Advice on narrower handlebars, please

[Triskeliongirl]

I agree with Emily, bars are as personal as saddle. I tried the 40 cm salsa pocos, and as Emily noted they have a nice flat part on top, I HATED the ergo bend. Its one of those things, if the bend matches your hand shape I bet its great, but if not its NOT. Before those I had the 38 cm terry t-bar, and found it too narrow, and too shallow, but liked the round rather than curvy bends. My current bar is the 41 cm nitto noodle which is just perfect. Flat on top, shallow ramp, and nice big and round drops. BUT, I have large hands (womens glove size L). I like the noodle cuz I can have the drops parallel to the ground withoug having too big a drop between the tops and hoods. Also be aware that diff bars have differnt reaches, from ~7-9 cm, so bar choice can effect stem length. I like my bars slightly wider than my shoulders to open my rib cage for breathing and improved control.

[mimitabby]

my bike came with the Salsa Poco's, 36cm. They were too small. I got a pair of Eva bars instead, they are 40's and are much better even though i don't have 40 cm shoulders.

[velogirl]

The great design feature of the Eva bar is that they are flared at the drop. A common size is 36cm/40cm, which means the hoods are 36cm -- perfect shoulder width for many women so you don't get shoulder/neck pain. And the drops ar 40cm, which means you have more leverage to corner and descend. Great design!

[emily_in_nc]

I like my bars slightly wider than my shoulders to open my rib cage for breathing and improved control.

Agreed. My 38cm bars are a little wider than my shoulders, which are around 36 cm, but 36cm bars just feel too narrow and squirrely to me, and anything that opens my chest up for better breathing can only help. You just don't want to go too wide compared to your shoulders, resulting in pain.

Emily

[VeloVT]

thanks for all of the responses.

The Eva bar sounds like a good idea -- I did a search for it online and the narrowest I could find was 38/42 -- which I worry would put me in a similar position to my current bars. The smaller size sounds like it might be perfect.

Anyone who has tried the Ritchey biomax -- how significant is the flare in the drops? Apparently it's three degrees -- but how does that translate into added width?

I suppose I really should visit my bike shop -- however, there's not a single woman on the staff and I often -- usually -- feel like they treat me in a patronizing way because I"m a girl. So I go there to buy tubes and Co2 and do all the important searching online. (Probably not the best plan... ). Also I doubt they'll have a wide selection of smaller bars.