Let's hear your bars

5'11" 180#, '23 crf450r I just stuck with the stock 839 bars, '22 yzf450f pro taper fuzion windham bend, '20 fc250 ODI OE ktm bend, I tend to like bars with less sweep, that is why the ODI OE ktm bars are currently my favorite bend. The 839 renthals are pretty good too.

Just run stock bars until they get bent. Since stock bars have gone to fat bars I’ve never got on a bike and thought these bars suck, no way I can ride this (minus adjusting position, clamp location and levers). 

This! I love the Pro Taper stock Husky bend. 

This!  and when I end up having to replace I’ll go with a low, no upsweep or back sweep wide bar mounted in the most up front position I can. 6’ tall with monkey length arms. 

Disagree. Bars make a huge difference in comfort based on so many factors person to person and bike to bike. The same bars won’t feel the same if one rider is 5’5” vs 6’5” not to mention riding position differences. Or bike geometry designed by OEM’s. 

I'm curious why?...

Can I ask your height

999 sits lower or is that the 996?💭

I have tried many bars over the past few years, 821, 827, 839, 996, Carmichael, Husqvarna stock, Windham, Henry reed, sx race, odi champ and quite a few more. Could not find comfort on most and I kept trying to force myself to like certain bars that I thought would put me in an optimal riding position but I kept coming back to the pro taper sx race. I went looking for some info to find out why these bars worked for me while other bars with similar specs didn't  and I found this video handlebar sweep helper and I cant believe this isn't talked about more. I did the measurements and found my build and natural arm resting position seems to want 16 degrees of back sweep on the dot. Now mtb handlebars are measured in degrees of back sweep making it easy to plug this research in (though only like two companies make mtb bars at 16 degrees of back sweep) but Moto bars are not measured in degrees. The measurement of back sweep in millimeters that we are given is misleading because the actual degree of back sweep changes with control surface length (the beginning of the bend from centerline to tip of bar). Moto bars range from 180 - 222mm of control surface area. You have to plug the control surface length and sweep number in mm (linear deflection) into a calculator to get the true degree of back sweep. So basically bars with similar measurements can have big differences in back sweep not obvious from the published numbers. For example (sweep in mm, control surface area): the Renthal 827 ( 52 and 222) will give us 13.54 degrees of back sweep while the Renthal 839 (51 and 200) will give us 14.77 degrees of back sweep and the pro taper race team (52 and 180) will give us 16.79 degrees of back sweep. 

Turns out the sx race is 16 degrees on the dot which is perfect for me and totally jives with what I have learned! I also like more sweep as I am on the heavier side and it moves my body weight further back on the bike. 

all that being said I am in no way an expert and this may all be incorrect but again, it perfectly syncs up with my build's natural preference so it worked for me 🤷‍♂️

protaper sx race 

I like taller bars, used to run the Jimmy Button bend renthals and now run the above Evo/ Windham bend…I am 6ft, taller from torso up, I feel the taller bars feel more comfortable when standing…

6'2" (188cm)
Renthal Fatbar
604 RC Bend

2022 KTM 350sxf
2019 KTM 250xc

 

Pro Taper Husky bend, 21.5 KTM 450, 5’11”. I tried a CR high bend like I often used on CRs/KXs, but I made it one lap because it felt like the 12” apes on my Harley, lol.

ODI CFT Podium bars - CR Hi.

2023 YZ 300 smoker 

Best of both worlds...stiffness of a crossbar with a lil flex built in 

I'm 6'3" and have found that I need a wider bar.  The stock bars on my '25 SR 450 felt too narrow to me.  I read the article Keefer posted about the bars of the pros and many run the Renthal 827 fatbar which don't have much sweep and are quite wide, on the taller side, but not too tall.  I tend to like this feel!  Bars on a mx bike around 800mm wide are too narrow for me.  In an effort to get some added comfort (as recommended by a friend), I'm currently riding with the Pro Taper Race Team bend which is very similar and I like it so far.  Does it give more comfort than the Renthal Fatbar?  I'm not really sure, I'd have to compare back to back.  So far so good though, and if both those bends are a bit wide, they can be trimmed down slightly.  So far leaving them un-cut.

For whatever reason my long arms like ProTaper Windham Bend. 

Im 180cm. I just feel that the 997 becomes to tall on the newer chassis and the bike feels like a chopper with it.

But I have put 999’s on my older 02-07 cr two stroke chassis to now. But on those bikes I also use footpegs that is 5mm further back to stretch out the riders triangle a bit.

McGrath/Carmichael bend seems to work for me (5’ 7”)

24 YZ125

Ankles dropped attack position feels really stretched for me on this bike. Very taxing on the core muscles.

I feel like bars bends are a compromise between seated and standing.

2023 KX450 here and tried the Renthal Twinwall Stewart/Villipoto bend and can honestly say they are the most comfortable bend I've tried so far..they just feel nearly perfect to me..I'm 5,9..

Anyone cut their bars down? Currently running OEM bars on my TF450X its the bend I run on my YZ but they just havent been cut down. I feel like I'm overpowering the front end of the bike at times even with the steering stem tight as hell.

My YZ450 bars are the same bend as the TF cut to 800mm

While the TF450X is 812mm?

Any truth behind it or think just a delusion? Im a pretty broad, wide guy lol.

Kris Keefer’s opinion on bar width.

Oh wait...you meant handlebars?

I was looking for this exact exerpt from him. I found other ones but it was just a preference thing. I'm worried about upsetting the already iffy stability of the bike, but yeah I do feel a knot or when it finds an angle it sits there. Then just THROWS itself in. Great at MX but not good in th sand cause I feel like itll just tuck the front randomly going up a sandy face. I'll definitely try some of my already cut to length bars. Thank you.

I think I’m going to cut my bars down as well. The ODI McGrath bend I’m running is 805mm. Seems rather wide for me as a short rider.

Watched an older vitalmx test with ping. He was running the same width bar and cut a 1/2” off either side. Interesting to hear, I feel like bar width isn’t talked about much. My older 90s YZ has a set of twinwall 999s which are super wide. Didn’t seem to bother me as much on that bike but the ergos were different back then.

Mtb guys are running much narrower bars now. 

Cutting .5" off each side of an 805mm bar would be ~780mm. That feels very good to me. I have an 827 Fatbar cut down to try. I actually prefer the Twinwalls, but they have limited room for controls so it appears ~780-785mm is as narrow as I can make them.