Hi guys,

Trying to decide at the moment on what direction I want to take my iron. I basically have narrowed it down to either a cafe racer style or scrambler. I wanted to get your opinions on some of the ideas/general concepts.

1. If I was to go down the cafe racer route, I would get either drag bars or clubmans and was wondering how they would go with mid pegs for comfort/riding position? I still want to retain the ability to take my partner on the bike so rear sets would probably be out (I think they use the same points as the passenger pegs). 
2. Scrambler. Whilst I don't intend to take my bike onto any dirt, I like the general concept behind scrambler bikes and this project has me interested (http://www.chopcult.com/news/articles/the-scrambler-by-burly-brand.html). Does anyone have experience with the scrambler bars (http://www.burlybrand.com/scramblerbars/index.aspx) or similar? 
3. What would you build out of the two?
4. Any other suggestions/experiences?

 

 

Thanks guys,

Woz

I've got a soft spot for cafe racers. I have a '96 yamaha srv250 vtwin that I look forward to rebuilding next year when I have my own garage. Mid mount controls, clip-on bars and a 2-1 exhaust. Roland Sands has done some cool things with sportster based cafe racers. Check out his website.

hi wozza, doing the cafe thing myself. If you are 5'8" to 5'10" you could do clubmans or clip ons below the top triple, and taller any you'll have your knees over your head with mids. Trust me , i know, but i'm perservering until i can afford rear sets. Leaning that far forward if your knees are above your hip joint on the bike is not comfy for long periods. If you're over 5'10", put the clip ons above the triple tree ( slide the forks up in the trees to give you enouch purchase ) or use drag bars or flat tracker bars. Much more comfortable riding position, and you can still throw the bike around. Make sure you've at least put progressive fork springs in, and 13.5" rear progressive shocks. Or Ikon, or YSS or whatever, just not the stock pieces of shit. If you've got a 2-1 pipe on the bike, or anything that doesn't have the big exhaust bracket the stock one does, you may be able to go higher than 13.5, but beware of the rear brake crossover rod rubbing on the belt. 14.25" is the highest i've seen without modifying the rear brake setup / using rear sets.
Put some pirelli sport demons on to benefit from all the new awesome. And maybe the brembo LHS caliper off a spoked v-rod, with the 11.8" floating disc, and a 2006 or earlier master cylinder.
All this will work whether you call it a cafe racer, a scrambler, or a flat tracker...

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm 6' so will likely need the second option you suggested Dark. Jay, I've looked into RSD and I love what he does. Only problem at the moment is I have a 2014 bike so will need to wait for them to update their stuff.

Keep the ideas coming, love to see what others think.

Woz

I'd build the one I like without a care in the world as to what other people think haha... For what it's worth though I had drag bars on mine with factory mid controls and it's fantastic, I didn't think it would be but it's comfier than the factory bars imo

So I've been looking into doing my handle bars to drags at the moment and from what I can gather, I'll need a new brake line, clutch and throttle cable? Or at least a new brake line in order to miss having a major bend/problem with the OEM lines and drag bars?

you might be able to bend the existing brake line around, but you're better off replacing it. Go to Hydraulink and get one made up, will be around $100. Use garden hose to work out the length you need, then get the guy to put on the two banjos loosely so you can get the rotation right, mark with a sharpie or something, take back to get clamped.

clutch & throttle will be a little long, but no drama. A bit of clever re routing will get them sitting fine. Make sure your throttle snaps closed when at both full lock left and right.