Narrower bars are a problem if you are a performance rider, and need to keep your lungs as open as possible. This is the right point for a rider that get’s OUT of city traffic.

If you are an urban rider, it makes complete sense to have narrower bars. You fit better in traffic, period. But how narrow is narrow enough, and when does it become aesthetic?

I think, based on my limited experience in city traffic, that bars should be no narrower than your hips. Why? Your hips are at about the same height as your handlebars on a common fixie. You get NO benefit from having bars more narrow than that, from a traffic “fit” standpoint. Your bars may squeeze through, but your hips won’t. Get it? Anything more narrow than that is simply compliance with a fad, and makes steering more dramatic.

Can you hand me that New Jersey? South of South Dakota, North of New Mexico…

Damn bulls, droppin’ china everywhere.

in my own experience, the vast majority of times when, while in traffic, short bars would have been desirable have also been instances of my being overly bold/reckless/stupid. if you’re routinely trying to fit through spaces only a short set would allow you to pass (between wide-assed trucks or buses, or between pedestrians), you’re most likely compromising your visualization of the road ahead in favor of going fast/being a daredevil. which is dangerous and likely to get someone hurt. so: forget the romance and ride in such a way that shorts will not be necessary. doesn’t mean don’t ride fast, just means think about it practically.

then again, there have been a few genuine flukes where i could have really used ‘em. last week i poked some fuckhead businessman yakking on a cell phone (he didn’t look, i yelled, he didn’t hear) in the ass with my right-hand bullhorn. had i been riding short bars he would have escaped cleanly only to repeat the same b/s the next day. hence, second advantage of not getting short bars would be that they are not such effective social teaching tools as, for example, bullhorns.

Short bars are very foolish

Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

-Kurious X