Been giving my '08 Anniversary FLHRCI a bit of a spruce up lately. Finally decided to do something about the ugly and uncomfortable handlebars that came standard on it. My earlier '96 FLHRC had the classic Fatboy bars as standard and they served it well, but I was never real comfortable with the higher and skinnier ones on the '08+ Roadies.
A mate loaned me a pair of Fatboy originals off his '98 Anniversary Roadie when he fitted 508 Bars, so I did a dummy-fit to check 'em out. However, with the lower seat height of the later chassis, they didn't feel right. Made me lean forward enough to strain the spine. Something different and expensive needed to happen.
I checked out the mate's Wild 1 Chubby WO508 RKII Bars, but they felt like you were steering a wheelbarrow. The position was way too far back, the wrist angle terrible and the bars stuck in your stomach on tight turns. Nope, not happening and the mate also wanted to change out his as well.
So started a mind-numbing search through pages and pages of specifications from Harley and aftermarket handlebar manufacturers. The first thing that I realized that whoever compiled the specification lists of handlebar sizes must be trippin'! Ever manufacturer who had a cross-reference list differed from each other. When I measured mine and my mate's bars against ALL these lists (as specified by them), NONE matched! How in the hell do you select them when you have no baseline to begin with?
I called a few suppliers within 150km of me to see if they had some bars that I could compare mine to and select what I wanted. MCA had several, but nothing close to what I wanted. They had lotsa' apes, lotsa' beach bars and lotsa' mid-western bars. Griffin keeps nothing in stock. They're a broker. All the u-beauty Harley bar selection boards at the dealers had most of the bars missing. Rollie's had a fair selection, but they were 1,000km away.
Another mate then loaned me a spare set of Heritage bars. In a position of fork alignment, they we ridiculous. They looked terrible and were really uncomfortable. However, when I rolled them down at the back in the clamps, I began to see what I wanted. Using the "support bike level, feet on the boards, eyes closed, relax arms, then sit you hand where you want them" philosophy, they were extremely close to where I needed my hands. However, in that low position, they impacted the dash due to their narrowness and shape.
But I was onto something. I took several photos of each set of bars with a measuring tape in the shot. Using the measurement chart, model photos and suggestion sheets from Wild 1 Chubby Bars, I concluded that the bars that came closest to what I wanted were the WO504 Chubby Dresser Bars. My friend with the '96 Roadie was of the same conclusion about his need, so we ordered 2 handlebars through Amazon from Powersports Superstore in America.
Price from Amazon was excellent and freight time about 10 days. Combining our freight saved us about $50 each. The finish on the bars couldn't be faulted. The advertising blurb on the Wild 1 site was spot-on. From the mandrel bends, to the great chrome, to the square transition point of the diameters, to the large wiring openings. Everything was as stated. The bars came protected with plastic char tip ends on the bar ends and "pool noodle" tubing around the bars themselves. Just as well because Aust Customs and Aust Post combined their effort on the Australian leg of the journey to destroy the great packaging job that Powersports did in the States. What do you expect when the tender goes to the lowest contractor?
How did they fit? Just like the proverbial glove. The internal wiring job was straightforward, made even better because the bars we'd chosen didn't need wiring extension. Although slightly wider, the actual wiring length was only shortened by about 2". There was enough free length to accommodate this on both bikes.
I had to knock about 8mm off the LHS bar to get my grips and switchgear to sit right up to the diameter step. This was already shown on the Wild 1 website. My mates were okay because he runs heated grips, which are slightly longer. The LHS was perfect. My bike runs the TPS throttle, no push/pull cables to worry about and the TPS slotted straight in (the TPS is also SMOOOOOTH since I modded it - see post elsewhere) no hassles.
I nipped the bars up to the same rake as the fork legs for symmetry and with the bike secured, I hopped on to check out the position, the litmus test. Yes! A great fit within 1/2" of estimations.
Now. Just need to check turning clearance. Left full lock, great. Right full lock, hmmm. Bugger! The brake hose doesn't clear the tank. No great deal, I'll just loosen the banjo and spin it out a bit. Bugger. Ugly as sin and stressing the hose.
Then another search begins. I'd just competed a major rejuvenation of the bike, including repainting of the tank in the original paint scheme, with the addition of flames around the tank anniversary medallion, front-end suspension mods, etc, etc and I didn't want to strip it all off to install a new hose/pipe from the handlebars all the way to the ABS unit in the rhs sidecover. So I searched about to find a suitable fitting to redirect the hose horizontally out of the end of the master cylinder, instead of at 90 degrees (well 85 degrees actually, as the hose has a 15 deg fitting installed). Nope, nothing. I did find an automotive fitting that might have worked, but it came close to hitting the tank and was again ugly as sin.
So, into the 'puter cad program and draw up what I needed. Found a bit of scrap alloy close to what I needed size-wise and then hit the drill press. It was immediately apparent that my workshop equipment was inadequate fro the task. I needed a milling machine. A quick call down the road to a bloke who repairs air compressors and we were in business. He was impressed because of the detailed drawing and I was impressed with the $40 cost. Done. The end result was a small cube of alloy that was drilled through to take an extended-length 12mm x 1.0 banjo bolt ($5 @ brake parts store) the next hole was drilled underneath to come up on the handlebar side of the first hole. This 2nd hole was not drilled through, but a blind hole. Then a port was drilled between the two at an angle from the first hole, so no plugging was required. This allowed the hose banjo to be secured in the almost-correct plane. The original banjo fitting was supple enough to allow me to ease it's 15 degrees back to zero, using a couple of large shifters. Some new banjo washers, a dab of black paint and mission accomplished. Hey, it was about time the brake hydraulics were flushed anyway.
The first two pics show the '95-'06 Fatboy bars that are fitted to the Road Kings on top of the new bars installed. Not a great difference in width and distance back, but with the different wrist angles as well you do sit a bit more upright which takes the strain off the lower back.
I went through the same drama trying to work out what bars to fit and am now going down the same road again because the cops booked me for bars being too wide.
I went with the Wild 1 14" apes and they were very comfortable and not too high, but too wide.
Good quality bars, but most of them are too wide, including the ones you fitted.
Not only did I get a $110 fine but they did it under the new hooning laws which meant If I rode again with the same bars I would loose the bike for 7 days and so on.
I also had to get a RWC and send it to the police station where the booking officer worked from, before I was clear to ride again.
So that was a waste of money, I think around $1100 all up with braided cables and ABS lines.
Not sure which way to go with bars now, all the good ones are too wide.
I will sell the 14" apes if anyone is interested. You can see what they look like in my pics.
Good luck with yours.
Fixed that for ya', Speedzter!
Drac, the tip-to-tip width of the rubber handgrips now is 912mm and Aust Standard is 900mm for the maximum extremeties of the handlbars. If they want to make life hard, they'll slap me for a SE air filter, V&H mufflers and the 'bars I suppose. However, the filter cover has no SE decal, I recently modded the baffles in the V&H Oval Tourers for rumble not harsh bark and the 'bars look really close to a stock item. It's tasteful, but not an attention grabber especially when I slip the screen on for longer rides. They don't even give me a 2nd look, I impart the image of just a quiet old bloke out for a Sunday toddle with his dear old missus. I used to enjoy shaking windows and setting off car alarms with a throttle twist, but did find the noise was irritating me on long runs and the inevitable defects were going to happen eventually, so I decided to tone it down a bit. I'd hate to have to refit the standard cat-fart exhaust.
This pic shows the standard V&H baffle with the front blanking plug removed.
Here's the baffle extension I fitted between the inlet to the muffler chamber and the original baffle.
I fitted 1" 3/4 BURLIEGH BARS to my Roady and they are the best ever. When you sit on the bike they are in a natural postion. Great for long rides and twisties. Had to change the ignition bezel because the bars bolt on not clamp on.
I fitted 1" 3/4 BURLIEGH BARS to my Roady and they are the best ever. When you sit on the bike they are in a natural postion. Great for long rides and twisties. These are chubby bars.
