OK...this may be a REALLY stupid question...

MOTO13

Active member
Sep 16, 2020
335
381
Elkhorn, Wi
I bought a set of carbon Renthal Fatbars Lite. I didn't notice, and it wasn't very well shown in the ad, but they are 740mm width. I run 760's on my bikes. I can send them back no problem, buy the 800's and cut them to 760. Question is...would it be crazy to just cheat the length to 760mm by not put my grips on all the way? Essentially extending the bar width 20 mm overall or 10mm per grip. Anyone ever do this before??
 

MOTO13

Active member
Sep 16, 2020
335
381
Elkhorn, Wi
No, the bars were advertised as 40mm rise and then in the description it said xcb7llk40 or some shit. I never would have guessed they were 740's or I wouldn't have bought them. I assumed they were regular 800's trimmable. I really don't think 10mm hang out is much, but I may as well just have the right bars and be done with it. I just hate returning things.
 

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,568
5,058
Weymouth
get 800s and cut them down..............and even 760 is pretty narrow for a modern EMTB.
 

MOTO13

Active member
Sep 16, 2020
335
381
Elkhorn, Wi
I'm 5-10' and 760 width for me is about right. Plenty stable at speed and yet it gets in between trees. I rode 800's once...too wide for my taste and they suck ass in single track. Even 780 is pushing it. Do a lot of ST woods. 760 gets me through the tight stuff way quicker and fits the trail.
 

irie

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Subscriber
May 2, 2022
2,604
2,651
Chichester, W.Sussex, UK
I'm 5-10' and 760 width for me is about right. Plenty stable at speed and yet it gets in between trees. I rode 800's once...too wide for my taste and they suck ass in single track. Even 780 is pushing it. Do a lot of ST woods. 760 gets me through the tight stuff way quicker and fits the trail.

Agree with you. There's this widely held MTB rider belief that somehow the wider the bar is the more manly it is, and vice versa. So most don't experiment with different bar widths, they just accept the delivered cockpit. Basically one size fits all, apart from seat height adjustability of course.
 
Last edited:

Mikerb

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
May 16, 2019
6,568
5,058
Weymouth
Yes I find 800 too wide and I also regularly ride "slalom" through the trees but a lot depends on the head angle and trail on your bike(s). I use 780 on my enduro bike and 770 on my trail/all mountain bike..............the latter usually the one used for "tree slalom". It may seem small amounts but just a few mm does make a difference.
 

MOTO13

Active member
Sep 16, 2020
335
381
Elkhorn, Wi
You're right. A few mm makes the difference between hitting a tree or not when you literally have to go between trees that are a lot of times way less than 3' apart. More than one time I've hit my grip while trying to rip through the woods between trees. I've learned to keep my pinky finger off the ends of the grips as much as possible that's for sure.
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
I've found these to be great when running fast trails which are tight, instead of hooking up - so far I've always glanced off.


You can make them work with the granite stash tools too if you use them.

 

Doomanic

🛠️Wrecker🛠️
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 21, 2018
8,730
10,395
UK
I've found these to be great when running fast trails which are tight, instead of hooking up - so far I've always glanced off.


You can make them work with the granite stash tools too if you use them.

I also have a set of these and they work exactly as described. They probably saved me a couple of broken fingers last week too…

CE46BBCC-6991-441A-867E-96B0037BDCB2.jpeg
 

MOTO13

Active member
Sep 16, 2020
335
381
Elkhorn, Wi
I've found these to be great when running fast trails which are tight, instead of hooking up - so far I've always glanced off.


You can make them work with the granite stash tools too if you use them.


Those short bar end hooks to protect from bashing your finger seem like a good idea...until you hook a sapling, stray branch or weeds...then you're fuc%ed. When I first started riding years ago, I had something similar on my Cannondale. I got shit whipped when I hooked onto a branch. Never rode with them again.
 

Doomanic

🛠️Wrecker🛠️
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 21, 2018
8,730
10,395
UK
Those short bar end hooks to protect from bashing your finger seem like a good idea...until you hook a sapling, stray branch or weeds...then you're fuc%ed. When I first started riding years ago, I had something similar on my Cannondale. I got shit whipped when I hooked onto a branch. Never rode with them again.
That's what I thought before I tried them. They are about the same length as the thickness of your fingers so smaller stuff just gets deflected. The real difference is when you brush an immovable object and the shape of them stop the bar hooking up.
 
Last edited:

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
Those short bar end hooks to protect from bashing your finger seem like a good idea...until you hook a sapling, stray branch or weeds...then you're fuc%ed. When I first started riding years ago, I had something similar on my Cannondale. I got shit whipped when I hooked onto a branch. Never rode with them again.
I thought the same before I tried them having also had something similar, but longer, before.

I hate to agree with doomanic, but he's right, they seem to work well and don't hook up. A lot of my riding this year has been overgrown trails and so far (I can't guarantee a freak occurrence won't happen tomorrow !!!) everything seems to smoothly slide around them.

I've never really thought about it before, but your hand effectively fills the "catch" area - hence why you don't seem to hook up when you think you might.

1660920710540.png
 

Rickster

Well-known member
Subscriber
Feb 19, 2022
364
496
Ok BC Canada
I thought the same before I tried them having also had something similar, but longer, before.

I hate to agree with doomanic, but he's right, they seem to work well and don't hook up. A lot of my riding this year has been overgrown trails and so far (I can't guarantee a freak occurrence won't happen tomorrow !!!) everything seems to smoothly slide around them.

I've never really thought about it before, but your hand effectively fills the "catch" area - hence why you don't seem to hook up when you think you might.

View attachment 95243
What ?! Who keeps their bare hands on the bars all the time😎? . Sorry but no thanks, having those bar ends with even the slightest possibility of a snag , I am out.
I can’t even imagine running a set of these in the woods, they scream out “snag me snag me !!

C033E388-0135-4822-BF45-3E124E26FDCD.jpeg
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
I can’t even imagine running a set of these in the woods, they scream out “snag me snag me !!
Agreed, I had something similar to the Ergon one. It was nice for support, but if you went down an overgrown downhill, you got to the bottom having harvested about 3kg's of bracken on each side and looked like you were trying to ride a camouflaged bike :)
 

Doomanic

🛠️Wrecker🛠️
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 21, 2018
8,730
10,395
UK
Who keeps their bare hands on the bars all the time
I find that keeping my hands on the bars reduces the number of unscheduled dismounts I have to endure, how often do you ride narrow singletrack without holding on to the bars?
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
Speaking of bare hands, does anyone else wear gloves all the time? I don't think I have ever ridden without gloves.
Normally I'm gloves, gloves, gloves, gloves .. I always seem to catch a flying rock, get whipped by a branch, catch a bramble or gorse or just fall off ..

1660923150932.png


These one are cheap and cheerful, but far far better than the fox ones above for gorse and brambles.

1660923216496.png


I've ridden gloveless a little lately whilst it was stupidly hot, but mainly taking it easy - the times I didn't I just ended up with shredded hands.
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
I find that keeping my hands on the bars reduces the number of unscheduled dismounts I have to endure, how often do you ride narrow singletrack without holding on to the bars?
This is an emtb forum ...

It's just not the done thing to eat your pizza and drink beer whilst riding with your gloves on .... ;)
 

Rickster

Well-known member
Subscriber
Feb 19, 2022
364
496
Ok BC Canada
I find that keeping my hands on the bars reduces the number of unscheduled dismounts I have to endure, how often do you ride narrow singletrack without holding on to the bars?
Single track ? Not there that’s for sure, but on Long logging roads , you bet 😉
 

Doomanic

🛠️Wrecker🛠️
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 21, 2018
8,730
10,395
UK
And how often do you get branches over your bars on logging roads?
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
9,014
9,441
Lincolnshire, UK
Speaking of bare hands, does anyone else wear gloves all the time? I don't think I have ever ridden without gloves.
I wear gloves to protect my palms when I come off on gravel (it's always gravel when I fall off!). I did once fall off without gloves, early on in my mtb life and NEVER AGAIN! :eek:
I also wear gloves to protect from the cold and the wet.
 

KnollyBro

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Dec 3, 2020
1,004
2,348
Vancouver
1
For sure. Grips aren't made to endure that kind of shearing stress by themselves.

I hear what you are saying but 10mm at the the bar end when most (how much is most any way?) of the force is going thru your palms of your hands. I cant see there is much shear force going on from your hands right at the end of the bars. Then again, I run 800mm bars and have 10mm+ spare at the end of each bar for crash protection (I would rather hit a tree or the ground with the bar ends than my hands).
Normally I'm gloves, gloves, gloves, gloves .. I always seem to catch a flying rock, get whipped by a branch, catch a bramble or gorse or just fall off ..

View attachment 95253

These one are cheap and cheerful, but far far better than the fox ones above for gorse and brambles.

View attachment 95254

I've ridden gloveless a little lately whilst it was stupidly hot, but mainly taking it easy - the times I didn't I just ended up with shredded hands.

I can't seem to find any gloves with knuckle protection these days. These have been my go to gloves for years but Fox doesn't make them any more. I don't beleive in D30. What kind are those? Where did you get them from? Are they thin enough for summer use?

20220819_115525.jpg
 

EMTB Forums

Since 2018

The World's largest electric mountain bike community.

555K
Messages
28,056
Members
Join Our Community

Latest articles


Top