After riding with a 800mm, riding my 760mm feels a little narrow. I’m 5’7 and 800mm doesn’t feel too wide after getting used to it. I also hold the grips a little more inward and space my brakes 30mm from the edge of the grips for both bar lengths.

 

wide enough for me, but not too wide.

 

No cut. Keep ‘em wide. Have you tried riding them at 800mm for awhile?

I’m 5’9” and my bars are 760mm.

 

785 down to 745. I'm 5'8". I was getting some extreme hand pain with the wider bars. I did the "close your eyes and grab your bars where it's natural" thing. I temporarily moved my grips inward to this location and it happened to be right at 745. 20mm off each end really isn't much and it still feels like I have more than enough leverage. I've crushed my fingers into trees less too, so that's a bonus.

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The only way to know how wide is to start too wide and gradually move the grips/controls inward until you find the sweet spot. Take your time and move back and forth if needed, you can't glue it back on.

780mm, but I keep em wider so my pinky isn't right on the end.

 

As Travis said, the best way is to move your controls in on the bar you own and try each position for at least a few rides, then try moving them back out and only when you've tried it all, then cut them if you feel it's necessary.

Me, 6'2.25" tall knuckle dragging arms, started on 750, went to 785, found 760 on sale, can work, but prefer wider, so stick to 785mm wide, but also have an 800mm on my longest travel bike, but the have to slow down a tad in spots that are tight. Ride my 785mm bars like they're 800mm anyways, hand is slightly off the edge and grips I use extend a tad over the length. On my smallest bike I have, a size SM, bar is 710mm and people who ride that are normally <5'4" and no complaints, I wouldn't go below 740mm and honestly, probably more like 760mm at your height, especially if you ride in very rough, rocky, technical stuff.

I'm 6'-3" but 760mm felt crazy. Another guy my size agreed. It also didn't fit down most of our trails. I moved my controls, as described above, and took 2 small cuts before I arrived at 710mm (28").

That helps, right? :???:

-F

 

780-790 is my sweet spot... Could easily ride 800, but local trees didn't like it o_0

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Started at 785
Ended at 785
6’1

 

Currently using a 710 for a bit on my newer bike because I wanted to try/buy a cheap-o 'wider' bar for my 27 year-old rigid bike that has a 500 or something ridiulous/narrow. I was drawn to a wider improvement for that bike and could not resist trying a carbon bar that was $40. That orig old timer narrow thing is about on par for an 8 year old kid driving the bike.

I'll put it on the HardRock soon since the orig bar on my newer bike came as 780 and is just fine.

 

I used to ride regular riser bars at 740mm. My right wrist is funky from a poor quality surgical repair of my forearm and my wrist would kill me after long rides.
I switched to 710mm Jones bars and have been happy and comfortable ever since.
It's the sweep I like. I'm limited on the width since that's how they come.

BTW, I'm 6'5".

 

As Travis said, the best way is to move your controls in on the bar you own and try each position for at least a few rides, then try moving them back out and only when you've tried it all, then cut them if you feel it's necessary.

Me, 6'2.25" tall knuckle dragging arms, started on 750, went to 785, found 760 on sale, can work, but prefer wider, so stick to 785mm wide, but also have an 800mm on my longest travel bike, but the have to slow down a tad in spots that are tight. Ride my 785mm bars like they're 800mm anyways, hand is slightly off the edge and grips I use extend a tad over the length. On my smallest bike I have, a size SM, bar is 710mm and people who ride that are normally <5'4" and no complaints, I wouldn't go below 740mm and honestly, probably more like 760mm at your height, especially if you ride in very rough, rocky, technical stuff.

 

I had a 9-degree sweep flat bar on my bike at 760mm bolted to a 70mm stem. it always felt like my wrists were at and awkward angle riding like that. I think some combination of the following would solve that:
bar with more sweep at the same width
narrower bar with that sweep
shorter stem.

still experimenting, but I don't know how people with average width shoulders are riding such wide bars without destroying their wrists.

 

If you have the right width bar and ride in the "attack" position, then you won't experience this, but if you just sit bak with arms fairly straight, you will. Take note that when you get up out the saddle ready to attack, it feels right, no issues, only when you're seated cruising along, so if you do a lot of seated pedaling, maybe a higher sweep bar would help,or just do like I do and change hand position.

I had a 9-degree sweep flat bar on my bike at 760mm bolted to a 70mm stem. it always felt like my wrists were at and awkward angle riding like that. I think some combination of the following would solve that:
bar with more sweep at the same width
narrower bar with that seep
shorter stem.

still experimenting, but I don't know how people with average width shoulders are riding such wide bars without destroying their wrists.

 

I'm 5' 9", and recently cut a bar down from 785 to 680 mm. That was a tad too much, and I wish I had gone to 700 mm instead. I have several bikes with 680 mm bars, and it surprised me on this latest build that the same width feels just a touch narrow.

I've tried 800 mm bars in the past, and did not like my arms to be spread that widely. I haven't played around much in between 680 and 800 though, and there might be some sweet spot in there that I'm missing out on.

 

If you have a nicer handlebar i'd discourage cutting it down- they're tuned to flex at a comfortable frequency, and cutting them raises it. Cut down bars ride harsher.

6'3, longer than 760. Not too picky.

 

Do a comfortable pushup. Measure the width of your hands from outside edge to edge. Adjust from there.

 

I agree with this. I tried wider bars and didn't like them. I experimented with shorter stems and moving my controls in to arrive at what I felt was most comfortable. I settled on a 650 mm bar, which happens to correlate well with my preferred push up or bench press position.

Personally, I don't get this wide bar trend. It seems unergonomic and uncomfortable to me. But, I'm old school and still use bar ends (which I resisted for a long time back in the day).

 

^ I have heard the pushup method before. It sounds ninfty but it doesn't get you very far. It might work for some people, mostly coincidentally. My pushup width is several inches narrower than my preferred handlebar width.

 

There's alot of info in here too:

http://forums.mtbr.com/california-norcal/what-proper-width-bars-norcal-1042661.html

 

I'm 6'2", bars are 800 mm and aren't getting cut.

 

5'7" and I think 730mm is probably about the width limit for me. 740mm is where the push-up method puts me, but using a 740mm (with a stem that I knew was at least a cm too long) gave me persistent elbow pain which has lasted for months even after I stopped riding. That was on a rigid bike which I'm sure magnified the problem. I put a 720mm with 20° sweep on that bike, and it's working much better for me.

I think I'm going to tempt fate by trying the 740mm bar (with a stem of the proper length) on my full-suspension bike. At the first hint of worsening elbow pain, the 740mm will be replaced with something narrower.

 

It's not your height, it's shoulder width. Dress shirt is a 17 x 36" sleeve. 28" bars work well for me. I find 15 to 20 degrees sweep to be comfortable too.

 

750
690
5'9"

 

I'm 5-8 and can comfortably ride 740-760 without even giving it a 2nd thought. I've demo'd bikes with 800mm bars...no bueno for me. I have no desire to "get used to" something I don't like. I currently have 750 bars on (2) bikes and 760 on the other.

 

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I'm 5'8" with a slim build.

Trail bike: Enve RSR 760mm stock length
XC bike: Enve SWP 720mm cut from 740mm

Wides I've tried was a 780mm. I didn't really like it.

 

Excellent feedback - thanks all! Leaning towards trimming mine down to 760mm based on above info, palm pain, wide fly push ups vs shoulder width push ups.

Also, 400mm steering wheels got changed out to 350mm steering wheels back in the 60s. That might make sense to vintage car owners.

800mm... ain't got time to get use to them.

 

Excellent feedback - thanks all! Leaning towards trimming mine down to 760mm based on above info, palm pain, wide fly push ups vs shoulder width push ups.

Sayin it again-

move the grips/levers in and see if you're happier. If so, and you're running a fancy carbon/alloy bar, consider buying one that's the length you want and unloading the long one. An uncut bar is almost always more comfortable than a cut one.

Cheap bars are overbuilt- cut away!

 

I am 5'6", built up a Kona Unit earlier this year and put a 740mm carbon bar on it. Left it at this width for quite some time, while I experimented with several different stem lengths. Finally settled on a 70mm stem and started experimenting with width by moving my grips in 10mm increments. It always amazes me how different 10mm can feel when tweeking a cockpit. Finally pulled the trigger this past weekend and cut them to 730mm.

Repeating what has already been said several times, move your grips and ride, before cutting. Of course this is assuming you are using some form of lock-on grips. If not, might be a good time to start.

One more piece of advice I would add that has not been mentioned yet. Once you think you have the width you desire, ride different types of terrain. A relatively flat, fast flowing trail that has you spending the majority of your ride seated and spinning, is going to put you in a different riding position than say a technical trail that frequently has you out of the saddle.