1. Well, the original plan was to replace the stock Albatross bars, which are 550 mm c-c at the ends. According Riv's copy: "That's not as wide as it sounds. My daughter has been riding hers since she was 14. Try it on a good bike. It's worthy of the best bike you own." The 480 mm PNW Coast bars also measure 550 mm c-c at the ends. Of course, most of the time she will be on the hoods, which measure to the 480 mm. So, overall it's narrower than the stock configuration. Which apparently is approved by 14 year old girls. 2. Regarding that 550 cm bar-end position, I asked Stephanie about it after the ride. Her response: "I usually don't ride in the drops, but I saw you doing it and tried them out. Very comfortable in the grips!" Oury grips on drop bar ends are indeed deluxe :) 3. Stephanie is also 5'9". Prior to the Platypus her main bike, a Crust Bombora, measure 440 mm c-c at the hoods. So the Platypus is only 40 mm wider overall. Not sure which Salsa Cowchipper's you might be recommending, since they range from 520 mm to 380 mm in size. Nor am I sure how Salsa sizes/measures their bars. On Whatbars.com they have 420 mm Salsa Cowchippers which you can compare to Albatrosses. Visually it appears the 420 mm Cowchip's also are ~550 mm at ends, but they also have more flare, reach, and drop than the PNW Coast Bars, all things that she was trying to minimize. 4. I did suggest to Stephanie that she try wider bars on this experiment, just to try out and see if she liked it. But if she had thought they were too wide, we'd definitely would have sized down (maybe to the 440 mm PNW Coast?) I am 6'3" and I definitely prefer wide bars. My all time favorite drop bar is the Crust Towel Rack v1. Those are now discontinued, but they are 560 mm c-c at the hoods. I have 2 sets. I also have a set of current production Towel racks, which are narrower at the hoods (500 mm) and have less drop and less reach, all things I do not prefer. My current favorite production drop bar is the Crust Shaka bars in the largest size (540 mm at hoods). My narrowest bars are 480 mm Rene Herse Randonneur's on my rando bike (too me the one downside to wide bars is the aerodynamic penalty, so for longer rides dialing that down a bit can really make a difference to me). My widest bars are 820 mm Oddmone Riser bars, super fun, but terrible for long rides.
On Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 8:14:03 AM UTC-7 [email protected] wrote: > I think some of the Salsa bars are coming in a silver now.. something like > the cowchipper maybe? I guess I'm just a little taken aback at someone > still riding a 48cm bar, especially a woman (unless she plays in the > WNBA).. to each their own for sure, but the wider you go with bars, the > longer the effective reach is.. it also slows the steering waaaay down.. > not saying everyone needs to be on 36 or 38cm bars like some of the latest > cycling media would have you believe, but 48cm would just feel HUGE to me > and I'm around 5'9" and not a tiny guy by any means.. > > Chris > > On Saturday, September 20, 2025 at 7:17:19 PM UTC-7 Ben Miller wrote: > >> Y'all, >> >> We went with the PNW Coast Gen 2 bars. Super nice bars: nice shot peen >> finish with contrasting polished graphics. A bit wider than advertised: >> went with the 480 mm but they're essentially the same width as the 510 mm >> Wild Honey bars they are replacing. Much shorter drop and reach though, >> which corrected the fit! >> >> [image: 1000002143.jpg] >> [image: 1000002144.jpg] >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/17594307-4dd2-4030-b4be-ac1d4134e4ffn%40googlegroups.com.
