Love Jame's logical and clear explanations of all things bike fit.

So glad I found this one. Got a 56cm Domane and the reach is insane compared to my old 56cm Tarmac. Replaced the standard Bontrager bars with 93mm reach for Deda with a 75mm reach. Went from 44cm width to 40 also. Such a difference!

I love the way Jamie explains things. I’ve learned a hell of a lot, by watching these videos.

Thankyou for continuing to put out this content Francis. Difficult times ahead for us all, but these short trips out of what is becoming a scary everyday reality, are very appreciated. Best of luck through this to you, Daisy, Lawrence, all at Jame's shop and all the other usual suspects that pop up in your films week on week. Keep clean, keep healthy, and if you can, keep pedaling.

Thanks for the video.... Always learn something from James.

This was a sweet video. Helped me understand some of my struggles on my current setup

Really wonderful, in depth information. I've been riding a 42 for over 15 years. This video prompted me to be measured. That's right, I'm a 40....

Thanks for the vid on cleat position guys! Turned my heels in by 10mm, based on James' rant and the sitbone pain was gone! 🥳👍👍

I found the traditional drop bars a way better when sprinting out of the saddle in the drops. It keeps my wrists at a straight angle. Great video !👍

Oh James ......I love it when you talk like that. Thanks Mr Cade stay safe and healthy

Thank you James, I learned a lot with this one.

Great video, great explanations. Thanks as ever.

Love these vids!! That Indy Fab is gorgeous!!

I am saving for bike fit with James! Love these Bikefittuesdays, so informative. 👍🙂🚴

Thanks for the vid. I started reading books about bikefitting, but never heard or seen before about this very simple way to get to the right width. My tip would be, first the handlebar and then the choose the right stem length (min 90mm for road).

Really excellent video guys !! Loads of info

I definitely learned a lot from this video. And it’s coming out at a time where I am trying to choose the right bar and stem combination for my newly delivered Rondo Ruut CF2. Keep the vids coming mate, and stay safe

Well done James! Great video Francis

Tremendous, doing a full winter revamp of my ride height and measurements, this is absolutely invaluable. Suffering on anything longer than a 2 hour ride and I know I have a the capacity of a longer ride, but have so many comfort issues.

Finally got a proper fit! Thankfully, my new bike is the right size, tried to get in before I ordered, but it didn't happen. Shorter cranks were the biggest change, so far, I'm loving the tweaks to positioning, so much more comfortable in the saddle and on the hoods!

Excellent points made, thanks!

Brilliant, concise and easy to understand.

Great episode! I've always had problems with 90's bikes with traditional handlebars and sti levers due to the excessive reach.

Very educational, thanks lads!

Just to add, these video are absolutely fantastic at taking our minds off the present health situation and enjoying ( even if it's momentarily) our passion for cycling ! Many thanks Francis, but please don't put yourself at unnecessary risk to make them. :-)

I am SO excited for my bike fit on Thursday!!!

One of my favorite bars (and the one I used across all my road/gravel bikes) is the Ritchey Logic Curve - comes in 38-44cm (center-to-center) and is fairly short reach/short drop. It's also ~35USD for an alloy version. I'm a "big rugby guy" and run a 44cm.

Brilliant vid guys. I do roll my hands inward like you demonstrated, this causes me to lock out my elbows, thus, I get pain in my hands after around 40miles. I also find it more comfortable on one of my bikes to rest my hands a little back from the hoods. One bike has a 90mm stem and one has 100mm. The measurements are the same (as I thought, when measured from saddle to centre of bars. I’ve just measured from tip of saddle to back of hoods and found 30mm difference! Wow I think I’ll try some narrower bars now and see how they go and adjust my saddle setback a little. To get the reach more comfortable.

Pleasantly surprised how much I learned from you guys . I've been racing for 35 plus years road and then switched to mtb had no choice since I moved to Costa Rica with dirt roads and now I just bought a gravel (why😅) . so yea good info. Cheers

Thanks Francis and James. Thumbs up 👍👍👍

Great video! Would definitely be interested in a take on impact of groupset manufacturers to reach, as well as shifter ergonomics and whether this has fit/bike build implications for different hand sizes ✋.

Very useful! Thank you for that one!

Bugga, been comfy for years on a 440 and just got myself a new 440, with flatter tops, though not aero. No wait, I’m about 45/46 shoulder, will get help on measuring my shoulders for peace of mind. Great insight to Handlebars😊👍

Thank you for the great video!

Loved this one. Thanks James and Francis. My road bike trek Domane sl7 in size 58 came with 44cm wide bars. I love the bike, but the width has been a problem (hands, neck and shoulders suffering all as James mentioned). I would have thought if you spend $4500aud on a bike they'd at least let you choose a bar width.

Lots of good insight for a seemingly simple component

great explanation of bars, people get sucked in by the marketing hype, rather than a set of bars that truly works for them. Must say, I'm loving the Ursus MAGNUS H.01 integrated bars. Extremely comfortable .

This was a good video and good information.

Thanks for the video. I have always suspected that my body is telling me that I should swap out my stock 44cm handlebar to slightly reduce the reach of my bike. However, I cannot find other articles online to confirm my suspicion is correct. Now I can experiment with a 38cm bar with slight more confidence.

Just got a new bike off eBay, did a 2hr ride today and was so comfortable. Turns out I have been riding a 54cm when I needed a 52 with narrower bars!

We need lots of these vids!!!

My Trek Emonda came with Bontrager of course. In the drops and sprinting out of the saddle, my wrists would hit the bar. They were also uncomfortable on the tops. Replaced with Deda Superleggera and what a difference!

Love your Videos, wish I lived near the shop to get a proper fitting

Good stuff guys.

Nice vid, man. Send my regards to Chris as well. Seems like a nice bloke.

Huh, never thought anything about handlebar, just went well with the stock bar that came with merida, compact sort of type? I guess

really interesting, I'm on a 42 but I should probably be on a 40. I rolled in the wrists exactly like was said and had numb hands! Great vid once again Francis, I'm sure the quality of videos will still be really good even in these mexicanbeervirus times!

This was my video ☺️ danke!

Bike shop tour? That Independent Fabrication ti bike looked Nnnniiiicccceeee!

James shoe game is on point. Dress shoes everyday.

Good thing to note is that this kind of logic is used in Office Ergonomics, being fit to a zero gravity recliner, and buying a mattress. It's all about maintaining neutral posture throughout the activities in your life. Whenever your myofascial system is misaligned, especially when introducing repetitive movement (cycling), you accelerate the process of deteriorating your body. Love the way this guy explains this stuff.

MTB handlebars also associates to balancing. Remember the movie "The Walk"? When people does "Slacklining" (or balancing on rope) they tend to either hold a long stick to balance themselves or just simply put your arms as wide as possible for balancing and stability. Same principle applies to a wider handlebar.

Whils't living in Chicago somebody stole my handlebars while I was at work; however, they did replace face plate, bolts, and washers, so there's that. I ended up venturing home on my bike, a fixed gear, single-handed on the quill stem singing "I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars, no handlebars".

If ever in England, i gotta see this store and meet James. What an interesting fellow!

Will probably switch to the more compact 3T Ergonova (now called Superergo I think) from my stock Bontrager bars, feel like I just need to decrease the reach a tiny bit and the flatter top is an added bonus.

I find that as you bend your elbows more, your forearms naturally rotate to the outside. It’s why shift levers and aero extensions are designed the way they are. To me it would even make sense to bend the tops of drop bars a little bit to accommodate this natural arm/wrist rotation.

I have 42's 3T ergosum Pro bars on all my road bikes, I find them most comfortable. I cut my mtb bars down to be 2cms wider than my road bars for ease of getting through traffic & fitted bar end grips.

I wouldnt step foot in that shop because I'd give all my savings to James 😆. Boy knows it all, can see the passion in it

Nice! It seems the person knows what they talking about, I hope I can pass by to see the shop and get some advice.

nice explanation, thanks

Hey Francis and James! It would be really cool to see an episode addressing leg length discrepancy and how it can be fixed! Thanks for the great content guys!

Hadn't even thought of using the handlebars to alter the reach of the bike - thanks

THis is awesome advice, thanks. I ride a size L Gravelbike (we all know the handlebars on those are ginormous and after almost two years of oning it i dont really understand the slanted drop bar) aand i ride a size L road bike. Both the handlebar widths are 44cm. I just measured my shoulders and they are 40cm apart. I was in shock first but luckily used handlebars arent that expensive

Got pair of Hoy track bars,like cinelli 65 in sale couple years back love them on gravel bike,look so different to 'ergo' bars,really deep drops

Deda has the best feel bars for me personally. I love their Alanera cockpit

James' definitively got some sweet bikes there

Traditional drop bars were like that purely because that's all they used to be able to bend the quality of tubing at the time. Also as the bikes had quill stems, standard headsets, down tube shifting and Italian square geometry, they were considerably higher. They have no place today where we mainly ride the hoods. Back then we mainly rode in the hooks.

In my 70s, I went back to straight bars to reduce back ache. It ends up being quite an expensive conversion because of Shimano's different pull ratios for their various components.

I'm quite a slender guy so I installed a 38 cm bar which should align with my shoulders but I noticed that i had the tendency to push my elbows out and my shoulders got stiff as I tried to keep them in. I now installed a 40 cm bar with the hoods slightly turned inwards and my position feels perfect.

Great.. very informative

Really interesting insight, I was previously told during a bike fit that they would fit me to a wider bar and using your method of measuring I came up with 44cm. I am relatively broad but not to the rugby player build just 6'2 and lean. Is it worth considering another bike fit to assess this or is this a good basis to go off of?

40 Thomson carbon road bars for me 🤙🏼 Found the perfect bars

drop vs flat For a lot of people who don't cycle much, drop bars feel 'twitchy'. flat bars need a bigger movement of the hands for the same turn. So to an occasional rider, flat bars feel more stable.

I would love to find a current drop bar that has the reach and drop of my old Scott drop ins. Yes I know they were weird looking but they fit my hands perfectly.

@2:10 just spoke my language. Those things describe my problem.. need to look into a smaller width bar

I've been struggling with neck pain no matter how close or far away i put my seat, and no matter what stem height. My bike came with a 42cm causing me to splay my elbows out more, I think going down to a 38 would make a big difference.

Excellent chaps. Good gear. A question for James, assuming your saddle is dialed, I am running 38cm SL70 Ergo handlebars. 38cm for the width and 70mm for the reach. If I find myself resting the base of my palm often on the tops of the handlebar, but the hoods feels okay, sound like reach too short?

Got into road cycling 3 months ago. I went into it withought any knowledge about bike fitting. Now I am reverse engineering everything. I am now problem solving my handlebar width. It is too wide. I suffer from neck pain, numb hands and overall discomfort in shoulder / neck / arm area. Thanks to your videos I realised that my wrists are turned inwards on handlebars. That I actually ride with my elbows away from my body like you would on a mountain bike because my handlebar is too wide. After I sort that out, I will have to look at the stem because I am convinced that I am over reaching. There is way too much body weight on my arms.

James, love that shirt. Great pattern, Bicycle Richmond Club Issue ? As a Cycling shirt? 🧔⚓🥃🚴‍♂️

Any chance of a video on where to position controls on handlebars? How high, how low etc..

That’a exactly my problem. Super long bars reach and 80mm stem... plus it’s a 44 so Lots of discomfort. Switching my bars on Monday for 40cms with short reach and also positioning the control less flat

Flat bars ftw. I've never gotten handlebar palsy with flat bars, only with drop bars. It happened twice, once for each hand on separate occasions, took about a couple of months to regain full control for each of my hands.

There was so mucho more to talk about. Carbon vs alloy in terms of comfort. Aero vs round. Cable integration. Even finding the best diameter of handlebar. There is a car I think from Ritchey called the 35, which supposedly makes it more ergonomic due to the bigger diameter.

Yeah, I remember when I first change from 3T Aeronova (reach=104mm) to Zipp Sl-70 Aero (reach=70mm) for the first time. I also need to switch from 90mm stem to 120mm stem just to feel about right reach wise. I'm more aware of bar reach since then.

Q - indoor bike set up, do you recommend making any tweaks to your outdoor position for improved comfort when spending much more time on the trainer?

I’m 6 feet 1”, I weigh 86kg for the past 27 years I used 42cm. Then last year after researching the benefits I switched to using shallow drop 36cm on all my road bikes. I absolutely love em, anything wider than that for me feels like you’re a parachute.

Anyone in australia that you guys would recommend going to see for a bike fit with a similar rig to yours. Love the vids. Stay safe Keep riding

I loved your video it taught me a lot. I am building my first bike with a framed carbon fiber frame. I live by the beach where there are lots of people on the bike paths along the beach. I have only ever had a flat handled bar. When building this new bike I am trying to determine how much maneuverability I would loose if I switch to those non flat variety. I have to brake quite often because people don’t pay attention on those paths by the beach. Because of the brake position on the curved handle bars does it make it more difficult to ride in a densely populated area?

The newer(well, what, 20-some years old now?) brake-shifter hood designs don't really seem to work as well with the older traditional drop-bar handlebar shapes. The newer short reach shallow drop designs make a nice flat bar to hood transition area that is more comfortable.

I think there is possibly a part 2 for handlebars as the bar rotation & shifters position & type makes a difference to reach. I would also be Interested to know James thoughts on bar thickness due to double wrapped bar tape or products such as specialized bar phat that contain gel layers

James I’ve been getting sore elbows riding and wondered whether it’s because I’m over stretched? Got a shortish torso but long legs so can’t have my saddle much lower without compromising the knee position. Thanks 👍🏻

my wife gave me the go ahead to start planning a trip to the uk just for a bike fit with james!

on RB we use 40cm, then move to CX/GV with 42cm flared, the question is, does a flare that angels the same as our arms when we span (so the wrist will be as straight as on 40cm non flared) naturalize the wider-than-shoulder handlebar issues?

Thanks!

Damn. I just checked the spec on my handlebars. 44cm on a 56cm roubaix. But shoulders measured at the cp is 47cm. Been struggling saddle discomfort. I went to a very well known fitter in LA, but the handlebar width never came up. Got a shorter stem, repositioned cleats and saddle height, etc.

Question, what would be more stable for a gravel bike, 100mm stem and 42cm bars or 110mm stem and 40cm bars? I'm currently on the first, considering the latter. Will I be ok on the 110/40 or propelled into space on the first rocky descent?🤔

I have watched this video a few times now and something has just clicked. I have been having all sorts of problems with my neck and shoulders and after many visits to the quacks, have not found what is causing the problem. I have 3 road bikes two have 44cm bars and one with 42cm bar. The measurement of the shoulders demonstrated here for me is 40 to 41cm. Like almost everyone that buys a bike will probably take it for granted that the bar fitted by the manufacturer is the right bar, me included. After watching this video and listening to James it appears that I am riding with the wrong width bar certainly on two out of three of the bikes. I also find I roll the wrists on the wider bar! I have now ordered new bars and stems. I am not saying that this one thing is the cause of the shoulder and neck issues I have as I do suffer with arthritis, I am 57 and things are wearing out a little! But I bet that some of the pain is attributed to the bars! I will be sure to let you know if it makes a difference. Great BFT guys, as usual simple no nonsense explanation from James. 👍😊🚴‍♂️

How to replicate a cleat position on different shoes would be a good one.....

I have a Trek with the VRC bar and I thought I was going crazy. But no, it's not me, it's the bar. Off to find a more suitable sized bar. What's the best way to try out different handlebars?