I bought a pair of generic aftermarket handle bars and I want to take a crack at the installation today after work. Where are all the screws/nuts/bolts that need to come off? The main clamp bolts look like they have some sort of chrome caps over the bolts or something.. How do I get it undone?
As far as tools.. I have sockets/wrench, and open ended wrenches, a drill, screw drivers.. is there anything else I will need?
I bought: generic handlbars from a bike shop in town.. new grips, and a tube of some sort of grip related compound.
I am pretty mechanically inclined, but just got this (my first bike) on tuesday and I've never worked on a bike.
update.. I decided not to install the bars I bought.. they will require some trimming and I dont have the tools for that. Does anyone know if the superbike bars require any trimming?
I have some OEM clip ons from an 89. I took them off my 2004 as I will be trading it in next season (hopefully). e-mail me for pics if interested. mark8marco@yahoo.com. Thx
Quote from: Boston500F on October 04, 2007, 06:20:10 PM
I have some OEM clip ons from an 89. I took them off my 2004 as I will be trading it in next season (hopefully). e-mail me for pics if interested. mark8marco@yahoo.com. Thx
email sent!
Are the handlebars the same from previous years? Are pre-F stock bars pretty much the same? If different, will they still work?
If you want to install clip-ons, I think the easiest thing to do is to remove the top plate that the current handlebars are clamped to now, and use that extra space on the forks that gets freed up.
In addition to what you have, you will need a set of allen wrenches up to 8mm.
First remove the caps on top of the clamp by prying them off with a slot screwdriver. The screws below those are 5mm hex. Take the levers and controls off the current handlebars. The left grip is a PAIN to get off, but if you have a heat gun, it might help. Remove the handlebar and throw it in a lake or something; you won't need it anymore.
Now comes what I remember to be the hardest part: removing the top plate. There are two bolts holding the top plate to the top triple. Here's where you use that 8mm allen wrench for the top, and a 12mm (I think) box-end for the bottom nut. Twist as hard as you can, and be careful not to strip the nut on the bottom.
The rest of it is pretty easy, just put all the stuff on the cilp-ons and screw them onto the fork tops. You can lower the bike a bit to make more room for the clip-ons. As for the gauges, they attach to the top triple, so you need to fab up some sort of new top plate in order to keep them in place. Zip ties work great too.
not entirely sure that I want clipons.. I just want handle bars that arent bent. I am a novice rider so it would probably be in my best interest to stick with normal bars... are the pre 'F' handle bars the same as the F bars?
They should be the same. Except for the '89, which had clip ons