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dangeek-
Does this suggest extra material / stiffness?
Well, if it's heavier then there's extra material 🙂
Bars are tapered in both OD and wall thickness, so you'd need a detailed model to see exactly how much stiffer the 31.8 version is. Bear in mind that once you're past the "ferrule", both bars will be the same (~23.8mm) OD and most likely the same wall thickness. Unless you have something like the old Pro Vibe which was 31.8 OD all the way to the first corner, the bending stiffness of a handlebar is going to be dominated by the long grip section, not the short clamping section.
gbj_tester
Perceived ride and handling differences between 31.8 and 26.0 are placebo effects. The effects fall below the threshold of human perception if you have the right tyre pressure, mostly because fat bars exploit geometry to obtain similar stiffness to thin ones while being lighter, rather than using the same amount of material to make a substantially stiffer product. There is a small aero gain from using thin bars if they are tubes of circular cross section, but it's irrelevant because nobody chasing the aeros would use round metal tubes anyway.