Geekzone Cycling Thread

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#3329504 9-Jan-2025 13:24

elpenguino:

Congrats on your new bike.

Wider bars give increased leverage for you to turn the wheel but decreased leverage when the wheel wants to turn the bars, say, if you hit a rock or root or something.

If you're not doing that kind of riding then trimming the bars shouldn't have too many downsides.

I understand the leverage situation. I'm not doing the sort of riding where leverage is important.

A gravel bike would have probably suited what I want to do just as well if not better but I wanted front suspension forks and they're generally not available on gravel bikes. As I mentioned I downsized the tyres to a size more commonly found on a gravel bike.

I haven't had any issues on the old bike with 600 mm bars with the sort of riding I'll be doing with the new bike.

In many ways I'd have been just as well off buying another set of rims for my road bike and fitting wider tyres (~ 38 mm) except the forks don't allow for tyres that wide and the gearing is a bit higher than required for the sort of riding I want to do with the new bike.

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elpenguino

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#3329575 9-Jan-2025 14:20

Gotcha.

I'm on board with the handlebars idea - makes all the difference to be comfortable especially on a longer ride and I can see how 'trails' could be longer than say , MTB 'tracks'.

I rode the Remutaka incline the other day and 20km on a MTB was not overly comfortable - bars were definitely too wide making my torso too low as well.

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#3329621 9-Jan-2025 17:02

elpenguino:

Gotcha.

I'm on board with the handlebars idea - makes all the difference to be comfortable especially on a longer ride and I can see how 'trails' could be longer than say , MTB 'tracks'.

I rode the Remutaka incline the other day and 20km on a MTB was not overly comfortable - bars were definitely too wide making my torso too low as well.

No MTB tracks on my horizon. Just cycle trails, e.g. Hauraki Rail Trail, Waikato River Trails, etc, most likely 20km to 30km rides at a time.

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Senecio

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#3329622 9-Jan-2025 17:11

I just couldn’t get used to the wide bars on my bike. I cut them down recently and wish I had done it sooner.

Technofreak

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#3329700 9-Jan-2025 20:36

Senecio:

I just couldn’t get used to the wide bars on my bike. I cut them down recently and wish I had done it sooner.

What did you cut them down to? Did you do it yourself or did you get the bike shop to do it?

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mattwnz

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#3329805 10-Jan-2025 00:44

I also find the wider handlebars on modern mountain bikes too wide . What I did with my mountain bike was get new slightly longer grips, and moved the lever mounts slightly further in, and also got some bull horn extensions to put on the ends. So even though the handlebars are the same width, my hand position slightly further in.

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#3329864 10-Jan-2025 07:57

Technofreak:

Senecio:

I just couldn’t get used to the wide bars on my bike. I cut them down recently and wish I had done it sooner.

What did you cut them down to? Did you do it yourself or did you get the bike shop to do it?

Don't know what the current length is, other than to say it's a comfortable length. I did it myself and just trimmed 10mm off each end until I was happy with the new width. Took 3 goes before I was happy so it must be 60mm narrower than standard, whatever that was.

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#3329868 10-Jan-2025 08:06

Senecio:

Technofreak:

What did you cut them down to? Did you do it yourself or did you get the bike shop to do it?

Don't know what the current length is, other than to say it's a comfortable length. I did it myself and just trimmed 10mm off each end until I was happy with the new width. Took 3 goes before I was happy so it must be 60mm narrower than standard, whatever that was.

Also cut my own aluminium ones down. Used an old pair of lock on grip collars as a saw guide to get it straightish. If they were carbon, I probably would get them done professionally.

But I agree with the idea of cutting them in small increments and testing unless you already have a known width that works. Easier to take a bit more off than to put it back on. :-)

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#3329894 10-Jan-2025 09:27

geoffwnz:

Also cut my own aluminium ones down. Used an old pair of lock on grip collars as a saw guide to get it straightish. If they were carbon, I probably would get them done professionally.

But I agree with the idea of cutting them in small increments and testing unless you already have a known width that works. Easier to take a bit more off than to put it back on. :-)

Mine were also just alloy, I wouldn't have cut them myself if they were carbon. I wasn't too concerned with getting them absolutely straight, the ends would be covered by the grips anyway. I did at least de-burr them and gave the ends a quick squirt of flat black paint for projection from corrosion.

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#3329909 10-Jan-2025 10:17

Technofreak:

Senecio:

I just couldn’t get used to the wide bars on my bike. I cut them down recently and wish I had done it sooner.

What did you cut them down to? Did you do it yourself or did you get the bike shop to do it?

700-720mm is the sweet spot for me. 5"10 and normal arm torso and leg span

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#3329912 10-Jan-2025 10:22

Batman:

700-720mm is the sweet spot for me. 5"10 and normal arm torso and leg span

On what kind of bike? I'm the same height and use 760-800mm on all my mountain-bikes.

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#3330075 10-Jan-2025 17:40

mudguard:

Batman:

700-720mm is the sweet spot for me. 5"10 and normal arm torso and leg span

On what kind of bike? I'm the same height and use 760-800mm on all my mountain-bikes.

cross country.

i did use 760 when i did enduro thanks to the trend of everyone going wider and wider, but those days are gone. it was uncomfortable and felt unnatural, and i was hitting too many things on the trails and when it caused me to fall into a gully i started going narrower and have now ended up at 720. feels perfect.

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#3330079 10-Jan-2025 18:01

Batman:

cross country.

i did use 760 when i did enduro thanks to the trend of everyone going wider and wider, but those days are gone. it was uncomfortable and felt unnatural, and i was hitting too many things on the trails and when it caused me to fall into a gully i started going narrower and have now ended up at 720. feels perfect.

I must admit it's tough not to be passionate about these things. I've lost count of how many bikes I have, but my oldest which is a 1999 DH bike has period correct bars and they are so narrow it's terrifying 😂 I had to search long and hard to find wide bars in period correct diameter.

I think the other positive of wide bars is it opens up my chest for climbs when I need more air 😁

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#3330961 13-Jan-2025 13:34

Been getting out quite a bit on the eBike lately - helps when you have three weeks off.

I actually didn't realise until I went for a ride with my 20 year old son, who is a fit, aggressive rider, just how much more riding I really get from having an eMTB.

We did 18 pretty tough km and he was cooked. I felt like I was just warmed up!

Anyway - here's some pics from the GoPro.

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#3330974 13-Jan-2025 14:19

Handsomedan:

Been getting out quite a bit on the eBike lately - helps when you have three weeks off.

I actually didn't realise until I went for a ride with my 20 year old son, who is a fit, aggressive rider, just how much more riding I really get from having an eMTB.

We did 18 pretty tough km and he was cooked. I felt like I was just warmed up!

That was my Dad vs me a couple of years ago. This year with all the riding and endurance training I've been doing, I was having to back right off and stay in zone 2 HR only so I didn't drop him too much. Though when he kicked up the E-boost on the trails he was catching me on the hills again. We knocked out a 46km easy trail ride in Taupo which is the sort of ride he's doing multiple times a week at 75 years old. Only racked up 12,000km on the e-bike in 4 years.

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