I've heard of people cutting an inch or two off of the ends of their handlebars to give them faster steering... the downside is less leverage but I've been contemplating it since I seem to have issues bending tie rods after clipping trees (I do CC racing). I'm a bit hesitant because of the nature of CC racing... long races won by endurance. Alot of pros use wider than normal bars just so they don't tire as easy. Finishing the race seems more important though and I've had a bad string of luck in that dept. Anyone have any feedback?