1982 R65LS Handlebars

[jgp1854]

Greetings,

Can anyone tell me what bars would be OEM bars.  My current LS has "chrome" bars on it.  I have no idea what BMW model the chrome bars were for/from.  Would anyone have an idea what may have been put on the bike back in the day in lieu of the OEM?  The current chrome bars on the my LS reflect the front brake reservoir pretty close to the right side of the fairing.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

jgp

[Bob_Roller]

The OEM handlebars were a flat black .

There's always the possibility if the bike was an early '82 model year bike, that some of the parts were from the previous years production .

Not too uncommon to hear of an owner change the shorter bars for the standard R65 handlebars .

After 30 years, anything is possible .

[nhmaf]

Th LS had black bars - either taller (~4.5" rise) bars on the US models or shorter (~1.5" rise) bars on the European/Canadian models.   The non-LS bikes could have chrom bars, and some people would also purchase the chrome bars for the K75C - which was between the low and the tall bars in rise&pullback- to tailor things to their liking.

Keep in mind that the BMW handelbars are 22mm diameter, not the usual 7/8" diameter of many other brand North American bikes.   IF you try to mount the switchgear onto a 7/8" handlebar, you run the risk of breaking the plastic bodies of the switchgear. -FYI..

[jgp1854]

nhmaf

thanks for the information.  The bars currently on my LS are "Magura" L-463-00, they are chrome and have 3" maybe 4" rise, clearly are not OEM.  I suspect the PO replace the OEM somewhere along the line  

From the information rec'd, the US delivered LS's had the taller bars, correct?  Note: the folks at MAX's are indicating that US delivered LS's came with low bars???  Can anyone confirm positively?  Also, do the low bars have adverse impact on the handling?  

thanks

jgp

[nhmaf]

R65LS bikes originally shipped to the US had taller bars.  My LS had the taller bars originally from the factory, and I ordered the shorter, Euro bars soon after I bought from the guy who had pulled the bike out of its 15 year storage closet.  These are what the high bars look like - if you are a short/small person I could see where they might be useful, but I'm 6' 2" and it felt silly riding this sport-style bike with these pulled back handlebars that practically had the grips hitting my knees.

I don't have these anymore - I gave them to a forum member who needed to go from low bars to taller bars because of physical reach issues.

The rearview mirrors that go with the tall bars have shorter "stalks" on them.   The low Euro bars are supposed to be used with longer stalked mirrors - but those are almost impossible to find, and my last attempt at ordering them got me a pair of new, shorter, US-bar mirrors.   These only show your arms and shoulders when mounted on low Euro bars, and I went with bar-end Napolean mirrors on the Euro bars as a workable compromise.