Handlebar How-To: From Ton Up to Balls Out

[Guest]

ChopCult member Laura stopped by the Biltwell R&D shop last weekend to do a handlebar swap on her '06 T-100.

First, a little back story…

TheLaura used to roll with Rikki Rocket and the Brit Iron Rebels. When she went lobo solomente with some cool cats from OC, the guitarist from Poison told her she couldn't rock the Rebel cuts.

To show her disdain for the oppressive rules of the Brit Iron Rebels, TheLaura decided to dump the low-slung mustache bars on her motorbike for the tough-guy style of some trimmed and flipped Clubmans. I'd wanted to do a bar how-to for months, so her timing was perfect.

Here's what Laura's ride looked like before the speedy 10-minute switch:



Here's another view:



A sexy kit, for sure, but Laura's a small gal with a short torso, and she looked a little stretched out on this set-up.

We pulled a pair of Biltwell black electroplate Clubmans out of inventory for this switch, and I put VonMonster to work;

Step 1: Eyeball your new bars in the cockpit to determine the appropriate width. I should have taken a photo of this step, but didn't. As it turns out, I didn't take nearly enough photos to make this how-to worthwhile. Instead, I plowed through the technical shit and let Laura do the dirty work.

Here she is on the business end of the hacksaw:



Laura slaved away for damn near 30 seconds on this step before handing me the saw and telling me to do it my damn self. After taking approximately 2" off both ends, Laura deburred the bars on a Scotchbrite wheel:



Con'd...

[Guest]

If the Scotchbrite wheel had left any burrs behind, the petite thumb on Laura's diminutive fist would have felt them.

STEP 2: Remove the grip on the clutch side with an air hose. No photo necessary: simply blow and twist, blow and twist, blow and twist...

STEP 3: Remove the hand controls with the appropriate wrenches. If your cables are short as Laura's were, you might find it helpful to remove the bar clamp so you can move the bars from left to right. Doing this makes slipping the control pods off the bar ends a little easier. If your cables are sloppy, you can let the controls droop off the side while you loosen the bar clamp to remove the bar.

STEP 4: Install the new bars on the top triple clamp. To accomplish this we slipped the left and right hand controls onto the bar ends, then laid the bar center on the triple tree. A touch of grease on the threads of the bar clamp hardware will make loosening these bolts easier when time goes by. Why grease instead of Loctite? Because I'm a better bicycle mechanic than a motorcycle wrench, and I wanted to make sure we didn't abuse the threads when it was time to adjust the bars with Laura sitting on the bike. Once you find your new bar's sweet spot on the trees, you can remove, clean and Loctite each bolt on the top clamp to keep your bars where they below.

Because Laura's bar end mirror has a 7/8 ID clamp and the bars are 1" OD, we had to fashion a mirror mount from some 7/8" OD tubing and a double wedge BMX bar end plug. Again, a photo of this would have been awesome, but it's tough to shoot and wrench at the same time, and Laura was too busy playing with Willis the shop dog to help with this aspect of the project.

I promise: we'll do this right next time, and you guys will be impressed.

Here's a photo of the inverted clubman bars in all their glory on Laura's sweet ride:



And another nearly identical view with marginally better light:



Stuff to consider:

1) If you're switching from shorter to taller bars, as we did, make sure your cables are long enough to allow smooth turning from stop to stop.

2) make sure your throttle tube is really clean during reassembly. I cleaned Laura's with contact cleaner, then lubed the bar end ever so lightly with Triflow lubricant.

That's it. As how-to's go, this one is pretty short on descriptive photos. I apologize for that.

If you already know how to change bars, this thread might be helpful for showing you what kind of woman rides Biltwell products.

In this case, one who refuses to be pushed around from some pussy in an '80s hair band.

Right on, Laura. Tell Rikki Rocket to fuck off!

[Revelator]

Damn I thought inverted would have been the other (lower) positioning.
I almost got a pair of 'em but went with Aces instead. Mang, You guys are old school usin
a hack saw to cut shit up. I prefer a chop saw.

[imtheslime]

Shit, I had a feeling that Rikki Rocket dude was gay, now it's confirmed, I mean come on, chase a beautiful woman like that off WTF???? He'd rather have a Brit iron sausage party.
Oh and cool tech. I'm all about the hacksaw.

[Guest]

Damn I thought inverted would have been the other (lower) positioning.
I almost got a pair of 'em but went with Aces instead. Mang, You guys are old school usin
a hack saw to cut shit up. I prefer a chop saw.

Hacksaws are a rite of passage around here. Gotta earn your stripes before you get to rip shit up with a chop saw.

I say "inverted (as in upside-down)" clubmans because to the best of my knowledge, Clubman bars were originally designed to emulate the positioning and drop bar style of clip-ons for the budget-minded set.

Put 'em on like we did and I'd say the were inverted.

Does that make sense?

[imtheslime]

Hacksaws are a rite of passage around here. Gotta earn your stripes before you get to rip shit up with a chop saw.

I say "inverted (as in upside-down)" clubmans because to the best of my knowledge, Clubman bars were originally designed to emulate the positioning and drop bar style of clip-ons for the budget-minded set.

Put 'em on like we did and I'd say the were inverted.

Does that make sense?

Makes sense.

[Huber]

Saw the bars last night. They look waay better and it gives the monster a much more comfortable riding position.
Well done!

[Laura]

The Rikki Rocket was always a nice folk to me.
I don't think my riding crew ever concerned him...for the record. :-)

[Guest]

The Rikki Rocket was always a nice folk to me.
I don't think my riding crew ever concerned him...for the record. :-)

For the record, I <3 Rikki Rocket, too.

It's CC Deville I can't stand…

fucker had me thrown out of Coconut Teaser in '88 for wearing the same neon pink tank top as him.

Fuckin' rock stars.

[Laura]

For the record, I <3 Rikki Rocket, too.

It's CC Deville I can't stand…

fucker had me thrown out of Coconut Teaser in '88 for wearing the same neon pink tank top as him.

Fuckin' rock stars.

Please...you know you were thrown out for being too HOT.
The gentle "hello" you spoke upon your entrance raped the ear pussys of all the girls in the room and that upset the karmic flow of the entire night... and by karmic flow I mean rollerblading is bad ass, that's why I live in Orange County, CA.

[hengky78]

Very nice handle bar.
I tried to make a handlebar also, but.. from wasted material . not so good but cheap :-)
material are
1 handle bar trail motorbike
2 bycycle stemp
2 Handle door and car buick mirror and also epoxy paint

[jackson1102]

Holy shit stop it.

[Flatironmike]

HWM:

hows about before and after shots of owner astride the said machine to further illustrate the change in ergos?

FIM

(bonus: a Willis sighting!)

[backwithabang]

Dude was the drummer of poison. It demands respect and ridicule at the same time. Therefore it cancels itself out and dude is a nobody to me.

Now if bobby dall booted someone out of a club. That's just pathetic