MTB advice

RobFowl

Right need some advice, have a nice basic hard tail (Cube LTD) which I ride intermittently.
I can't get the handle on the wide bars though and want to cut them narrower.
All around me telling me not to but other than vague advice on "carving turns" cant give me a good reason to.
What do the boardsies think?

Ps anyone who says carving turns or such like will be sought out and beaten to death with a set of worn out MTB shoes....

easygoing39

Alas it sounds like youre getting advice from either downhillers or enduro riders.Hardtail suggests XC,why don't you ask a few proper XC riders their advice??

Beasty

Sod it! - had enough of this world anyway....

carving turns or such like

iwillhtfu

How much narrower are we talking?

Think of your bars as you would your stance with your feet, the wider they are the more stable the platform. You'll notice this a lot more though rock gardens and on jumps or drop offs.

RobFowl

iwillhtfu wrote: »

How much narrower are we talking?

Think of your bars as you would your stance with your feet, the wider they are the more stable the platform. You'll notice this a lot more though rock gardens and on jumps or drop offs.

Sort of in line with my road bars, maybe a little wider, poss 44cms then add some 1990's style stubbies...

iwillhtfu

RobFowl wrote: »

Sort of in line with my road bars, maybe a little wider, poss 44cms then add some 1990's style stubbies...

You'll definitely notice a difference in the handling if that's that case but it's not necessarily wrong. If it works for you it's probably an improvement It wouldn't be for me.

I assume it's mainly used for easy enough trails and fire road stuff and that you're not planning on entering the gravity enduro anytime soon. Either way they're only bars I'd go with the bit by bit approach when cutting and see where's comfortable.

RobFowl

iwillhtfu wrote: »

You'll definitely notice a difference in the handling if that's that case but it's not necessarily wrong. If it works for you it's probably an improvement It wouldn't be for me.

I assume it's mainly used for easy enough trails and fire road stuff and that you're not planning on entering the gravity enduro anytime soon. Either way they're only bars I'd go with the bit by bit approach when cutting and see where's comfortable.

Pretty much, road and cross my thing. MTB more a fun diversion, no thoughts of enduro downhill, fall off enough already

Alek

Hold on with cutting, I have approx. 570 and 600mm bars I have found too narrow. They're free to try and take if you like any of them

Lemming

How wide are you current bars?

rizzodun

As Lemming said, how wide are your current bars, and how narrow to you want to go?

Mountain biking (even XC) does involve more bar input at speed than road biking, the narrower the bar, the twitcher the bike.

They may be too wide now, but don't just chop a load off, you may need to do it bit by bit, or, as Alek has one spare, borrow and try first.

C3PO

The trend these days is to run MTB bars at about 730-750mm which I personally find too wide but 440mm would be too narrow ... the bike would be very nervous on any sort of technical terrain! As somebody else suggested, remove small amounts at a time and ride for a while on mixed terrain and see how you get on!

TooObvious

Handlebars have got really wide of late. I've raced XC in the past on narrow bars, but now far prefer my wider 740mm bars on the hardtail. They definitely give more control, have minimal additional weight and importantly look cool!

I don't know about "carving"berms but they do allow me to maintain my infinite zen-like flow..

Wanderer78

Wouldn't advise chopping anything, manufacturers have done their homework, mine are about 750 and work well, but I'm on an enduro. If it's possible, get a loan of the bars above or buy a shorter set, as chopping tends to permanent

Tenzor07

720mm is just fine, any less and it's like an old school XC bike.... Will make the bike feel a bit more skitty over rocks, esp. on the lower Ticknock trails which are in a bad state of repair...

Lemming

C3PO wrote: »

The trend these days is to run MTB bars at about 730-750mm which I personally find too wide but 440mm would be too narrow ... the bike would be very nervous on any sort of technical terrain! As somebody else suggested, remove small amounts at a time and ride for a while on mixed terrain and see how you get on!

My handlebars are 685mm (back when that was seen as wide ... Easton EA50 Monkey bars), and I sometimes think I could do with getting a little wider. But I wouldn't go shorter. The 'twitch' factor would be nuts on anything other than a flat road; and even then if you need to turn sharply it'll be terrifying.

Edit: also to consider is the width of your bars also has feeds into your stem length & angle, + saddle position.

Icyseanfitz

how're you going to land those sick jumps if you cant carve the turns into the take offs

Alek

I can carve any turn into a take off. The problem is that bike and me land separately most of the time.

Icyseanfitz

in my experience the bike goes higher than me and then proceeds to then land back on top of me. Technically we both land as one i suppose.