Quote Originally Posted by Irulan View Post
You might just need a different shape of handlebar, or being a new rider you might have the death grip and not know it. That bar looks pretty flat in teh photo, you might just need something with a bit more rise on the ends

As for width.... the style is now to go wider as wider is much more stable than narrow for handlebars. My four bikes range from 22" to 24". So, if I were you I wouldn't be in a hurry to change the width, but look at other factors first.
I'm not a new rider I sold my old mountain bike that was a simple hardtail with old fashioned mechanical v-brakes over a year ago and have been mtb-less for a while . These new bikes and all their new fangled technologies! Tubeless tires! It'll all take some getting used to Anyway, death grip was definitely not the problem-- the trails were pretty easy-intermediate so nothing that would make me grab on inadvertently in fear. What I suspect it might have been is just getting used to that flat bar geometry again after riding road exclusively and often in the last year and a half since I sold my last bike. And also the width.

Measured the handlebars-- they're indeed 26" and my shoulder width is a mere 16-17"

I will call my shop and ask about swapping the handle bars.