agreed

Absolutely

Cheers mate and great suggestions for future vids. We'll get onto that. Cheers, Cam

Yes, we will Tom! Thanks for suggesting.

2 years have passed now. Have you done it? In that case, where can i find it? 😊

More to come on this mate, thanks for suggesting too.

Thanks for sharing Jin

I am looking at getting this exact same bar except in 38. Currently have 42 flared and it's not comfortable at all.

Thanks for sharing Serigo, interesting to hear

I have been riding 42cm bars for decades, but I recently started having shoulder pains. I did some research and decided to try narrower 38 cm bars; voila! shoulder pain gone. I am a slightly built guy and probably should have always been using narrow bars - it took old age for bad ergonomics to catch up with me.

@@H457ur Same thing here. My upper body is now slightly twisted as it learned to compensate for excess width.

This is interesting. I go between 38 40 and 42 between 3 different bikes depending on the time of the year. It boggles me how 38s can feel perfect in the Spring and Summer, but during winter even 40s feel too narrow. I think it might have something to do with clothing, wearing more layers in the winter.

Will cover a fair bit of this next week, stay tuned.

@@CamNicholls Awesome!👊🏾

Yes would like to know more about this as well. Cheers 🚲

Patrick I had a bike fit with Neil on a bike identical to one I had been riding since the 80's. I have 2, one with a neo retro setup and one close to how it was way back when, both with the same dimensions to the contact points. Cockpit is the same on both (Cinelli 1A stem, Giro bars, Potenza levers). For the purpose of my observations, lets imagine they are identical where it counts. While Neil will explain much better than I why this is done, for my individual circumstances spacers were fitted to the pedals to stop the knees moving from side to side, a thing I'd previously associated with seat height being too low. In fact the seat was too high and was dropped a fair bit. In addition the stem length needs to be shortened but its not an easy thing to do with a quill stem and will happen the next time the bike goes to the shop. Stem was raised to deal with my physiology (old and inflexible) to improve comfort. Handlebars were rotated slightly to move the hoods up and back to reduce the reach as a short term measure to improve comfort. The goal is to reduce weight on the shoulders from memory by not leaning so far forward. Even though I've been riding this way for decades, I noticed an improvement following this correction. Back to my two previously close to identical bikes. The one he adjusted is now obviously easier to propel and more comfortable than the one he didn't. Side by side you would barely notice a difference between them. And yes, I'll be transferring the measurements across and adding spacers at some point for sure. Best bike fit ever.

@@KeithHeinrich awesome thanks for the insight! Might just have to travel the 1800km to see him!

Stay tuned Christiane, yet to be announced.

Thanks for sharing Darin, interesting to hear

I had exactly the same experience. It made a big difference for me to get narrower handle bars. But all that happened in combination with setting cleats back and lower the saddle, that helped too.

I never even thought of that, but im glad you mentioned it before i spend a fortune on bars though :)

All the best with the end of the semester.

Interesting to hear, thanks for sharing Stephen.

@@CamNicholls finally got around to having the Mrs help me measure my shoulder width, and it turns out they are 37cm. So a 38cm bar seems definitely worth a try.

I believe if you’re well outside the parameters that will be the case!

Interesting to hear, thanks for sharing Chris.

Great Q, I'll need to position that with Neill during one of our next chats.

When I tried a very narrow (36 cm c/c) bar it felt really good when seated but if I came out of the saddle for climbing or to sprint it felt really unstable, there simply wasn’t enough leverage. Went up a size and it was way better.

​@@darrellvarley1765 Precisely..

Yeah my feeling too, steering one handed through traffic while braking ain’t for drops.

@jojojo8835 Ya know what I did, though? I tooke the drop set, flipped it upside down, chopped it down to short bullhorns, got the brake levers mounted where they're accessible, and it's the most comfy ride I own.

Agreed. There's also a position on classic bars that I find comfortable and that is to drape your fingers on the ramps behind the hoods with the palm resting on the bend into tops. It doesn't offer an immediate grab on the brakes, but then again if your bar is positioned where the drops are comfortable, you can brake no problem. I dunno, I just like all the eras of bike stuff.

@@allrounderbicycle7193 That's what the ramps are for, they're a resting position that gives your palms a resting spot on old school, short brake hoods. I usually just mind not to rest on the ramps in crowded areas, or if there's traffic and I need to suddenly brake.

No experiences here Luuk, sorry.

@@CamNicholls the new one with no stem, they look very weird. Made with bear cycling team

Interesting to hear, thanks for sharing mate.

I have the same exact problem. I also tried turning down the bar and seems to be better in the drop and top position but I always feel short on the hoods, even with a 1cm shorter stem. After 3 hours I always start having muscular pain on the neck and shoulders. This is really annoying

@@mm-ew5df I have now also cranks replaced with shorter ones. I had standard 172.5 mm long cranks. Replaced them with 165mm long cranks last year. And that made things much better. I think that now, with shorter cranks, I would be able to ride with longer stem too, but I feel good with this one too. Crank arm length I selected based on the equation of "tight bone lenght in inches is equal of crank lenght in centimeters." My tight length from hip axle to knee axle is 42 cm which converted to inches is 16.5 inch and so it means 165mm long crank should be right. And really, I'm so glad I replaced the cranks. I can ride much longer and I don't need to stop for catch my breath on top of every bigger slope anymore. I think one factor why I was struggling so much for finding right position for saddle, handlebar and shoe cleats, was because the cranks were little too long for me. ^_^

@@rttm thank you for the reply. I am now building a new bike on an old steel frame. I purchased a campagnolo groupset with 170mm crankset. The difference from 172.5 is minimal but...who knows. What makes me angry about those pains is that I can't join long rides with my friends, even if I have enough training.

@@mm-ew5df I remembered there was a video about neck pain at road cycling academy channel.. I will look if I can find it. Here it is. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p5lmd7N4pq6smn0.html Maybe it's useful. PS. I always ride solo. So I don't know the pain of not being able to ride with friends, but I know, that the neck and shoulder pain, is really bad and annoying. I hope you get it solved. :)

If your mates call you 'Big Steve', you've probably got wide shoulders. If your mates call you 'Little Steve', you've probably got narrow shoulders. If they call you just Steve, you're 'normal'. 👍🏽

@@leroy_who :-) OK, point well taken. (Assuming my friends are relatively normal sized, lol)

@@steveransom8134 haha, yes good point! 👌🏽

People who enjoy a classic road set up, with less extream drop between the bars and saddle and ride in the drops on a classic shaped frame that's actually in their size, instead of going through the trial and error of the compact-frame game. A lot of profession fitting is necessitary and a big help because most modern frames do not come within ranges that fit a lot of people, like when frames used to come in one or two centimeter increments.

haha! More to come on that. Just playing around with a SQ labs as a trial, which isn't on the bike in this vid.

@@CamNicholls really enjoying your videos with Neill. Went to 165 cranks and can’t believe it took me this long to switch. Still having issues with my neck and the cleats are getting some attention but the new video may offer some clues. With the virus raging here in the US, my go to fitting guy is closed until further notice. So it’s me and the trusty tool box working on improving the comfort part of riding.

@@mannysamaniego702 what made you decide to go with smaller crank? What size was the previous crank?

@@JitinMisra rode 172.5mm (one of my bikes still has them). But read some about it and then followed Cam’s videos and his thoughts. I decided to give it a try and the first few minutes it did feel a bit different but about 20 mins in, no issues. I have noticed it more on hills, the spinning does help. Again, this is just my humble opinion. So far, very happy with the change.

Thanks for sharing on the thread mate

Years of training and conditioning, gradually training their bodies into tolerating the more cramped position. narrower handlebars can also affect sprint performance.

haha correct

mummies and zombies in cheesy horror movies?

sleepwalkers.. lol

I reckon!

No but he will in the feature. Stay tuned.

I recently switched to 44cm and I wish I would have done it years ago lol.

It seems like 44cm bars are the most common for larger tall person frames. I'm tall so Ive always had 44 that came with my bike but my shoulders are narrow so I'm going smaller.

@@daryl4841 try 42

Thanks for sharing on the thread mate.