So what we have learnt from this is Blake with 400mm handle bars and his brakes on backwards is still better than me.

I love Blake. He's like an excited Jack Russell that's just found his best squeaky ball.... all the time. 👍

When Blake said “don’t try this at home I’m a trained idiot” 😂

20:10 I'm loving the bagpipe music. Beautiful instrument.

The brakes sound like an ambualnce approaching

Do a "The Widest Bars" video.

Holy shit, the fact that you kept it together while going on the front wheel off that drop Blake. Mad respect. Trained idiot indeed, you rock!

Gents!!!!! This is the best video you have posted to date!!! Blake, you’re a genuine shredder and a great presenter for these types of videos. May I request shredding on bikes from 29”-16” in this format?!

I’m a trained idiot 😂 More like a professional maniac. Kudos to you Blake for trying all these so we won’t have to. Seriously this video is amongst the more entertaining in the GMBN library.

Back in the pre suspension days, a little twitchy was a good thing because speeds were slower and lines were jaggier. Bars were in the 600mm range and head angles of 71 degrees or more.

Gmbn, you need to make a Blake’s dictionary for the shop 😂🤘

19:26 HOW DID BLAKE SAVE THAT!? THAT WAS SKILLSSZZ

I've been riding with 690mm bars, the bike was an import from Australia where they are limited by law, apparently. As this was my first mtb I didn't have anything to compare them to and I thought they were OK. But just this week I went up to 780mm, I'm 6', and the difference is night and day, a much more stable and easy ride.

is it just me or would Blake make the best television presenter 😂 he’s a pro entertainer

Blake is the only reason I watch gmbn anymore

After coming back to MTB riding after a serious neck injury with partial paralysis, I can tell you nothing improves your control and confidence more than wider bars with a shorter stem and a dropper post. Blake has illustrated this in a humorous and very skilful way. Well done Blake, some of the best entertainment I have had in a while!

I remember when XC bikes came with 600mm flat bars, 660mm was considered wide! Back in the day (late 90s) I ran Azonic PDW riser bars (660mm) and a 'short' stem (80mm) on my 'XC' hardtail (there wasn't really a trail bike category at the time). It was considered radical at the time! I wouldn't fancy any shorter though!

This really made me laugh! Especially when Blake almost went head first as he was pressing the front brake😂

Love how the Bars got smaller and his voice gets higher😂😂😂 GMBN one of best channels on KZfaq👍👍

Blake, that was priceless "Im thinking why am I going over the bars!!!" Sooo funny man.

18:04 sounds like a European siren haha

Hilarious. I remember around 1990 you could buy bars that were completely straight - no rise, no sweep, and no bulge in the middle, just an adapter for the stem diameter. I don't remember what they were called, but they came in a few different fluorescent colors, and they were popular. People were always experimenting with things back then, because the factory stuff was all crap and no one knew what worked yet. Guys would cut these bars down, I guess because its easier than making them longer. Since there was no bulge in the middle, the brakes and shifters could be mounted super close to the stem. Guys would have to offset the left and right brakes a bit so the cables could fit past each other. Throw a set of those on a bike with a 150mm stem, head angle in the 70's, a ridged fork, and some 1.9" tires, and things got really exciting.

8:38 - "Shiver me timbers". best vid yet! Blake needs a massive, massive salary increase.

Blake just showed me that what matters most is your bike handling skills, not the latest tech/ bike or in this case, the width of the handlebar. Humbled and will keep reminding myself not to keep upgrading my bike, but upgrade my skills instead. Going to do a marathon of GMBN how to videos on the weekend!

Man, you guys have some really nice trails over in England. I'm so thankful for this channel as its impossible to ride here in the winter due to the ever changing conditions. Makes me feel like im out riding when I watch you guys.

wow. my heart skipped a beat when I saw you endo off that drop. great video Blake. you're the only reason why I still watch gmbn

"It's just stupid. It's not even ethnical"

Would have been nice to see you go back to the 760mm bars at the end, just to see how much more stable you would feel after the supernarrow bars

This is the most hilarious educational bike video I've ever seen. Thank you. And you're right, I'm a courier, and I love filtering through traffic, and I want a full suspension bike for bad roads, shortcuts, and stairs. I have to decide what's the best narrow for me. This video was extremely helpful. Thank you.

Blake's got the best NON SWEARING vocabulary. Props bud

Slick Topeak product placement, lads.

19:26 - that's how I was riding when I went to UK and rented a bike! Take that, British guy!

My bike came with 680mm bars. I've recently swapped them for 600 with a longer stem, which I'm enjoying but I'll probably settle on 640mm - all for XC fun Absolutely fun video to watch. Thank you

9:50 my mom walked in and now I’m grounded

07:55 It’s twitchy as heeeeeel 😂😂 He seriously does not care about what other people think about him

That was me and my friend Jake that crashed into that tree, you almost hit 😂😂

I also ride 770 normally and I've recently had a chance to ride narrow bars on a city bike. I'm not sure everyone watching understands just how absolutely horrible narrow bars feel and how terrifying they are. This is one of the scariest videos on the internet - hands down. Blake - you're hard as nails.

Blake has crazy skills and sense of humor! Thank you for vids, gmbn!

I’m in tears 🤣 What a great, mood uplifting video!!

GMBN, can you add a real time heart rate monitor icon, in the lower right, so we can see Blake's Fun Factor?

Omg I knew he was going to mix his breaks up , good save !

When going down a trial Noone: Blake: uuuuuhhhh, aaarrrgggggg,oooooohhh

16:15 Blake's reaction = priceless!! This video was absolutely hilarious loved it!

Back in the 90’s we rode narrow bars because the trees were closer together.

Love watching Blake and his sound effects and constant commentary. lol.

inverted shifters, true innovation. gmbn is back baby starting 2020 with the sketchiest 300 ml bars

Blake's squeaky endo made me proper lol 😁😁back is front dude ha ha

Sending that wooden drop where one of the lads had a nasty crash few weeks ago :D and Blake is dropping on a 500mm bars haha savage!

This is the single most entertaining mountain bike video on KZfaq... hands down. This guy is great!

I ride 650mm bars, if I go wider there are alot of trails I can't even ride here in Belgium (to much trees to close together)! Also I don't get such wide bars, even at 650mm my wrists hurt after a couple of hours!

I think it's super interesting Blake uses a 760mm bar and he's tall. I cut mine down to 760 just because almost every trail here has trees that are 770mm gap to ride through, so it's just easier to have 760. I'm 6'3" and I'm totally comfortable on a 760mm bar. When you read people talking about new bikes, you'd think anything less than 800mm is a handlebar for a child.

"Uwww mud!" What a mad man. 😄👌

Such a funny guy, Thank God for people like him...

"Remember the back brake, blake" thats a tongue twister right there haha

Also, I love your energy dude. Every team needs a guy like you for morale.

«It’s not ethnical!» 😂 loving the Blake!!

Back in the 1990s we used to cut our bars down to avoid clipping trees on narrow trails. I still have some bars from around 1995 that measure about 525mm. Of course we were riding hardtail or fully rigid 26ers. To this day I can't get used to ultra-wide bars. The bars on my XC hardtail bike right now measure just over 600mm. I do most of my riding on a road bike with 44cm bars, which is considered pretty wide for a road bike, so I'm used to narrower bars. BTW narrower bars aren't really twitchy if you use them with a longer stem.

D*mn this episode! Funny as ****! Good job Blake. You nailed it mate.

Attach the tree catcher bar ends, paint the bike an eye searingly bright neon color and its the 90s all over again haha.

Reminded me of the time I first rode moto style. The switch is scary.

I couldn't do that stuff period, so mad respect dude, at 50 I usually blame my weight bias/tyres/mud/brakes/too much cake/rain....etc But now I got no excuses ; )

Couldn’t breathe I was laughing!!! 😂😂😂😂

This video was hilarious. He had so much energy during this episode!

20". You have to ride a 20" somewhere. Up to you whether it's a kid's mtb or a BMX bike.

Blake is so damn fun to watch. I am sure he is why I keep coming back.

*2:28** - 700mm* *5:41** - 600mm* *11:39** - 500mm* *16:48** - 400mm* Your welcome

You're the insanest mountain biker, Blake! Cheers to staying alive!

Meanwhile I'm actually on a 640mm ever since 😂😂

You are indeed insane Mr Blake! I started mountian bike XC back in 1991 so started out on 560mm + bar ends were great and item of the times as that was were 90's mountian XC racing was (560mm to 600mm by end of the decade always with bar ends so you had chance of climbing the bikes at XC race speed), but would not go back (well have two Kona Kileaua's a 94 & 96 560/580mm is best ones for them but not modern stuff)! My regular current mountian bike is 720mm as mainly race XC 5ft 7" height not that wide shoulders so 720mm + width feels uncomfortable for me but that's just me and I know 720mm sort old skool width even now.

My bars are 580 great for getting through gates

Idk how but "inner ninja" bit got me 🤣

19:37 front wheel drift while doing an endo in the mud. That is possibly the sketchiest thing anyone has ever done and not crashed

Thank you Blake! 🤩 Can always count on you for some top quality entertainment! 🤣

I just got a new Canondale Scalpel & my bars are like driving a big 50s Chrysler. I can’t stand it. I think those 600s would be perfect for me. Thanks for the video! 👍☮️🌞🚲

Blakes Wife secretly increased his life insurance before suggesting this challenge to him while he was sleeping ...😁

12:15 If you tune in loud enough you can hear Martyn is the distance "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKS AAAAND BODGES!"

I recently replaced my Inbred 26er with a Nukeproof Scout, and just this morning clipped the bars on tree and dislocated my shoulder. I'd done that gap between the trees a thousand times on the Inbred without even registering it was a gap, then fist time on already cut down 750 bars and it all goes Pete Tong. They'll be getting cut down a bit more, 750mm doesn't work where I ride.

I heard a GCN rider has a bar with bar ends that Blake can try next time :)) Maybe better Blake try the whole bike the GCN rider has. :))

I rode 590mm bars for 15+ years. Finally built a new bike and as a concession to modern width bars, I went all the way to a 620mm bar. Everyone was right, wide bars are an improvement. I love mine!

Anything below 800 feels horrid to me. Really hard to find a reasonably priced bar at 800 unfortunately.

OMG... Blake is too funny. But it was amazing to watch him ride with those short bars!

“Opps! Sorry about that Mercedes Benz. Forgot I had wide bars.” ... and I think I’ll be riding my old rat bike with the narrower bars to work for a while. Wide bars are crap in traffic.

Blake Samson is absolutely the best! If only he had a personality and sense of humor...wink! Not only do I learn something from these videos, but Blake gets me to laugh and smile every time. The best!

im crying watching these 😂

It’s always a blast watching Blake on a bike he’s a maniac 🔥😤

Great video blake ,man I was dying laughing 🤣

This is by far my favorite video on KZfaq 🤣 so informative and fun

Normally you'd have a longer stem to make it less twitchy

Narrow bars were always paired with a long ass stem back in the 80s&90s. A long stem gives "slow" steering so in turn the narrow bars didnt feel too twitchy at all. However if you run narrow bars these days with a short ass stem the steering will be rather crazy.

Not sure how I survived being a kid 😂 530mm bars with a girvin flexstem and cantilever brakes 😱

Finally someone to stop this bar width madness.... :) Me as a roadie just hate passing MTB riders coming from the opposite direction, for example on narrow bridges. They take up to 1 meter of space with those abominations :P

What did you take those of a razor scooter

Once you inverted the brakes on the 400mm bar I could not stop laughing 😂😂😂, great video!!

Always amazes me how any bike with any setup and still flying and able to do it all 🤔😯

All this vid proves is that bar with makes no difference when you are Blake. The guy could probably ride a bike with no bars faster then I can....and it will be steezier. Nice work Blake...full respect

“Lets not try it, lets do it” he learned that with Yoda

The body control and composure at 19:33 is incredible

When we’ll we see the wide bar challenge with 1200mm

Too think that back in the early 90s we were going for narrower bars, shoulder width....on full rigid bikes!! makes me wonder how much different riding would have been in those days with super wide bars.

Nino runs 690mm bars. I've found going slightly narrower isnt too bad. Like everything else it's nice to dial it back some