Sjthjs Posted June 5, 2011 Posted June 5, 2011 Want to change the look of the front end, and am considering a straight handlebar. To those who have then on the dragstar, how are they for riding with, and what do I need to consider when fitting them?
Paulwhite Posted June 5, 2011 Posted June 5, 2011 Want to change the look of the front end, and am considering a straight handlebar. To those who have then on the dragstar, how are they for riding with, and what do I need to consider when fitting them? well for starters you need to see if the controls clear the tank....if not then you will need risers for them. as to riding position you lean forward more and your legs straighten out (not good if you have a bad back..... for some reason i tend to find my hands go numb after about 40 min
petercnm Posted June 6, 2011 Posted June 6, 2011 here's what i did with mine. For my feel, it is very comfortable. My back is not 100% (thanks to a nice horse !@@#$$#), but i did a tour of several hours last week, and still feel ok. What you need to consider is the routing of your throttle and clutch cable, and electrical cables. I put all of my wires inside the handlebar. And i used risers. If you just put the new handlebar on the existing mount, i could be that you lean to far forward.
Ttaskmaster Posted June 6, 2011 Posted June 6, 2011 Be ready for your position to be very odd when turning, especially around full lock. Some straight bars are quite a stretch, even for us long-armed types.
Sjthjs Posted June 6, 2011 Author Posted June 6, 2011 When you routed the cables through the bars, I take it you drilled a hole in the bar? Would that not affect strength? And do you suffer from corrosion if you had to drill?
petercnm Posted June 6, 2011 Posted June 6, 2011 holes were pre-drilled when i bought the handle bar, so no problem there. Needed to extend the wires though, which is a bit of work. Plus the bike is always in the garage, next to heating When you routed the cables through the bars, I take it you drilled a hole in the bar? Would that not affect strength? And do you suffer from corrosion if you had to drill?
Noise Posted June 7, 2011 Posted June 7, 2011 I have a set of bars from a Norton on my XVS 125 and have had to put a set of 3" risers on in order for the controls to clear the tank, you will also have to get the brake cable re-made so that its shorter and re-route the other cables so that they are'nt in the way and looking tacky. As for the riding possision and handleing, i find that it handles better with stright bars as your body weight is up front and you can turn in quicker and lean more into the corners and it totally changes the look of the bike! Here is mine when i was building it back up. As you can see they are old pics and i was still waiting on my 3" risers to turn up to sort out the cables etc. All in all i think it cost me a total of £30 to do that mod.....£10 for the bars (e-bay) £10 for the risers (again e-bay) and roughly £10 for the brake line (HEL)
Sjthjs Posted June 7, 2011 Author Posted June 7, 2011 Well the sort I'm looking at are attached direct to the fork strut-for want of a better word, the "risers" are part of the bar. Wishbone bars I think.
Noise Posted June 8, 2011 Posted June 8, 2011 Im not 100% sure on the XVS 650 just at this moment in time as im not picking mine up till Friday so cant reallt say if they will fit or not? i know i had to modify my new risers on my XVS 125 but that was only due to the fact that finding after market parts for that bike is like looking for rocking horse s**t. I do know the Americans do tond of stuff for the V star (dragstar in England) just Google aftermarket parts for that bike and im sure you will come up with a set that will just bolt on.
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