Currently running 685mm riser. For general trail etc is anyone riding wider?

hora, get some race face atlas, low rise, think they're around 785mm long! you'l never buy narrows again! they feel poncy after riding some wide boys!

Just ordered some of the flat nukeproof 760mm wide bars – because I'm a fashion victim. 🙂

I find overwide bars uncomfortable and a pain in the woods 685 is perfect for me

I found my 685mm eastons a tad narrow on my SS after riding my FS and HT with Nukeproofs (cut to 740mm). Just put some flat nukeproofs on the SS now and feel much happier.

I prefer wider bars but then i'm a big chap, they may not suit smaller people but i guess it's all personal preference.

The only downside i can see is if you ride through a lot of woodland with tight clearances between trees. I've scuffed trees a few times now but not crashed (yet!) as a result of it. My 740's made it round cannock no problem though and that's pretty tight in places.

Shag, why low-rise though? Currently riding 685 mid-rise Easton's.

I'm 6ft2 and fairly broad-shoulders if that helps with 'comfort'?

Ps, it needs to be 25.4 as I have THREE Thomson stems in this size 🙂

Was looking at these:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=35407

I have stupidly wide bars on my jump bike but found I was holding them with my hands well inboard so I guess they might be too wide

why low-rise though?

I believe the idea is to keep your weight further forward which is better for cornering.

I swaped from easton EA50's to nukeproof flats,

I ride at Swinely and the difference is night and day, with a tiny 60mm stem, flipped to give a -ve rise and flat bars the 456 decends like its on rails, never once washed the front end out and the unweighted rear just follows through.

The tree thing isn't as bad as you imagine, sometimes its a case of tiing pedal strokes to rock the bike between a pair of trees but I've only come to a stop once and blamed the bars, and that was a momentum (too slow to flick the bike through) thing rather than actualy clattering both ends into the trees.

I found they make much more sense run really low, imagine your arms and the bar as a triangle, the wider the bars, the lower they need to be (or conversely the lower your bars the more benifit from wider ones).

Had 685mm wide bars for years, but HAD to go wider on the new bike.
Went for the new Hope Tech4 brakes. The levers have to be mounted waay inboard on the bars, so I HAD to get a wider bar that had longer straight sections.
Went for the Raceface Sixc at 725mm wide.

Imo, it looks bonkers wide ! After a few rides, I am liking the extra width. Still might trim a bit off though.
Great on super fast, open descents, but even at this moderate increase in width, I'm skimming more trailside stuff on narrower singletrack.

Can't imagine any wider being much fun. Not for where I ride anyway (Peak mainly)

I've had 710 on the 456 for the last 6 months or so- too wide for me for normal duties I've found, feels like there's more pushing and pulling going on with my arms, especially in rocks and the snaky stuff. My arms are pretty puny though. When I've run the bike singlespeed they seem better for hauling up the steep stuff though- might be my imagination though. 685 on the other bike is good.

Currently running 'hi-rise' Easton Handlebars Riser EA70 Monkeybars 2008 Black 685mm

No idea what they define hi-rise as though. Probably 2".

Sure I should go for 1" rise? Its just that years ago when I switched from flat bars to risers it felt like night and day then!

I use 711mm sunlines on my mtb and it feels like a good compromise for xc/dh/dj

High rise ones aswell, hate having a really low front end, gash for doing hops/manuals/jumps etc

hora – think it really depends on your setup. Part of the point is I think if you have long travel forks – because the front end is quite high – to bring it back down again.

I now have 36s on my usual bike so I'm experimenting with trying flat bars.

I'm running Fox float 36's but set permanently at 140mm travel which I prefer so the front end isn't too high. Probably a good start would be 711 on a low or mid-rise max. Its only c15cm extra each end so not too much of a shock?!

Saying that- if anyone is Manchester-based with bars I could borrow!

grum, you took the words right out of my mouth! 😉 keep them wide and low, but also depends on what sort of riding your doing, good for steep gnarly tech stuff, get used to tight tree sections after a while aswell not too bad!

Stanley – those SixC bars are the carbon ones, right? What are they like? Recommend?