hello and welcome to a lockdown edition of bike for Tuesday's
on the agenda today handlebars if we got on the bus nice house
week one wearing the same t-shirt by two days in a row I've already told them we're filming a
bunch today so we can release them for me lot when we're locked in the house because of their zombie
apocalypse we've got a bunch of drop handlebars here ah to see as well this is a handlebar it's
what is fitted to the front of the bike it's what the controls are fits to and it allows
you to steer for the most part it's your almost your entire frontal interaction with the bicycle
and I think the important thing to understand is that not all handlebars are created equal
they're all slightly different shaped and just because something is a drop bar you know this
has this sort of shape on it doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna it's going to work for you it's
worth noting that they come in different widths as well to a certain extent that brought other rider
the wider the bar not always I like to usually align the bar with with the shoulder width and
there are ways of measuring for that so I don't get Chris Chris Chris is actually quite slender
guy what what I would usually do is measure across a chrome Ian process it's the distal
point of scapula which is your shoulder blade it's basically these two nodules here you can
tend to be able to you you should be able to feel it and if you measure across those you might need
to get a mate to do it on Chris's mates on they're different in this instance he may just 34 which is
a very very small person actually a lot of women will measure 34 that is a generally a really good
starting point means of understanding whether your handlebars too wide for you the single most
common one is rather than riding on the hoods you have tendency of rolling the wrists like
this it's usually a means of trying to align the wrist with the shoulder width so rolling the rest
of this tends to create lots of tension in the neck and shoulders so you get higher neck and
shoulders you also starter put quite a lot of pressure on the ulnar nerve which is what you
know one of the major nerves the hand so you end up getting numb hands what we want is to
encourage you to be on the controls the whole time if you aren't comfortable on the controls on the
hoods then something's wrong by the varsity wide and or the reach is too long so Chris measures
34 centimeters from there to there that means he needs to be going for a third to four centimeter
bar yes 34 centimeter by you can't really get any more there was a period where specialized made of
36 centimeter bar that actually measures 34 now one important thing to consider here when I when
I say the size of a handle bar I'm talking about a center to Center measurement right so this is this
is actually a 38 centimeter bar right now this is where it gets confusing because when you read
sizes on a row on a on a company's website they will they'll be exciting you also look at how its
measured this is a 40 centimeter 3t handle bar but it measures 38 all right so measure measure
it yourself yeah is that is the best way of going about it most other size right as bites will come
with the 40's who sends me to bar my finding is that's that's too wide for 80 percent the
population single most point handlebar with I sell for men is a 40 centimeter for women it's
between 36 and 38 actually so pretty it's a bit of a bit of a balance and you know think about
yourself you know if you're a slender more slender individual you're possibly going to need a more
slender handle bar likewise if you're a broader individual you need a broader handle bar all the
broader side of things I mean handlebars really go 36 38 40 42 44 18 count on one hand they might
force of course I fit it that they're pretty uncommon usually too big rugby type size are
really really broad but that's that's generally a good starting point is to match the shoulder
width to the handlebar with what about handlebar reach so how long the handlebar is we demonstrate
that GU is what Reach is yeah I stood on this bar because it's one of the longest reach bars money
can buy this is a Bontrager VRC handlebar it's what you'll get it's a bolivar come on most of
the trek models i actually i think i really like this as a shape of a handlebar but it does do it
does have one quite negative impact on a lot of a lot of riders and by way of adding a significant
amount of reach now when we talk about rich talking about Center from the bottom the center
of the bar bore to basically where the control is located on the handlebar and by altering this
distance you can influence the reach of the bike by up to 30 mil all right so when I say the reach
of the bike we always measure from the nose of the cell to the back of the control it's a precise
measurement of how the rider interacts with the bicycle listen the nose the saddle to the center
of the handlebar is a waste of time for this exact reason because this measurement can say the same
Center the bar to the nose of the saddle whereas this measurement could change right just watch
ain't in the handlebar and also by changing the control some more on that later on something that
you need to consider when when buying a handlebar is the is the ritual differ from bar to bar if you
put something like this on or three teammates a hallow Baca land Aero Nova or is it over and over
I forget you know the last areas got like 125 mils worth of reach so it adds a yard to the front of
the bicycle it's a demonstrate how much breach can differ I mean sort of slightly by accident come
up with a way of demonstrating this all three of these handlebars are sat on their on their backs
like so if you consider that beta is generally the shortest that I can find you look at the
distance the difference in terms of reach between the 3t and the data this is a 75 millimeter handle
reach the 3t is also a 75 millimeter supposedly when you look at the Bontrager 3t you know it's
significantly longer so what that's going to do is it's going to add a significant amount
of reach from from the back from the saddle essentially so you're going to increase the
reach of the bicycle and I guess if you kind of flip it on its head I get guys to come in here
and they've got a handle bar like this with like an 18 millimeter stem on it you'd have a hundred
mill stem if you just put a standard reach bar on or a short to reach bar on it there's one
way of winding down the reach without the bike looking less weird weird yeah there's a lot of
problems associated with excessive reach you know tends to have formers have always tends
to almost always have ramifications in the saddle I know riding saddle sores gentle numbness so what
a fantastic way to reduce it in an inexpensive way alibi on this shop starts rough 35 quid yeah
and you guys certainly up service or three four hundred pounds depending on how it's grated and
how shiny you want the thing I think it's also worth noting that I mean I personally flat top
bars so there's three T's a little bit flatter on the top data's about with 0-100 and also a
0-2 which is a cheap version which is a little bit flatter so I would indeed climbing on the
tops it's a little bit more comfortable this is a bit of an element of personal preference with
handlebar choice but I think the things you need to get your head around are the reach of the thing
and the way so that's the basics covered I've got three questions handlebar flare pretty popular in
gravel what's it all about well seemingly it's come about as it means trying to get a
bag underneath the hat in between the handlebars makes it easier isn't it I mean one could argue
that it's wider so therefore you know you have a little bit more stability offroad I mean my
concern with that is that you're starting to see handlebars get really quite wide in the gravel
stakes and that's going to cause economic problems so I don't think I personally would condone it
you know it's East to the right if you want to write it wide a handlebar and just don't
complain to me when you get neck and shoulder issues question number two flat boss clearly you
don't measure them in the same way they use the mountain biking because you've got more
control at low speed I think though the one myth that I want to dispel and it's probably more to
do with the the type of bike that you see with a handlebar like this now I'm talking really about
hybrids I think the myth is the a flat handlebar is more comfortable than a drop handlebar that's
absolutely true the drop I lost two bloody white for you or the reach is too far away both things
that can be influenced quite heavily on most bikes and actually you know choice of bike it becomes
quite important there but this economically is absolutely categorically not a superior fit to
a road handlebar alright think about it like this nobody nobody stands like that no more equally no
one stands with the hands like this yeah so if you're if you stand naturally your hands will
4-wire side so it makes perfect sense in my mind that your handlebars kind of want to be about that
way and your hand interaction wants to be sort of it you know a little bit like this that's kind of
why that's why ser Lee bizarre shake the way that they are to allow than just fit into the
webbing of your hands so the question really is why has this come about a lot of its dance
control particularly in the mountain biking states or wider handlebar because he gives you a much
greater degree of control and you're perched on bright leaves it's generally improved on on a bar
like this when you're looking into the mountain bike world bottom this is actually quite a narrow
bar cut it down important to understand that the mountain by position generally speaking it's less
prone you know you have more weight through the saddle it's also much more dynamic activity so
there is less emphasis on the interaction of the front end so it's not like my cause you as many
issues is that what the people put those little thingies on the end bar ends yes yeah I'm holding
on but Boren's came about at a time in cycling where mountain bike handlebars will half the width
the proper length of this well half the width of this saree so actually a bar end would offer
a similar you just got ball position yes there's also oakland who make we get sounds from them but
they they actually made their name in economic grips which stopped you from dropping the wrist
so that's something that you know some people so question number three what about traditional drop
handlebars we don't have any here to show people but I'll flick up a picture here or there I may be
there I love a traditional drop handlebar ice rod mark at ten the difference is really again it adds
extra reach it does actually slightly increase the drop so if you've got a compact ball like this and
then you move to reduce a traditional drop you lower the hoods by about 10 or 15 mil and also
increases the reach quite a lot but one of the benefits of a traditional drop bar is because
the reach is already in tight is in a slope like this actually getting to the brake lever is made
a little bit easier but that's that's kind of really the only benefits using the reference yeah
it's definitely a personal preference thing and but also if you're able to tolerate it you know
a lot of riders will won't necessarily be able to tolerate the radition abrete that a attritional
drop bar adds to the bike but you know again it all comes down to choice of bike if you're gonna
buy a bike that's you know long and low and then you're gonna compoun that with a long stem and
then a traditional drop bar you can get saddle problems okay so as things stand this shop is
currently open still so I'll put a link down below if you want to book in for a fit with James or buy
anything from the online store which really helps questions for you down below if people want to
know anything related to handlebars or suggestions for further episodes of bike fit Tuesdays