The comfort of narrow handlebars.

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KWalker
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by KWalker

Simple trig suggests that if you go down 2cm you shouldn't need a longer stem, but if you went from say 44 to 38, then 5mm-1cm longer makes sense.
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11.4
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by 11.4

KWalker wrote:Simple trig suggests that if you go down 2cm you shouldn't need a longer stem, but if you went from say 44 to 38, then 5mm-1cm longer makes sense.


It isn't simple trig when changing position. It's a combination of weight bearing, effects on the hips and hip flexors, fore and aft balance on the bike, elbow room around the chest when steering, lots of things. If it was simple trig, bike fit would be trivial.

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KWalker
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by KWalker

Yes, it is. Triangles are triangles dude. If your hands move in only a few degrees it will not influence elbow flexion or extension. The hypotenuse doesn't change that much. Very few riders are truly sensitive to the few mm of variance. I'm sure you will claim some uncited this or that elite rider had this or that happen when they encountered a 1mm change, but it would take around a cm for most arm/torso length combinations to close the hip angle by a degree and/or influence fit parameters.

Using myself as an example my fitter used both electronic muscle activation sensors as well as his hands to test muscle firing patterns at various drop and reach combinations. The ideal zone of drop was 8mm for someone such as myself, who is 186.5cm tall. For reach, however, it only mattered in the drops and the zone was closer to 15mm. Considering the shape of modern hoods its very easy to take up the slack with slight hand position differences. I'm not exactly the most functional either.
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istigatrice
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by istigatrice

If your hands move in a 'few' degrees then your shoulders roll forward, already you've altered your stance on the bike. I'm no expert bike fitter, but I'd be inclined to agree with 11.4 on this.

Also FWIW, if you're using triangles you're over simplifying. Triangles are well defined on a 2D space, but a bike fit involves 3D and hence triangles won't span the space. Information will be lost if you choose to represent your 3D space with a 2D basis. If you were to use two orthogonal triangles, however...

Team Sky have their stems made in 1mm increments, if they didn't notice why would they bother?
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Marin
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by Marin

istigatrice wrote:@Marin, did you also lower your stem? Or just kept the stem the same and narrower bars?


Same height.

istigatrice
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by istigatrice

did about 3 hours on the 36cm handlebars and boy are they narrow. I spent the first few minutes thinking that I've made a huge mistake, but towards the end of the ride they started feeling really comfortable.

I must comment that cornering is a little interesting - it feels to me more like a point and shoot rather than leaning into the corner. Or maybe I'm just not leaning enough? Either way I'll probably adjust to this over the next few weeks.
I write the weightweenies blog, hope you like it :)

Disclosure: I'm sponsored by Velocite, but I do give my honest opinion about them (I'm endorsed to race their bikes, not say nice things about them)

11.4
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by 11.4

istigatrice wrote:did about 3 hours on the 36cm handlebars and boy are they narrow. I spent the first few minutes thinking that I've made a huge mistake, but towards the end of the ride they started feeling really comfortable.

I must comment that cornering is a little interesting - it feels to me more like a point and shoot rather than leaning into the corner. Or maybe I'm just not leaning enough? Either way I'll probably adjust to this over the next few weeks.


You lean just the same. Some people seem to find they can turn a bit more aggressively with the control of narrower bars. What you may be experiencing is that since your arms are closer to your centerline, when you turn your inside elbow may want to bump against your chest. Just remember to swing it out as you turn.

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prebsy
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by prebsy

Shameless plug for a photo of me racing but to reiterate what 11.4 is saying you gotta get that inside elbow way out there. I'm on 38s in the is pic, by the book i'd be on 44s.

Image

istigatrice
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by istigatrice

Thanks 11.4 and prebsy - I have not been getting that elbow out - I usually lean in with my shoulder (possibly a bad habit... but I picked it up from dad who probably picked it up from his motorbike racing days).
I write the weightweenies blog, hope you like it :)

Disclosure: I'm sponsored by Velocite, but I do give my honest opinion about them (I'm endorsed to race their bikes, not say nice things about them)

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Matt28NJ
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by Matt28NJ

prebsy wrote:Shameless plug for a photo of me racing but to reiterate what 11.4 is saying you gotta get that inside elbow way out there. I'm on 38s in the is pic, by the book i'd be on 44s.


Ah, I know who you are now. Go Blue Hens! Is that Iron Hill?

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by nathanong87

prebsy wrote:Shameless plug for a photo of me racing but to reiterate what 11.4 is saying you gotta get that inside elbow way out there. I'm on 38s in the is pic, by the book i'd be on 44s.


saw through mutual fb friends you are racing with PTS next season. Past few seasons they have been good dudes and wittwer is solid! See ya in some races probably!

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prebsy
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by prebsy

nathanong87 wrote:
prebsy wrote:Shameless plug for a photo of me racing but to reiterate what 11.4 is saying you gotta get that inside elbow way out there. I'm on 38s in the is pic, by the book i'd be on 44s.


saw through mutual fb friends you are racing with PTS next season. Past few seasons they have been good dudes and wittwer is solid! See ya in some races probably!

thanks, Should be a good time. Hopefully we'll see some more narrow handlebars across MABRA this season.

KWalker
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by KWalker

narrow handlebars were around MABRA for years. Frick used to fit everyone to Zipps and 3Ts because they'd measure at the drops and thus he could sell them a 42, but put them on a 40 in reality. IIRC he and his entire team ran 36s and 38s. He put me on 38s for a year, been on 40's ever since since no one makes traditional bars in 38. DJ ran 36s for a while and 38s, Hyatt had 38s....
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DMF
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by DMF

istigatrice wrote:Team Sky have their stems made in 1mm increments, if they didn't notice why would they bother?


I was actually under the impression that what Team Sky mechanics did was just measuring and labeling the actual length of their PRO aluminum stems, knowing that there are some production variances at play there... That came up in some old thread with a pic of a some labeled Team Sky PRO stems, like 103mm, 117mm and so on...

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