A few words about handlebar width

I have to admit that the recent trend towards absurdly narrow bars has me flummoxed. Back in the early to mid 1990s when there weren't any bike lanes to speak of and I needed to slip quickly in and out of tight spaces, I occasionally customized a handlebar by slicing a couple inches off each end. One spot in particular on my daily route where I had to squeeze between a wall and a lamp post was the original inspiration for pulling out the saw. I get that kind of thing.

But recently I saw a fellow cruising through downtown on a fixie with bars so narrow his pinkies were flapping in the breeze. I mean the guy literally couldn't fit his hands between the stem and the outside edge of the grip, which had also been sheared off to fit the tiny remnant of a handlebar.

So here's the deal, you're in such a hurry, and such an aggressive god or goddess of a rider that you absolutely must be capable of tear-assing down the road between the Fed Ex truck and the Sassy's cab in order to shave 12 seconds off every courier job of the day to make a decent living. I'm glad that isn't the kind of thing I have to do, but okay, lets say that's your gig. In terms of fitting through tight spaces, there is really no advantage to having bars narrower than your ass. You may be able to squeeze your shoulders together (and fit someplace you probably shouldn't) but you can't squeeze your hips together that way unless you're Mr. Fantastic or Elasto-gal.

But why not have the ultra-narrow bars for ease of storage and for carrying your bike up to that 5th floor walk up? I did that for years, so I know it's a lot easier with a small bike. The problem is the hands, the wrists, the shoulders, and the back. You might be able to get away with pulling every part of your upper body toward the headset at funky angles for a while, maybe even a long while, but 9 times out of ten you'll reach a point of major discomfort.

The other problem is that those narrow bars are misleading. If that's how you're gauging thw space you'll fit into, you're going to get squished. I learned years ago that it was a bad idea to let me drive a fast car. It just encouraged me to drive like a jackass. Same goes for the narrow handlebars.

These days, I like my bars just a skosh narrower than the dimples in my shoulders. It keeps the hands at a good angle and actually helps keep the upper back strain (right between the shoulder blades) to a minimum as well. Plus it's easy to see that if the bars won't fit, neither will I.

My advice is this: start with a flat bar about the width of your shoulders and if that feels too wide start by taking a half inch off each end. Then try it again. You can always take away more if you need to, but you can't add it back. And for heaven's sake, give your poor little pinkie a nice safe perch.