Tim Evans said:Is there any benefit to have wider handlebars ?
Benefit?
It isn't about benefit. It's about geography.
If you live on the East Coast, you must use a bar less than 22"
wide, just as you must ride a hardtail with a short wheelbase
and a high bottom bracket. If you need to ask whether that
bar should be flat or riser, you clearly don't live on the east
coast. So stop pretending.
If you live on the West Coast, you must use a bar wider than
24.5", on a bike suitable to "Fire Roads" since that's all you
have to ride anyway.
If you live somewhere between the coasts, the rules are somewhat
more complicated, but I think you'll find that they ultimately
make perfect sense.
If you live east of the Mississippi, you can run a bar up to
24" wide, but it must be a flat bar.
If you live west of the Mississippi, but east of the Rockies,
you are encouraged to run a bar wider than 24", and it can be
flat or riser, but it has to be carbon fiber. No exceptions.
If you live in the Rockies, but east of the California border,
you must use a bar wider than 24", it must be a low-riser, and
you may not use any type of bar-end. Unless, that is, you have
a bike with more than 4" of rear travel, or more than 100mm of
front travel, or a combined travel of more than 7.75". In that
case you must use a full-on, 26" (or wider) DH bar. And of course,
no bar ends.
Glad I could help.
--
Tom Purvis - http://www.arkansasvalley.net/tpurvis/
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."-Bertrand Russell