Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner Lessons from handlebar swap out

Can I leave the grip, throttle-cabling and housing assembly intact when I do a bar swap?

yes you can

Frank

Really? Wow! Good news! Is this true for the clutch assembly as well?

Yep , well except for the grip since it is directly on the bar and not a sleeve like the throttle side.

So what's you call Ian?
Tug and twist - then glue it to the new bar?
What should I use to reglue? I remember someone mentioning hairspray?

The_Dog33

What handle bars and risers are these

http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg170/The_Dog33/?action=view&current=Wendyriserriderpos.jpg

Use wd-40 to get it off and then use it again to put it back on. When it dries it sticks like glue. Thats what I did anyway.

Those are stock America bars rolled back and the risers are after market HD. I don't know what kind I bought them off Ebay cheap. The ones you see are 3" rise and 2" pull back but don't get those unless you want to lose your dash. I had to make stainless spacers for under them and and put a piece of heater hose on the fork stop so they wouldn't hit the dash. They miss it by about 1/8" now. They do look good on it though.

I'm looking on Ebay but so far I don't see any.

EDIT: Here is a similar set without the grooves in them. Risers

When I swapped my America bars for Buckhorns, I took everything off except the grip and took the bars in the house. I ran hot water over the grip and it came off the stock bar without any tugging or twisting.
While it was still hot, I put it on the Buckhorn bar and once it cooled down, it was tight. It's been several years since and never had a problem....

I used dish soap when I swapped bars, same thing , been on for a couple years now tight as can be.

I think i read on here of someone using an air compressor with a needle nozzle and just blasting air under the grip and pulling it right off at the same time.

Read this tip on BA.com a long time ago and it worked well for me:
For my bar swap, I looped two long bungee cords over my garage door support. Hooked one end of the bar on each side and removed them from the risers (electrical tape to keep the bungees in place). The bungees held the controls up and out of the way until I had the new bars in place, than put back the controls. Rope would also work

Bars arrived from BellaCorse last night...
May try to embark on this project this weekend.
Wish me luck!

Are you getting the new "buckhorn" style from Bellacorse? I was intersted in those, please post picks when you are done.

Also, I have an '08 America and I want some Rise and Pullback, but all these numbers on sites are confusing. Does anyone know what the stock Rise and Pullback is on the America bars?

Yeah, I got the buckhorn style.
Photos shall be forth coming

A synapse fired and a memory or 2 re-emerged....
There may be more, but hey, most of my synapses are short circuited.

When you install the buckhorn bars, you may have to grind a bit off the base of the front brake reservoir to get it far enough up the bar. Not much, just a smidgen.
Also, the buckhorn bars will not have the threaded inserts in them for the long tiny screws that hold the end caps on. The inserts are either crimped or welded or both in the stock bars - I have never heard of anyone getting them out of the stock bars, but you can try if you wish. My original fix was to go to Lowes or Home Depot (I forget) and buying tapered rubber stoppers that fit snug in the bars. I drilled a hole thru the center of them slightly smaller than the end cap screws, then super glued a washer and a nut on the small end. I drove the stoppers into the bar, and was able to install the stock end caps that way, using the stock screws.
Later, while trying to reduce a "bar wobble" problem, (cupped tire) I bought some chrome bar end weights from Manic Salamander , drove the rubber stoppers further up the bars and installed them.

Your buckhorns may be different from mine and some of the above may not apply. But these are some situations I ran into...

You will lose some leverage for slow/no speed maneuvering, but for normal riding they are really comfortable.

Add some SpacerJim spacers or different risers and it gets even better. Just watch that gas tank!!

I got mine from BellaCorse.
The site swears it's a straight swap.
Pop off / pop on ...
http://www.bellacorse.com/bca007.htm

Pics on the site were courtesy of photos courtesy of Triumph Detroit.. What say you Davin? Straight swap?
What of Deon's claims of wobble, or grinding?

just don't get straight broomstick drags, I tried and the mirror/blinker brackets on the stock controls wouldn't work they where pointing in towards the handlebar.