rruff
Explorer
I'm willing to concede that "what I'm used to" is part of this. My old MTB bars were only 21" wide, vs the new ones that came 30" wide that I cut down to 27". My road bike is 15".
Geometry is the other thing. Steep seat angles and slack head angles are in vogue... along with short stems and high bars. Maybe this works well for the DH crowd, but my MTB is a rigid frame and fork, and is more like a bikepacker, so definitely not a DH bike. I'm 6' on a large frame, got a setback post and saddle all the way back, 120mm low stem... and I still feel like I could stretch out more. Head angle is supposed to be 68 deg, which isn't that slack these days, but 71-72 has felt a lot more intuitive. The new bike feels reluctant to turn and then suddenly it's too much. When I start riding it more, maybe I'll get used to it...