I say 1 and 1/4 is not wide enough for my bees in my location. I use 1 and 3/8 for brood bars but add spacers to make them 1 and 1/2 for honey storage comb. If your bars are not wide enough you may well end up with cross combing. Others may have different views depending on their own experiences.

 

I used 1x2's for my bars and i placed 1/4" to 1/2" spacers in between, it worked out great!

 

Half of mine are 1 1/4" and that's what I recommend for brood. The other half are 1 1/2" which I'm using for honey. If you have 1/4" spacers you can easily space them to match what the bees decide to do by adding them here and there as needed.