Chopped handle bars?

excuse my ignorance, but what advantages do all these guys with really short flat bars have over those with standard length bars?

when im riding really fast i like to hold my bars close to the stem, but i find it incrediably hard to take on climbs while in this position.

is this somthing to get used to and offers a speed advantage, or just some lame fashion?

Lame fashion

I think you might already know the answer ;)

some guys climb very well indeed with next to no handlebars, but if it was better the tour riders in the mountain stages would be grabbing round the stem on climbs.

some say it's to get through traffic easier, some say it comes from people riding track drops in town and only ever needing to hold the tops, hence using flat bars instead cut down to the width that your hands need, and no more.

I find chopped bars provide a talking point for non-cycling friends.

Filtering through small gaps, simple as.

I've read that wider bars open up your chest more, increase the volume of air you can breathe in and hence improve performance, but I haven't seen any solid evidence to support it. On the other hand, wider bars result in more wind resistance.

Personally, I doubt it makes much difference, and people do it for the reasons already mentioned by RPM and Object.

Just for further clarification, I've ridden many long rides (100kish) with tiny hand width bars, they're not nice for climbing long steep hills (Think ditchling beacon) as they reduce the work that your uper body can do, thus put more stress on your legs.
In town I really couldn't imagine using anything over 350mm wide, there is just no need.

And some say that it's lame fashion.. and that's what it is :)

Object: I don't think I would use 35inch = 89cm handlebars in town either.. but 38cm's work out great for me :)

I've read that wider bars open up your chest more, increase the volume of air you can breathe in and hence improve performance, but I haven't seen any solid evidence to support it. On the other hand, wider bars result in more wind resistance.

That was the theory the (road)cycling world believed up until about the summer of '89 which is -as you may remember- when Greg Lemond beat Laurent Fignon in the tour by being the first one ever to use aero bars during a time trial in the road racing circuit (they may have been around in the triathlon circuit). Up until that moment, some riders would actually have wider bars during time trials because as you said it was believed that allowed for better inhalation. But as you also state, it now became quite clear that the adverse effect of the increased wind resistance was greater than the advantage of better inhalation.

Apparently, Greg Lemond's team kind of tricked the UCI into allowing the aero bars saying he was using it for medical reasons (position) instead of telling them it would give Lemond a big aerodynamic advantage over the other riders because they were afraid the UCI might not allow them to be used if they knew the real reason.
Of course it is quite typical that the UCI didn't have a clue about the advantages a new piece of equipment might give riders as usually the UCI is somewhat clueless about cycling. ;)

Get's you through the traffic without knocking the ears off cars.

But as you also state, it now became quite clear that the adverse effect of the increased wind resistance was greater than the advantage of better inhalation.

But on "fixies" with narrow flat bars you don't get lower wind resistance, or better inhalation..

Agreed in Copenhagen we have lots of room for bicycles, so narrow bars might be less of an advantage here.. but I just like something like 38cm c-t-c for city riding, and a bit wider on the countryside.

it makes sense to have narrower bars to get through traffic more easily (tight spaces between cars etc), but there is a limit to this. anything narrower than your hips doesn't provide an additional benefit in this regard, cos your hips still have to pass through the same gap (unless you snake through sideways).

so narrow bars = good for traffic, but really narrow = just for looks.

if you go too narrow you lose some control, too.

The narrow bar make sense because not only it give a more compact room in traffic, but it's almost exactly more or less the same width as a normal drop bar.

wouldn't chopping it to the same size as a drop bar is perfectly reasonable? especially given the fact that the drop bar are actually narrower than a chopped riser/flat, especially on the edge which curve gradually.

I prefer the narrowest drop bar i could find. intended for kids or women i guess.
as for the traffic gaps, you don't get any narrower than your arse (or shoulders or whatever is your widest part)

/drøn

i prefer them chooped to the same width as my arse:)

it makes sense to have narrower bars to get through traffic more easily (tight spaces between cars etc), but there is a limit to this. anything narrower than your hips doesn't provide an additional benefit in this regard, cos your hips still have to pass through the same gap (unless you snake through sideways).

so narrow bars = good for traffic, but really narrow = just for looks.

if you go too narrow you lose some control, too.

+1
very well presented

it makes sense to have narrower bars to get through traffic more easily (tight spaces between cars etc), but there is a limit to this. anything narrower than your hips doesn't provide an additional benefit in this regard, cos your hips still have to pass through the same gap (unless you snake through sideways).

so narrow bars = good for traffic, but really narrow = just for looks.

if you go too narrow you lose some control, too.

Exactly. If your handlebars are the same width as your hips, or thereabouts, you can use them like a cat uses their whiskers! Cos at the end of the day, you still need to get your hips through the gap

I prefer the narrowest drop bar i could find. intended for kids or women i guess.
as for the traffic gaps, you don't get any narrower than your arse (or shoulders or whatever is your widest part)

/drøn

I disagree, sholders are controtable so you can fit through tighter gaps.

you can pretty much bend your shoulder easily since they're seperate bones, the hip is one. big. bone.

beside handlebar, what about the width of the pedals?

Just lose weight so there's no fat coverage on your hips ;]

Just lose weight so there's no fat coverage on your hips ;]

I did that already (16 1/2 stones to 12 stones), all I have left is fucking bones and it hurt like hell if i got bumped on the hip!

Just lose weight so there's no fat coverage on your hips ;]

i think the OP was asking about chopping bars so narrow it's like stem clamp + hand width each side. now, i'm not a big guy, but if your hips are that narrow then you need a sandwich!

for me it's more a problem with my ma-hassive quads, actually ;) haha!!

i tend to chop my bars down to about 42 -45 cm depending od what grips/bars i am using, as this is narrow enough for me to get through most gaps, yet wide enough for me to have proper leverage when i want to get out the saddle and throw it around.

Super short bars are for looks, and imo crap.

I was in Evans in The Cut last week and there was a guy with a gold brakeless pug conversion who was rocking bars that were about 25 cm, just enough room for a bit of grip either side of the stem. I though it as an accident waiting to happen, but each to there own, the bike reminded me of that pic thats been posted before of the bike with bars so short they only have the ends of the grips on em (i always presumed this was a photo shop)

I am not a chopper (I run drops) but I would like to add that wing mirrors are frequently at bar height and the narrowest part of any gap with wider sections above and below so if you're all about tight gaps bars narrower than your shoulders work. It would be dangerous for me personally though as I would be tempted to go for tighter gaps, but I am a boring .....

yeah, but your hips are similar height to your bars. although if you get out of the saddle you can get your hips above wing-mirror height. but it's prolly not entirely sensible to be riding a fixed gear out of the saddle through a gap in traffic so tight you can't fit through without contorting yourself. you know, stability and all that.

occasionally you might want to though.

if I based the width of my handlebars on the width of my arse I may as well ride round town on a Honda Gold Wing.

me doing a wheelie yesterday. It was sunny hence shorts.