I thought I would do a post on the installation of my Kuryakyn ISO grips on my 2007 Sportster. I would have found this handy prior to getting the new grips just to see what the process is, so here goes. See pics and comments below. 1) First step is to remove your old left hand grip. The grip is stuck on with glue to the handlebars so only option is to cut it off. Installation notes recommend cutting it lengthwise with a sharp knife, then around closer to the controls. I found I had to loosen the hand controls slightly to get the lip of the hand grip out from under the hand controls. I found the old grip came off quite easily. 2) Once removed it's recommended to remove any stuck on bits of rubber and glue before installing the new grip. I removed any large bits of glue and rubber with a razor blade knife and then sanded the remaining glue off with a light grade sandpaper. 3) One thing I noticed was that the ISO grips are slightly longer than the handelbars but considering the grips have metal bodies I didn't think this would be a problem. 4) Prior to gluing the new grip on, I slid it on to the bars and then sat on the bike to ensure the position of the grip was right, then I marked the position with tape to ensure I glued it into the right position. Glueing the grip was a little cumbersom, mainly because the small glue container is as hard as rock and I couldn't really squeeze the glue into the new grip easily. But eventually I got enough glue in there and then slid the grip on. The notes recommend doing this quickly as the glue dries almost instantly, although I found that I could roll the grip on quite easily without it sticking. I did this to spread the glue instide the grip a little better. 5) On to the right side. The right side was reasonably straight forwad also just followed the instructions and found no surprised with it.
- First step was to loosen the right side switch housing screws so that the housing seperates enough to slide the grip out. Some caution is required here not to lose the brass stoppers which are on the ends of the throttle and idle cables.
- Then loosen both the throttle and idle cable lock nuts. It's recommended to mark their positions with a texter before you loosen the lock nuts for easy re-location after 6) I found the cables once loosened were quite easy to get onto the new grip. I didn't even need to use pliers. Once all was done I was quite impressed by the look and feel of these grips compared to stock.
Those grips look heaps better than the stock, I'm amazed at how many people keep their stock grips when a change can really make a difference to the look of your bike. I've got a mate who has those grips on his Fatty and he reckons they're pretty good but he still gets a bit of numbing of his hand on long journeys, but, this is probably more to do with nerves in his arm than the bike, bars or grips.
Changing grips is an intersting exercise when you DIY..........especially fiddling around with the throttle cables if you're all thumbs like I am!!
So how much and where from? I am in Queensland.
Not sure about the aftermarket grips... but the stock right-hand grip itself at the base has a channel for the throttle cable and notches to house the brass ferrules. I put on HD Aeliron grips which had the same channel and notches built into the base end of the grip that when fitted sits under the handlebar clamp. KC has a pic above with the ferrules out... but this one might help give the idea too of what is under the housing and what is moulded onto the end of the right-hand grip.
This one shows the grip once you remove the ferrules and throttle so that you can see the moulding on the end of the grip. It's not on a separate throttle sleeve.
