Handllebar size and comfort

Well, my bike is on order and should be here the third week of November, and I am thinking about things I may need to change for better fit - mainly saddle and handlebars. The bike, a Felt F85X, comes with 420/450 mm handlebars. I'm not sure why there are two numbers, perhaps center to center and outside to outside? They appear to be compact, and have a 86mm reach and 130mm drop. Seems big for me. I just measured my shoulders and they are apx 390 mm. I looked at the women's specific Felt ZW2 specs and they come with a 380mm with a 77 mm reach and 123mm drop for the bike that would be my size, so I am wondering if that is what I should be looking for in a new handlebar.

My questions are: what size (width, reach, drop) bar are you using, does it fit well, and did you deviate from the normal recommendations to get that comfortable fit? Everything I read says shoulder width, but it seems some people find wider or more narrow to be more comfortable. What is your experience?

I should add that I do have rather small hands, so the drop and reach especially concern me. Even with women's small gloves, the fingers tend to be too long, so usually I resort to children's medium or large.

I have these, 380 mm width.

http://www.bontrager.com/model/09192

My bike (Madone WSD) came with the same bars in a 400 mm width, but I was having neck pain so I switched to the narrower bars.

I find them to be pretty much perfect, comfortable when riding in the drops and easy to reach the brifters.

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Originally Posted by Muirenn

I just looked up your bike. Very nice cyclocross! One of the road bikes I mentioned is a CX's, a cannondale CAADX, you're gonna love having a cross bike!

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Thanks! I am very excited about it. I'm not sure how I will feel about the paint scheme long term, but it is more of an entry level bike anyway I suppose and hopefully in a few years I will be able to upgrade and/or add another bike for duathlons/triathlons. For now, I think it is just what I need! I hope I am satisfied with the Tiagra setup.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ny biker

I have these, 380 mm width.

http://www.bontrager.com/model/09192

My bike (Madone WSD) came with the same bars in a 400 mm width, but I was having neck pain so I switched to the narrower bars.

I find them to be pretty much perfect, comfortable when riding in the drops and easy to reach the brifters.

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Those look like they would possibly be perfect for me! The sizing still gets me though. On my 7.2FX I had to move the shifters and grips out because I was getting elbow pain, which makes me wonder if I will also be more comfortable on a slightly wide drop bar. Then again, I am a bit over extended on that bike since I fell for the old "We'll give you a great deal on this odd size bike that's not quite your size that we're having trouble getting rid of from last year."

Those original numbers you posted are a really long reach! I like the short and shallow bars, with a 123 drop and a 75 reach. I have the Specialized ones, but there are a few other companies that make the same dimensions. Like Murienn, I hate the ergo bars, they hurt my hands. The bars are cheap, like 45.00 USD for the aluminum ones. It's made a world of difference for me.