Hey all,
This might have been done before (I doubt I'm the first person to think of this) and I did a quick search before I posted this but didn't come up with any matching results, so I thought I'd throw this little tid-bit down for y'all...
After riding by a few large shop windows and checking out my reflection (come on, which one of you DOESN'T do that O0 ) I wanted a more aggressive look... and feel... for the bike. So I've been looking into different options... dropping the front end, new bars, raising the back end haha... pretty much anything. So I went outside and stared at my bike for a bit (not something new for me) just trying to get some fresh ideas. I bought her from a dealer here in town after a guy traded it in on a new bike after dropping it at low speeds in the rain I believe the shop replaced the forks (look almost brand new) and changed the handlebars. From my brief research the '90s GS has the solid handlebar that clips on... mine has - what i believe - is a set of '89 type bars, the 2 brackets that hold about 8-10" of bar on either side of the gauges (I can post pics if you don't know what I'm talking about). So I thought, what the hell, why not just try and flip them upside-down... seems like the easiest solution... sometimes the most obvious is the best. This would lower the bars about 3". So, being thrilled with my ingenuity I got to work.
Here's what I did... i can post pics if you want, just don't have my cam with me at the moment.
1) Loosened all hand controls, mirrors, etc so they moved freely on the bar (much easier then after the bar is detatched... which I found out by doing it wrong the first time ... ugh)
2) Removed the bars from both clamps and got my wife to hold them so they didn't put strain on the wiring. (it was a good bonding time :kiss3:)
3) Removed the clamps from the forks. After turning them upside-down and looking at the angle the bars come out of the clamps I had the idea of trying them on the opposite side. (ex. the Left clamp I moved to the Right side) The angle when put this way is a little bit less steep and a bit more comfortable for me.
4) Connected the clamps to the bike (pardon, my non-tech language, the only way I'd know what most parts are called is if I had my Clymer beside me haha) upside-down on opposite sides.
5) with controls and wiring still attached, I slid the bars into each clamp. The bars have 2 small notches in one end for the hex bolts to keep the bars from rotating or pulling out. In order to fit the bars into the newly placed clamps you have to rate the bars to line up the notches (previously they faced down, now they face up)
6) Tighten clamps holding the bars.
7) rotate hand controls, mirrors, cigarette lighter, LCD TV, and stripper pole (or whatever else you have on your bars) to the best position for you and tighten.
8) I found that at this point I had to disconnect the clutch cable and relocate it (instructions via another boardmember, coll0412). If you need to know how to do that I can explain, but common sense is really all you need for this one.
9) ride!!
A few notes: I anticipated a few more problems with this little modification than I had, especially clearance problems. Fortunately the only clearance issue I had was the clutch cable. After relocating it it works awesome. I still have a stock headlight, flashers, and gauges on my bike, none of which get in the way. Its a bit of a tight squeeze working between the stock flashers and the bars but my flashers rotate freely so I rotated them out of the way while working and rotated them back after I was finished. This shouldn't be an issue on Saturday when I install my new signals.
I did have to re-juice my front brake line but that was probably more from stupidity than necessity. I loosened it to rotate the little black stem for better positioning and it leaked out :cookoo:
Other than these few problems, it was a piece of cake. I'd guesstimate it took me (a novice) about 2 hours to do. Prob wouldn't take the avg person over an hour.
thanks for reading!
L.
The '89 style bars are called "clip on bars", for easier communication.
Post some pictures of what you did, if you can, please?