New alloy handlebars - drill it for locator pins?

[Geeman]

Well, my new Renthal ultra lows have arrived. Happy with the colour and they feel and look much higher quality than the OE chrome bars. Bit disappointed that they aren't quite as flat or straight as expected (relied on renthal website specs and tape measure to mock them up before ordering). Going to give them a try anyway.

I understand I can either drill holes in my nice new bar for the locator pins on the controls or dremel the locator pins off the controls - what seems to be the way to go?

Cheers

[AllanB]

I drilled my throttle. Wanted to ensure that side was nice and secure.

Heaps drill them and despite all the nay-sayers I have never read of an issue.
In fact there is a UK seller that will pre drill them for many Suzuki models.


When trying the bars for position mount them and set up the throttle and left block where u want them (do not tighten) if you carefully twist and then push back and forth with a bit of pressure you should leave a slight mark where the nipple is indicating where to drill. A bit of marker pen on the bar can help to indicate this as the nipple should wear it off.

[Taz]

Yep no problems as Nike says Just Do It.

[Motu]

It's a no-no to drill holes in alloy bars.

I have a set of 30 year old Renthals that I drilled,they are speedway bars and have been dumped on that side many times.No breakage yet....although I haven't used them for over 15 years.

[george formby]

No probs after drilling my alloy fat bars, just the pain of desecrating the lovely finish.

[Yankee Doodle Dandy]

I have seen guys do both and never seen any problems with either.

FWIW, all the factory race kit manuals tell you to grind the pins down.

[pritch]

Renthal advise that you should not use any of their bars that have holes drilled. Too late!

[The Stranger:Me]

Renthal advise that you should not use any of their bars that have holes drilled. Too late!

Shit no, don't drill Renthal bars, they're floppy enough as it is.
ProTaper FTW

[F5 Dave]

Pins are there for ease of assembly & liability. I hate them & remove them where-ever I can. The clamp if tensioned properly will clamp with easily enough pressure to hold in place. Some like to wrap Teflon tape under controls so they move rather than snap, but that's more a dirt bike thing.

[davebullet]

If you dremel off the locator tabs, just be careful not to overtighten the screws holding on the controls as the plastic can stress fracture with any bumping or jarring. Better off putting a thin layer of non-slip something underneath than overtightening the screws.

How big a hole do you need? Is it right through or just an indent? I've never looked at the locator tabs to see.

[AllanB]

If it's like my Honda a 3.5 mm wide hole about 2 mm deep will do the trick

[warewolf]

Pins are there for ease of assembly & liability. I hate them & remove them where-ever I can. The clamp if tensioned properly will clamp with easily enough pressure to hold in place.

Hmmm I thought the pins were there to stop the control housing moving on the bars? I've removed the pins on quite a few bikes either when fitting decent after-market bars, or to re-position the controls on the standard bars. In almost all cases, the controls wouldn't stay in place by themselves even with overly tight screws to the point of cracking the housing.

Better off putting a thin layer of non-slip something underneath than overtightening the screws.

Good plan that.

[CookMySock]

If you really must drill a hole in a structural member such as a handlebar, then have an engineer put them in a drill press and drill them properly with sharp bit and a constant rate of feed, so you avoid munting an invisible stress fracture next to the hole. Buy the new pilot and final drill bits yourself and take them in there. Get the hole carefully machine-chamfered. This is probably the most pedantic approach you could take, but these are handlebars ay..

As soon as a hand-held drill bites one time, it will pull the metal and rip it.. and it will bite..

Steve

[Geeman]

Well, the Renthals went back to the store (decided they were too close to the shape of the factory ones) and some nice ProTaper Contour fatbars followed me home. Big One kindly helped me install them (and yes, they got drilled) and made some nice spacers also. The bars are very straight and flat compared to the factory ones which took a few days to get used to but now are SWEET. I know it isn't but it feels like a totally different (better, more fun) bike. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Yankee Doodle Dandy]

If you really must drill a hole in a structural member such as a handlebar, then have an engineer put them in a drill press and drill them properly with sharp bit and a constant rate of feed, so you avoid munting an invisible stress fracture next to the hole. Buy the new pilot and final drill bits yourself and take them in there. Get the hole carefully machine-chamfered. This is probably the most pedantic approach you could take, but these are handlebars ay..

As soon as a hand-held drill bites one time, it will pull the metal and rip it.. and it will bite..

Steve

What no honing of the newly bored holes to eliminate stress risers?

Then maybe you should glass bead the entire bar to relieve surface tension.

And then a proper military grade hard coat to prevent any corrosion.