# How wide of handlebars for a 10



## Rae6503 (Jun 30, 2009)

Year old girl? About 4'10" on a XS Giant Trance. We bought it used and the handlebars are huge, wider than my medium 29er.


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## jestep (Jul 23, 2004)

It's hard to say without seeing them on the bike, but the natural position is with the arms slightly bent about a hand wider than shoulder width on each side. Have them sit in a normal chair and pretend their arms are sitting on arm rests at their sides, forearms parallel to the ground straight forward. Extend the arms forward without moving them in our out, add an inch on each side, and this is probably a good starting point. I'd be guessing, something around 580 - 620mm would be close the max width you'd want for this size rider. But seeing how many adults are over 800mm, you may be able to get away with wider if the reach and stem isn't too long.


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## RMCDan (Feb 28, 2008)

Install the bar sans grips, brakes, etc. Let her figure out where her natural comfortable hand position is and cut the bar accordingly, but leave a little extra to accommodate future growth or mind changes. You can always cut more off, but not the other way around.


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## BullSCit (Mar 26, 2004)

If you have lock on grips, or grips that move easily, I would just keep adjusting them in an inch or so at a time, and see what they like. Problem is that it is easy for them to "adapt" to the wider bars, and going back to something more proper will seem uncomfortable at first. Not sure how the trails are where you ride, but wide bars with trailside trees are never a good thing. I used to ride 800mm bars, but cut them down to 750 after handlebar/tree accident caused a bad wreck. I also cut both my kids and wife's bars narrower after this too.


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## BXCc (May 31, 2012)

I got some chinese carbon bars at 660 wide for my daughter. She is 4'9"ish and they fit her good. 685mm was a pretty popular width 4 years ago so finding some used ones to try out might be an easy option.


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## Rae6503 (Jun 30, 2009)

Yeah, she almost ended up in the creek Sunday because of them, clipped a little utility box on a bridge. I just measured them. They are 30", so 760mm, wider than anything myself or my husband has. The bike she used to ride was 24". Now I just need to figure out if it'd be better to cut them or just sell that bar and buy a smaller one.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk


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## jestep (Jul 23, 2004)

Rae6503 said:


> Yeah, she almost ended up in the creek Sunday because of them, clipped a little utility box on a bridge. I just measured them. They are 30", so 760mm, wider than anything myself or my husband has. The bike she used to ride was 24". Now I just need to figure out if it'd be better to cut them or just sell that bar and buy a smaller one.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk


I measured my daughter's last night and they're 597mm. She's roughly 4'9".

If they're not some brand name carbon bars, I'd just cut them. Most Al or non-premium bars do not hold value well. Otherwise, chinese carbon risers are like $20 shipped.


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## BXCc (May 31, 2012)

The Chinese carbon ones are under $20 on eBay. Both of my daughters have them in 660 width. 

Unless they are really nice bars that you could get some good money for, I say cut them to 680ish and see how she does.


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