Scoooooooore..... Buying steel friday...

[aplitz]

I don't understand why I need to check the facts.  Because I underestimated the number of bars that broke?  I don't care if they failed before or after your recall, there should have never been any need for a recall in the first place.  You can't expect to get every bar back from a recall program in a timely manner or otherwise.  I acknowledge that you took the correct steps to rectify the situation; however, I beleive that the ethical thing to do would have been to get out of the handlebar business altogether.

I am a member of a forum for boosted Volvos.  We are a tight group, and have regional get togethers frequently.  One of our members was travelling from Texas to New England, and was killed in a head-on accident in Arkansas.  The membership was totally crushed, and to this day, his memory is carried on.  Now imagine if his death could have been attribuited to a part made by a member of the forum.  How much more horrible would that situation have been for all involved?  

Now everyone will acknowledge that riding a motorcycle is much more of a controlled risk activity than driving a car, but why increase risk by throwing questionable components into the mix?  I commend you for going to lengths to ensure your product's strength, but I still do not beleive that you have approached it correctly.  Only time can prove if a bar will really work, testing in the shop (excluding x-ray analysis of course) cannot prove that the bars won't break, nor replicate the stresses of actual riding.  

I ask why go to the lengths of that type of analysis when people can buy bars that are already proven, and thus remove you from any unfortunate circumstance that may occur?

Aaron

[i3randon12]

for all ya making fun of sesinthra bars...

just to say my stock ones have broken... does this mean that there bad?
why dont you guys shut up and leave the man alone

i rather pay 40 dollars anyday then about 140         he is trying to save all of ya money

y dont u say thnx            and if u dont like them, dont buy them

[Lukewarm Wilson]

Firstly sorry to hear about your friend from the Volvo group regardless of car make as I am sure others maybe cruel enough to make jokes re volvo.
But with attitude you are putting out about these bars is just WRONG there would not be a company in the world regardless of what they make that would not have made a faulty part for whatever be they car, bike or even vaccum cleaners, mistakes happen in industry and parts can be made badly by mistake, by the looks of it a mistake was made but thats why pencils have erasers these things can be fixed and made better.
I think it was said once (not sure) that he used thicker steel then other handlebar manufactures so apart from the weld problem these are probably better quality anyway and as you have probably noticed your reasons and posts are wasted as no one seems to agree with you.
Once again sorry to hear about your friend

[90gs500]

hey, do the bars come black like that, and will they cause you to lean more when you ride, are they comfortable?

sorry for all the questions, i'm interested in them though...

Derek

[raylarrabee]

the '92 I just bought had the srinath bars already on it, and they're great.  I'm 6' 6", so the more "aggressive" riding position realy puts my in a better position on the bike--more weight forward.

Of course, I've never riden anything else, so I have nothing to compare them to.

[The Buddha]

I ask why go to the lengths of that type of analysis when people can buy bars that are already proven, and thus remove you from any unfortunate circumstance that may occur?

Aaron

What is the Proven product you are talking about... not stock bars for sure... they'd bend if you sneeze... heck I dont think there is a GS I bought that didn't have bent bars or I bend them in my use... SM's?? They will fix a bent or broken bar if you send it to them for some small fee you know... and what does that tell you... They bend or break too. Its metal, and its cut and mitered and jigged and welded... I dont know if they analyse the welds or not, and again I dont know what the analysis is going to show me... Oh BTW mine have 2 welds and SM's have 4. I have a rod inserted and welded in the 2 pieces at the weld and they dont... Its metal and even if their welds were perfect and that bar behaves like 1 piece of tubing... the bar still will bend on impact... and it will hit the tank before too long... Which is why I inserted a rod in them... they have to take a huge impact before making contact with the tank.
Cool.
Srinath.

[KeL]

If srinath doesn't continue making them, how will he ever make it into a "proven" product? EVERYONE has to start from somewhere. It's just like saying u'll only use windows and not linux cuz it's "proven", or that u'll keep using the space shuttle cuz it's "proven", so now that it's crashed it's "unproven" just because it costs more does not mean it's better.

If your comments about not liking them came after you have tried it out, those comments would be more appreciated. But saying something is crap before you even tried it out yourself is not legit. so you realise most people are just gonna ignore you. I for one am still gonna buy it.

so srinath pls pm me once u've finished making the ones for the '04.
Thanks.

[The Buddha]

hey, do the bars come black like that, and will they cause you to lean more when you ride, are they comfortable?

sorry for all the questions, i'm interested in them though...

Derek

You do lean further forward, and put more weight on your wrists... however your wrists are more naturally positioned instead of twisted 1/2 way to torture. Now the bars are almost exactly as heavy as a full stock assy with the weights attached, but the weight is in the whole bar not just all at the end... so they sorta vibrate less... although someone said they vibrated more, like a lot lot more... I dont remember who or what they did later to fix it, I think some thing between the triple clamp and top plate was messed up and they put in some inner tube there ... The handling is improved for 2 reasons... 1 your weight gets lower to the ground from leaning forward more, and the bars are going to take the wind off your chest and hence the sail effect is lowered. Als them being shorter in width and more rigid, they sorta make you hardwired to the forks and give better feed back and make you more aware of the front wheel's responses. And oh yea more of your weight is on the front wheel, so helps braking a bit too. OK The bars are black yes, however I have the case savers that are comming up on a completion, and these and I have those other pseudo clip on's... and that almost is a laaaarge enough batch to get powder coating economical. I said If there were a 100 they'd cost $2 a set, well we have a decent number if they all get made in the next few weeks. 50 case savers (25 pairs), ~15 bars, 10 clip on's... getting up there to make it worthwhile to powder them up. Black still but powder coated. I dunno, dont want to make many promises... those case savers are the biggest disaster to ever bite me in the ass.
Cool.
Srinath.

[The Buddha]

If srinath doesn't continue making them, how will he ever make it into a "proven" product? EVERYONE has to start from somewhere. It's just like saying u'll only use windows and not linux cuz it's "proven", or that u'll keep using the space shuttle cuz it's "proven", so now that it's crashed it's "unproven" just because it costs more does not mean it's better.

If your comments about not liking them came after you have tried it out, those comments would be more appreciated. But saying something is crap before you even tried it out yourself is not legit. so you realise most people are just gonna ignore you. I for one am still gonna buy it.

so srinath pls pm me once u've finished making the ones for the '04.
Thanks.

I'll let you know for sure... But I think the bars i ahve should fit and clear the fairing just fine... I'll let you know for sure though.
Cool.
Srinath.

[aplitz]

Unfortunately the right thing is not always popular.

[tt_four]

aplitz, have you ever walked into a walmart? they've got an entire wall of recalls, it's rediculous to read some of the descriptions on those things, you'd think they were intentionally trying to kill your children, i'd like to see you walk into a store like that, point at the wall, and tell them they screwed up, and they need to get out of the retail business,

as long as we're still trusting srinath enough to buy his bars, then let him make them, if we still wanna buy them after some broke, that's our fault, not his

[MarkusN]

Now the bars are almost exactly as heavy as a full stock assy with the weights attached, but the weight is in the whole bar not just all at the end... so they sorta vibrate less...

Sorry, but you seem to misunderstand the physics here. Bar end weights aren't so much about "how much vibration", but about resonance frequency. Heavy bar ends move resonce frequency down. Hopefully below the practical RPM range, so you run "over-critical". Having the mass distributed over the whole bar will move resonance up in comparison. So does a stiffer tube (more material in the tube vs more material in the bar end.) So does a shorter bar.

All these changes will also reduce vibration amplitude, but if you are unlucky enough, you will just end up with the bars resonating at an important RPM range. (Think GS tank at 5000 RPM (yeah, as if the tank revolves ).)

Getting rid of resonance vibrations is kind of the black magic of engineering.

[The Buddha]

OK I wasn't too clear... cos well I am not that clear on the idea myself...
The 4 aspects that make the vibes less, The bar is shorter than stock, the bar is at a different angle than stock, the bar puts more rider weight on it, the bar is thicker than stock... My 89 vibrated through the bars a lot less than the 90 I had for a good couple years, and I thought my 89 was just well balanced... then last year I rode another 89, and it felt just silky smooth... which is when I thought, the weight, the angle, the length etc all make a diff. Then I started fitting these to other bikes, and immediately they started vibrating less.... maybe they just vibrate at a higher rpm... where you may not notice that much. The bars made one bike more buzzy, I forget who... but hopefully he'll read this post and chime in.
Cool.
Srinath.

[The Buddha]

Unfortunately the right thing is not always popular.

You are basing being the right thing on the fact that its not popular.... the wrong things also arent always popular ...
"Its not the right thing as long as you ignore facts"
In all honestly though I appreciate the comments, I cant change the facts... especially those that are in the past... but its pushing me to be more innovative in design and more rigorous in my testing and more particular in material and tools selection .... I also send the links to these type of posts to people that ask me if they should switch to the bars I make... and I tell them what I think, and I point them to the opponents view as well... Helps balance it out for someone who doesn't know.
Cool.
Srinath.

[The Buddha]

Now the bars are almost exactly as heavy as a full stock assy with the weights attached, but the weight is in the whole bar not just all at the end... so they sorta vibrate less...

Sorry, but you seem to misunderstand the physics here. Bar end weights aren't so much about "how much vibration", but about resonance frequency. Heavy bar ends move resonce frequency down. Hopefully below the practical RPM range, so you run "over-critical". Having the mass distributed over the whole bar will move resonance up in comparison. So does a stiffer tube (more material in the tube vs more material in the bar end.) So does a shorter bar.

All these changes will also reduce vibration amplitude, but if you are unlucky enough, you will just end up with the bars resonating at an important RPM range. (Think GS tank at 5000 RPM (yeah, as if the tank revolves ).)

Getting rid of resonance vibrations is kind of the black magic of engineering.

I read this slowly, trying to remember what each of the physics terms means... and yes the amplitude is what seems to decrease... the high frequency buzz is very much there... that heavy shaking sorta feeling is gone.... which is what the bikes I tried it on did.
Cool.
Srinath.

[90gs500]

are they meant to angle down so much like the pictures show or can you have them at less of a downward slope?

Derek

[The Buddha]

Davipu actually has the 90-00 spec bars... he didn't tell me its an 01 before buying it... and the has them fitted nearly straight up and down. Typically you'd fit it almost flat on the triple clamp... making the downward angle much less steep. They should be ~10 degrees down and ~ 30 degrees back. Of course a 01+ I think will be more like 28 degrees back... else it might hit the tank.
Cool.
Srinath.

[90gs500]

if I would buy a set, could I return them if they didn't fit me well?

Just a question.

Derek

[The Buddha]

OK Yes you can, but we'll lose a bunch of $$$ shipping both ways. I have had people buy it and re sell it to someone near by. You can do that... If you dont like it, and someone near you wants one, I'll send them over to you. So I guess it helps to buy one of the first. I believe I am only making 10-12 for the old (90-00) and 3-4 for 01+... and that should also fit the 04+.
Cool.
Srinath.

[90gs500]

the bars do sit lower causing you to lean more correct cause thats more of the look i want with this....

Derek