Should I be using narrow handlebars?
Handlebars come in a variety of shapes, styles and sizes. Handlebar choice depends on several factors, the most important being comfort. In recent years, there’s been a tendency towards narrower bars and I’m often asked if this is a just a fad. I’ll go through some of the reasoning here, but so far, I’ve only ever recommended narrower bars or the same width.
Using bars which are too wide or too narrow affects your shoulders, wrists and hands. This can cause pain and discomfort, even nerve damage in extreme cases. I’ve only seen nerve issues in ultra distance riders, but it shows how bad it can really get. Changing handlebar width is my second most commonly recommended bike component change, after stems
For this post, I’m mainly going to be concentrating on drop bars, the type you normally see on road and gravel bikes.
Road Vs Gravel: What’s the difference?
Your position on a gravel bike tends to be more upright and many riders favour a wider grip with a shorter stem. Gravel bikes are inherently more stable than road bikes, with a slacker head angle and bigger tyres. Changing direction requires a greater movement of the bars, so people prefer a wider bar and shorter stem. The extreme version of this is found on downhill mountain bikes, which are designed to ride over almost anything in a straight line, unless you significantly turn the bars. The wider bars give you more leverage and the shorter stem makes it more responsive, which can be a bit twitchy on a road bike. Road bikes favour a longer stem for the opposite reason, it gives more stability to an unstable bike. An experienced road rider will do the majority of their turns by changing their position and body weight, with minimal movement of the bars themselves. My racing bike handlebars are only turned on hairpins, cornering from stationary, turning around completely or going round a gate.
What Difference Can Handlebar Width Make?
In the first picture, the rider in orange is on a 42cm bar, in the second picture, he’s riding 38cms. His shoulders and elbows have relaxed and the angle at the wrist is greatly reduced. The bend in his elbows is now in line with his shoulders and he found the narrower bar a lot more comfortable too. By narrowing the bar, his hands have moved into a more natural “handshake” position, which matches the shape of the hoods and reduces pressure on the wrists. The rider in green, who’s 6ft tall, was recommended 38cm handlebars as well. When you look at his wrists close up on the narrower bars, you can see red marks where his wrist was previously compressed after an hour of riding on the trainer. He was suffering from wrist issues on longer rides. The change is more clearly seen on the video, which can be found on my instagram
In all my bike fits, I haven’t yet recommended a client use a wider bar than they’ve come in on. This may change as more people and brands are favouring a narrower bar. I’m sure I’ll have a client at some point who has gone too far in reducing their bar width. When I’m testing bar width on my adjustable handlebars, I’ll bring them to a 32cm width, to show people what it feels like to ride a very narrow bar. For a lot of people, this feels a bit too compressed through the shoulders and chest, and a slightly wider bar will simply feel better. I have recommended 32cm bars to several clients, myself included. Thankfully there are a few brands who now make these for adult bikes. Many bars get around the instability which comes from being narrow at the hoods by adding a sweep to the drops. When descending at speed, you can ride a wider position on the drops, regaining some stability and ease of turning, if you need it. This is a common design feature of gravel bars.
Should I change my handlebars?
This is the big question. It’s not cheap. A nice set of Deda or Profile design aluminium bars will set you back around £40-60, but then you’ve got to factor in bar tape and the labour to change and rewrap your bars. You will expect to pay at least £100 in total. Wherever you can, try before you buy. Do you have someone you ride with who uses narrower handlebars? Have a try, see what they feel like. If you’re in a shop with a variety of bar sizes, like the London Bike Studio, try holding a variety of widths and see which ones feel the most natural on your shoulders. Most bike fitters will have adjustable width bars which you can try riding with. Nothing beats actually riding a different width, to see how much difference it makes.
As part of my bike fits, I change the client’s bars and stem for my adjustable set up, so a client can experience which bar width and stem length combination works best for them. As your hands are on the outside of an arc, if you reduce your bar width, you may find a longer stem becomes more comfortable. One of the rules of bike fitting, you can’t change one thing without affecting something else.
Not everyone is sensitive to bar width. If you don’t have any hand or wrist issues, if you’re only going to be making short journeys on your bike, it may not be worth the expense of changing them, even if a different width would be more comfortable. Experiment with reducing the width slightly by adjusting your hood position.
A bike fit will also aim to improve your balance on the bike, which will also reduce the strain and pressure on your hands and wrists. I have had several clients try a narrower bar, agree that it’s more comfortable but that it wasn’t a big enough improvement to justify the expense. A couple of these have changed their bars at a later date.
