Bent handlebar - options?

[HenryDorsetCase]

My advice bud--waste of moolah. The $45.00 bars are gonna be better for your bike. -My opinion of course.
if youre fitting hot grips then all good
Getting the grip off the clutch side-get the bike somewheres with compressed air. Trust me ya can literally float the grip off the bar.
NOW --one lil secret. Most factory bars have locating holes to lock up the switch gear-stop it spinning on the bar.
What ya do is trial fit the new bars and slide all the switch gear and controls back on-dont worry about the cables. set the bars so theyre comfortable and clamp em down tightish. You need to drill one 6mm hole in each side of the bars where the locating pin for the switch gear drops into. To mark where to drill- put a drop of engineers blue on the pins or if not that then a bit of ball point ink -the wet stuff will do the job. then tighten up the scrrews on the switches and bingo 2 blue dots where ya need to drill-

Frosty, thats good advice re the engineers blue (which I dont have) or pen ink (which I do.)

the other option is to file the locating tabs off the switchblocks entirely, and then use a thin strip of rubber* as a washer to hold the block to the bar. I think I read that tip on KB and its worked a charm for me. no issues with switchblocks spinning, and no requirement to drill a hole in a brand new near $150 Renthal (which if you read the instructions say "Do not use if there is a hole in these bars, do not drill them, discard if bent yada yada")

this sounds like a minor bend in the stock steel bars tho


*bicycle inner tube fTW: I have an endless supply of them.

[pritch]

Yep, my vote is fit Renthals and grind the tits off.

[davebullet]

Yep, my vote is fit Renthals and grind the tits off.

It's not clear on forums.sv650.org whether model by model (or even within the same year) whether there is enough slack in the cables to fit renthals.

The road ultra low have an almost identical profile. The only issue is the width of the bars (about 3 inches wider) - but no-one says you need new brake lines, or length throttle or clutch cables.

I'd be inclined to go for the road low - which is about 1 inch higher than the ultralow. People do talk about re-routing stock cables... something I can just see myself stuffing up.

It's a pity shipping from banditmania.co.uk is so expensive. They have pairs of renthals for 22 pounds - yup - you read that correctly. You need to slap on 35 pounds to ship which brings the total up to NZD$142. Beauty is though, they'll pre-drill your bars for the control tabs (for 3 pounds)....

I'll see how I go this weekend. If I munter the stock bar, then I won't have many choices left !

[FROSTY:Me]

DB--- 3 inches is actually 1.5 inches out each side. If the bars are lower and flatter angled you might find theres actually no issue at all.
Rerouting cables is easy peazy.
what ya might do a headscratch over is the brake hose angle.

[Deano]

Buy me some clip ons and you can have the stock ones off my bike ?

[davebullet]

I spent $60 on 30mm bar risers and installed heated grips at the same time.

I had to re-plumb the headlight cabling, since it ran below the clutch cable and i needed the extra room to stretch. I decided to hide the oxford connectors inside the rear of the headlight cover to give them a bit more weather protection and make the job tidier.

The clutch seems a little harder to pull than before (still releases fine).. so I might by a longer cable so it is a bit more relaxed.

I didn't bother straightening the bars, since the risers now make them clear the tank easily.

[davebullet]

I took the clutch cable out and gave it a lube. Made it run a bit smoother. I rerouted it more directly to provide more slack at the front end. Essentially, I ran it between the forks as before and into the frame (same place) - but below the throttle linkages rather than above - which cut a more direct line to the clutch worm drive thingee.

The stiffness has now gone and I'd say subjectively it is a little smoother than before.

took the hotgrips for a test run tonight... bloody wonderful. After about 7 mins on 100% they were so bloody hot it was getting uncomfortable.... ok it was about 10 degrees outside, but they needed a test.

Just need to adjust the headlight beam angle and she's all done.

The extra height of the bars helps going into corners. Since more of your weight is being held by your core / back and not your wrists, it leaves you to push on the bars for direction rather than also supporting yourself. Hard to explain but I felt I could attack the bends quicker.