboy15 California // 2016
Feb 9, 2020

Up to 800 from 760 on my previous bike, thinking I might cut them down to 780 or 770 to try and shorten the "reach" hoping maybe narrower bars will give me more control on jumps and maybe help not be so nose heavy. Thoughts...?

0 reply

jgmtb Italy // 2013
Feb 10, 2020

Wow, people are running some seriously wide bars. I run 750mm, which cut down from 770cm. If I wasn't doing mostly gravity-type riding i'd cut down another 1-2 cm. I feel that after a certain point, there are really diminishing returns to such wide bars, that they inhibit ones ability to move around the bike. Of course depends on body proportions and riding style. To each his/her own!

0 reply

ShredG California // 2020
Feb 9, 2020

Been playing around on 810 mm hi riser enve bar after running a cpl at 760 it's a bit weird jumping on my older bikes.... even what was a wide bar at 750+ feels narrow any more after running the 800+ bars I'm thinking I will prob cut them down to 780 or so eventually but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about...

-1 reply

Tagged: bar, bar width, mtb bar, mtb bars, opinion, survey, wide bars, culture

First published February 9, 2020 @ 4:35:00