All 2st Handle bar width

What width are you cutting your handle bars to for
woods riding? I used to run them at 31" but have
now gone to 30" and was curious what others
are using.

I run Pro-taper "woods high" bars. They are 30.5".

I cut mine down so that they are 30 inches total with the hand guards installed.

I use to cut mine down for enduro racing, which can be stupid tight here on the east coast. But, I had someone explain it to me like this - how many times in a race are you going to go through a spot so tight that bars cut down an inch will help? Maybe a dozen times? maybe more. Now, how many times are you going to come out of a corner hard on the gas? Well, if you're racing, every single corner of the race. That's like 1,000 or more corners. Now go back and try to control the bike with narrower bars and wider bars. If you're like me you'll find better control under hard acceleration with wider bars.

It may make a difference that I'm tall and wide shoulders, but I did race for several years with bars cut down as narrow as 29.5 and I tried incrementally wider bars too. I had the best control with stock width bars. And keep in mind this is racing tight enduros (not the wider faster Nat'l Enduro stuff).

I like 29.5" to 30". I read how Dwight Rudder recommended to think about how you would place your hands while doing push-ups. This is where you are strongest and most comfortable and the bars should be set at that width.

The mountain bike guys say to mount your bars up without controls
or grips and sit on the bike with your eyes closed and grab the bars
several times and have a friend mark where the outsides of your
hands land on the bars, to find the proper width. I think Dwight
said he had run his at 29" or mini bars.

I just watched "On any Sunday" the other day, there was one desert racer (Whitey Martino?) who had bars that looked to be 36"! Maybe it was just the angle they were filming from.

I was told to do 10 push ups and after the last one have someone measure from the outside of one hand to the other. This is how wide your bars should be. For me 30".