Lets go back in time because history does matter. Back in the day, shortly after the invention of the wheel, my friend and I would take our ten speed bikes into the forest and do something that would best compare to cyclocross. 10 speed bikes were actually 5 speed bikes by current standards, we had 5 gears in the back and two in the front, two times five is ten. Our department store 10 speed bikes were no match for the abuse we were giving them and they frequently broke. The wheels were the first thing to bend or develop a flat leaving us with a long walk home. Riding in the forest had it's appeal and we used to talk up what kind of bike we would need to stand up to trail riding. The fantasy bike should have heavy duty rims and big tires and maybe regular handlebars. It should have been obvious that fat tire cruiser bikes would have met our need but we just didn't see it; maybe it was because only granny's rode those types of bikes back in the day. Years past and we both stopped riding bikes and entered the world of the adult where we drove cars. I was walking downtown Kitchener when I came across a bike shop on King Street which sold bikes and locks, the name on the sign read Brauns Bicycles. In the front window, there it was on display, the bike my friend and I talked about, they called it a mountain bike. Apparently someone didn't just talk about it, they actually made one and starting selling them. Those first mountain bikes were just cruisers adapted to ride off road terrain. Trails as we know them today did not exist, they hadn't been built. In this area the first mountain bikes were used on existing hiking trails or double track in parks. Bikes began to change as the sport developed and builders starting creating single track. In time, front suspension forks were introduced, frame geometry began to change and handlebars went to a standard 18 inches wide (about 460MM). When serious cross country racing began riders were looking for an edge to go faster than their competitors. Since a lot of those racers came from road riding they went with a setup that was almost exactly the same as their road bike. If you cut the drops off a set of road bars you will be left with a bar that is about 18 inch wide so that was the logical bar width to go fast. Then raise the seat to get maximum leg extension, put on a long stem to make sure the rib cage is not restricted and you are ready to race. This setup was the norm for a decade or two. Over time trails changed and the bikes had to keep up with the demand to ride over bigger features and more intense trails. The components became stronger and yet at the same time became lighter, suspension improved and the riding position changed to a more upright seated position. All of these improvements led to riders being able to ride more aggressively. In the last seven years or so we have seen some of the biggest changes in bike setup. Being old school, I have been resisting those changes but I am slowing adapting. One thing I was holding out on was going to wide handlebars because I have spent so many years in the go fast position and I didn't want to give up any speed. Gradually I moved up to 650mm and I thought I was keeping up with technology but riders are now riding crazy wide bars. I recently bought a fat bike which came with 710mm bars. After spending a winter on my fatty I decided that I like wide bars. A few weeks ago I got some ribbing about my 650mm bars on my cross country bike so I decided I better get with the times and bought some 725mm bars. I know, I know, 725 isn't considered wide anymore but they feel wide for me. I've done a few rides on the cross country bike since I installed the new bars and have noticed some huge changes in how the bike handles. There are some pros and some cons. The cons are that the wide bars do not work as well as the 650 bars on old school sections of the Puslinch trails, there are some tight and twisty sections in that trail system that were built for the bikes of the nineties. I found that I had to steer more from the hip and drop the frame of the bike into the corners. It requires a bit more physical effort but I'm sure in time I will get my speed back up in those sections of trail. Another con is steering at low speeds is much more twitchy but I think I'll adapt to the steering change in a short time period. Of course if you are a weight weenie there is a small weight penalty to consider. The pros of wider bars surely outweigh the small cons. The very first thing I noticed was that the bike felt bigger and I somehow felt more powerful. It gave me more leverage over the bike which gave me better bike handling. This increased bike control made landing jumps, clearing obstacles and rolling rough terrain easier. Banking into fast sweeping turns is far better with the wider bars because that extra 75mm allowed me to lower the bike and not my body into the turn. One of the biggest surprises for me was in how well the bike climbed. On my first few climbs I got half way up the hill and realized that I was in a gear that was far too big. The wide bars had given me a sense of greater power which meant I started up the hill in an attack mode. Once I realized that the wider bars made me feel like superman, which I am not, I readjusted my approach to gearing and cranked up the steep hills with what seemed like less effort. Overall I would say that going to bigger bars does improve performance, and therefore size does matter.
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AuthorRon Head Archives
January 2024
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