My observation is that a lot of the riders complaining about the ergonomics of their bike are suffering from poor riding form.

There's that, plus different setups are just good for different kinds of riding. You can love the idea of clipons, but if your most common style of riding is touring, it's just not gonna work. Since I only ride 1 bike 98% of the time, I leave the taller bars on it. When I have a second bike again that I ride a lot, my back roads bike is probably going to get clipons since it'll have a more specialized purpose and I'll be a little too busy to be worried about comfort.

i have a 2004 gs500f and i want to lower it the problem is that the stock handlebar setup is in the way.  i want to put clip-ons on it but how do i go about eliminating the stock triple tree top/cover so i dont have the ugly old handlebar holders on it? any solutions would be great/helpful.

thanks

You kids and your Clip-Ons, even when I was in my teens I couldn't ride 5 minutes with them....Yay Bar-Back's!! 

If you pull off the stock triple cover you'll have to make something to hold your speedometer, plus the real top triple under it is sooo much uglier than the part that holds the handlebars. Just keep the top piece, cut off the handlebar clamps and grind it flat.

Quote from: waynef on January 07, 2011, 06:50:04 PM
i have a 2004 gs500f and i want to lower it the problem is that the stock handlebar setup is in the way.  i want to put clip-ons on it but how do i go about eliminating the stock triple tree top/cover so i dont have the ugly old handlebar holders on it? any solutions would be great/helpful.

thanks

Hey man on my o4 I just cut off and ground down the part that holds the handle bars. You have to lower the bike about 1 3/8" I think with the clip ons I have. It worked great and I loved it. It can be a chalenge to route your cables and such but it's worth it. I recently converted mine back to regular bars though for comuting duty. If you don't have the clip ons yet I'd sell mine and the top plate.

With what you did, you could have saved the work of grinding down the top plate and just used the factory clip-on top plate. It is perfectly flat.

Yeah but i'll do a little work to save money any day, already had the clip ons. Plus i was told at the time the 89's would hit the tank.

Clip ons are great but there are more bar options out there to get the same feel of clip ons. Before I got my kat Fe, I used SM2's and they were awesome! If i bought another GS, and i couldnt swap in the kat off the bat i would go with another set of these or a set of drag bars.

Quote from: GI_JO_NATHAN on January 08, 2011, 11:53:39 AM
Yeah but i'll do a little work to save money any day, already had the clip ons. Plus i was told at the time the 89's would hit the tank.

There are 3 models. One works fine with the newer large tanks.

Average is right - if you look there are lots of bar options depending on the look and feel you want. I like the factory clip ons because, well, they're factory and look like they belong there. Plus the "aggressiveness" is mid way between standard bars and after market clip ons. And they look cool and really great.

yea i bought my 04 from my buddie he dumpd it on the left side nothing bad just had to straighten the fairing holders thats it but bike runs great and only has 2600 miles on it and i paid 1900 for it a yr ago so i think i got a good deal