MTBers who road ride - roadie handlebar width

[SouthernBelle]

I hadn't thought of it before reading your post, but I can see where a rider's relative 'chestiness' would affect the choice of bar width.

Maybe if I went really narrow I would actually have cleavage.

[LBTC]

I starting with MTB, and still prefer it, but am trying to do more road riding each year.

My MTB bars are 61cm wide, if I try to measure between thumb webs it's about 42cm. My original road bike came with 44cm bars and I had a lot of upper body, hand and arm discomfort. I read up on bar width, did some measurements, found that my shoulders are about 38cm, so I should have gotten a 38cm bar, but I was chicken of the twitchiness, so I went with a 40cm low profile Ritchie bar.

It didn't take long for me to adjust to the new bar, I think I got just the right width, even though I was supposed to go smaller.

Tattie, if you can try any bars on a bike on a trainer, please do....you'll be pretty unhappy if you get a 44 but your optimum is 40 or 42.

Good luck!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~