I thought the stated figure for a set of drop bars was the width centre to centre at the widest part. The old-ish set of Cinelli Criterium bars on my winter bike (which i happen to be re-building today) support this, having printed on them 65-44 and are 44cm centre to centre.
On my nice bike though i have what i've always thought were 42cm bars (the measurement centre to centre). Noticed today that they have 44 printed on them, which would be the width outside to outside. Eh?! They're 3T forgie XL bars, which are more 'anatomical' than my nicely rounded cinelli's.
I thought the stated figure for a set of drop bars was the width centre to centre at the widest part. The old-ish set of Cinelli Criterium bars on my winter bike (which i happen to be re-building today) support this, having printed on them 65-44 and are 44cm centre to centre.
On my nice bike though i have what i've always thought were 42cm bars (the measurement centre to centre). Noticed today that they have 44 printed on them, which would be the width outside to outside. Eh?! They're 3T forgie XL bars, which are more 'anatomical' than my nicely rounded cinelli's.
So which is right?
Bars are usually measured bar end to bar end, which may or may not correspond to the widest part of the bars.
Traditionally bars are measured centre to centre, and I think Cinelli still do, but the modern trend is to quote outside to outside, as 3T do -- that tends to be 2cm greater than the centre to centre measurement.
