replaccement handlebars

[Boycie1150]

Evenin' all,

Before anyone says owt, i have done a search, and the result wasn't conclusive!!

As will b e seen elsewhere on the forum, I posted a longish thread about the rebirth of my Beemer. Now I have ridden it for a month or so, and put a thousand miles on it, I need to look at replacing the bars, as I thought I might, as they are too low for me. The bike has a Rickman Polaris fairing fitted which is brilliant and lovely an' all, but the result is that there is too much weight on my poor wrists and back. As I am now of a certain age, this isn't good in the long term, as I am riding the bike every day to work and back, let alone any other mileage I might do.

I have looked at Motorworks, which some of you will be familiar with,m and they have a pair of bars with a rise of approximately 125mm, which might be about right. They do supply RT bars, but I suspect they will not be suitable for the R65 and it's plastic crash pad fitted over the headstock. I also recognise that I will have to fit a longer upper brake hose and possibly cables.

I wondered if anyone has experience of doing what i want already who can tell me what to be aware of, what works, and what doesn't.

Ta muchly

[Pagodix]

I'm also looking for new higher bars for the very same reasons!

Been told that there is some work involved including new longer gas, brake and clutch cables and even the electricals are not long enough.
Changing the handlebar is part of what i've asked the vendor to include in the price so he might be overstimating the work involved.

Maybe some of you have already been there and could tell us what is really involved.

Cheers

[Vegasrandall]

I want the lower bars if anyone in the US wants to trade.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I don't see any reason the RT bars would not work, I don't think the dash panel will cause you any problems.

I could not picture that fairing in my mind, so I went to Google Images and found this:



Is that your bike Boycie?  The website where I found the image is quite interesting - lots of beemers!
http://gm4uls.webs.com/motorbikes.htm

[nhmaf]

I think that the stock wiring harness will fit/work with either set of handlebars?   Least ways, when I switched from high to low, there wasn't a huge amount of excess wire to tuck away.  

I did have to change the upper brake line (from m/c to splitter junction behind headlight for each front brake), and the upper throttle and upper choke cable (go to splitter/junctions that hang out on top of the starter cover), and I definitely had to get a shorter clutch cable.   One might be able to get away without changing the upper choke cable if going from hig bars-> low bars, but I suspect you would have to change to a longer cable if moving in the other direction.

[montmil]

Just an observation...

Handlebar choices are much like your selection of a spouse.

If everyone wanted what I have, I'd be a very busy cat!

Monte

[Boycie1150]

Thanks people. I need to measure everything properly to see how much leeway I might have in cable and brake line length. I definately need to sort something out, as my wrists and shoulders are getting quite painful at times.

Is that your bike Boycie?

No, its not my bike, but it is almost identical. mine doesn't have those cases, and my fairing is plain white, other than that, the same bike. Although mine is, of course, much, much cleaner

[Barry]

I couldn't quite come to terms with the low bars either. What I did was to bend the existing bars (not an easy thing to do) which moved them up 1" and back 1".  Probably not enough for you with having the fairing and all but made a surprising difference which I can now live with.

[chewy4x4]

I have said it before and Ill say it again All of y'all are OLD . I am now looking for the right set of club-mans  to go even lower than the K75 bars I have on my R65. Good luck with your High bar search Grandpa.  

[RSMike]

I have high bars and I was considering going a bit lower, and bought the 8cm standard bars from Motobins ( the £29.75 ones) last week.

Main reason I was considering them was I thought I would need them to fit my fairing, anyway I tried to put the standard bars on, and realized pretty quickly there was no way they were going on with the brake line I had ( way too long), this was more to do with the width of the bars that was dropping from about 710 to 640mm.

So my advice would be when doing your calculations pay attention to the width of the bars also.

Next step I checked the Motobins and Motorworks sites for shorter handlebar brake lines, I may be going blind but could not see them, anyway, I gave up put back the high bars and fitted the fairing, it actually turned out fine and so I am probably going to stay with the high bars.

However decided to e-mail Motobins and ask them their advise on brake line and clutch cable, they replied very quickly ( after a day) with all the details and links to the parts that I could not find visa the website menus.

So my advise would be when getting your bars e-mail or call Motobins/ Motorworks/Sherlocks and ask them what you need, I found the Motobins guys very helpful.

Here is my bike with the high bars and a small fairing

[steven m]

My trusty 83 R65 came with the standard 'American' bars, which provide a very comfortable upright seating position.  I swapped them out for the 90S bars, which suit me just fine, and I am approaching that, ahem, certain age.  I read all the posts about cable and brake lines and was surprised to discover I didn't have to change ANYTHING.  Depending on your brake line set up, you may have to get a new master cylinder to hard line hose, but if your bike was converted to a flexible hose from the master cylinder to the splitter box, instead of the partial hardline you may be able to get by.  
Steve

[RSMike]

Steve, I wonder if the secret to your success was the bar width, I considered these low R90S bars, which at 750mm are even slightly wider than my high bars (720mm)

http://www.bmwbayer.de/Handlebars-low-in-chrome-R2V-R90S-models1.html

but instead I opted for the standard R45/65 bars from Motobins which have a width of of 640mm , i.e. , these

And now when I look at it the 80mm width difference between the motobins bars and my current bars, this is the exact amount my brake line was too long by.

Pretty obvious in hindsight,  

[steven m]

The 90S bars are narrower than the standard bars but quite a bit lower with much less of a pullback.  They are not as narrow as the LS bars.  I would say the master cylinder has moved in about 2".  I did have to rotate the right hand control mount slightly to get it to tuck into the dash pad.  With the American bars it was entirely out in the breeze.  The 90S bars give enough leverage for dealing with low speed city traffic and are narrow enough to allow easy maneuvering between cars at stop lights, while giving a good riding position at higher speeds and in canyons.
Steve  

[RSMike]

that's interesting, here is how my brake line looked after I tried to switch to the narrower bars



and this picture was taken without even having the controls/master cylinder pushed in all the way.

however my bike is an 80, yours an 83, maybe your brake fittings give more flexibility on positioning?

[steven m]

Your bike apparently has the hard line from below the dash to the splitter box.  The PO of my bike bypassed, at some point, the splitter, which isn't needed with the single disc standard in the good old USA.  Check it out, makes things a lot easier.  When I added a second disc and caliper, I hooked up the splitter and connected the hard line to the master cylinder with a short hose.   While not esthetically pleasing, you could simply make a loop in the longer hose and install your lower bars to where you want them while waiting for a shorter hose.
Steve