redheadlover
“Be excellent to one-another!”
WhenI got my 13 R3T the handlebars killed my wrists after 20 minutes of riding. No mater how I adjusted them up,Down Back and forward. With risers without. Nothing helped. It was th angle at the end of the bars that caused the inside if my wrist bones to point in at each other.
Tried a different set of bars, a little better, but now the length was all wrong other than the terible angles at the end I liked the shape and length of the stock bars. What to do?
So I removed the bars. And made a wire form that followed the shape of the bars out of a couple of straightened wire hangers wrapped with black tape. Just a long malleable wire I could form to the shape and angle I wanted to end up with With the help of my lovely bride I sat on the bike with the bars in place after bending my form to match the bars. I then used the wire form to develop a finlal shape I was comfortable with at the end of the bars. This would be my template.
Not having a tubing bender, the BBQ grill became my charcoal forge. First I prepped the bars by packing them with clean, fine, DRY silica sand. I shaved down a wine cork to jam in one end to keep the sand in. Then after drying my sand at about 300 degrees on a couple of flat cookie sheets in the oven to remove any moisture. I started very slowly filling the bars from the open end. All the while tapping and bouncing the bars With the ends pointing up and don to get the sand to settle compactly. Just go slow and tap and vibrate to get them full solid. Don’t try tamping the sand in with anything. If you use fine sand with no moisture there is no room between the grains and they will pack good and tight. Plug up the other end with another cork, and then drill a 1/8inch hole all the way through the corks for a vent Incase there is any moisture. Water expands to 1700 times it’s volume when converted to steam. So even just a few drops with the sand packed tight could cause a bulge or crack in the tubing at the next step.
I found a 3 foot piece of iron pipe that was just big enough to slide over the end of the bars to aid in bending. Now to heat them. Lay your template against the bar and you can see just where you want to work a gentle curve in them to move them into the perfect position. This is where I put them directly in the white hot coals to heat slowly over a period of 30 minutes, heat until just glowing a dark orange, so not to take the temper out of the steel. Then place them in your vise using some wood blocks to hold them without scratching.
Using your wire form template as your guide slide your pipe over the end and gradually start to work the bend you want in. Go slow, re heat gently as needed, and don’t be tempted to overheat. Again you don’t want to put a crease in the tubing and threaten the integrity or strength of your bars, go,for. A gentle curve. I found I only had to move them about a total of 5 degrees out to match up to my form shape.
When you are happy set them off somewhere safe to cool slowly and naturally. Do not,quench in water or oil or you could make the steel brittle. This is a good time for a beer or two.
now I know you are saying this will ruin the less than already perfect chrome job on them but that is little worry. Once cool, mount them loosely in your risers and check your handy work. If you are pleased, them remove your corks, and tap,the bars to remove all the sand. And run water through to clean out. Set in the sun for a few hours for all the water to come out. I then ran a light film of wd40 inside just for some corrosion protection. (I forgot, I used a few dabs of high temp silicone to close up the holes along the bars fir the cable clamps. It pulls out easy enough.When done.)
Next I cleaned them up with mineral spirits an stelel wool to remove any carbon residue. I chose to paint them with 3coats of a black chrome rattle can paint and two coats of clear. When we did my buddies, he took them to the power coater. I suppose you could even have them plated again.
I know this sounds like a lot of work for five degrees bend, but let me tell you it made all he difference in the world. No pain, and I have a feel that was custom made for me.
Sure, a shop with a tube bender could do this faster, but as with most things, it is the little tweaks you make yourself, that no one else will ever notice that makes her really your girl. Made for something to do on a fall weekend where we were just hanging around the house anyway. All in all if you subtract the time waiting for the bars to heat, cool, and for the paint to dry, I probably put 90:minutes of work in..
Like I said they look great, like they came from the factory black chrome, and the feelis exactly what I wanted.
Forgot,to mention I did mount them using a set of 2”Rox Risers, which provides a tremendous amount of adjustability that I was really happy with.
Tried a different set of bars, a little better, but now the length was all wrong other than the terible angles at the end I liked the shape and length of the stock bars. What to do?
So I removed the bars. And made a wire form that followed the shape of the bars out of a couple of straightened wire hangers wrapped with black tape. Just a long malleable wire I could form to the shape and angle I wanted to end up with With the help of my lovely bride I sat on the bike with the bars in place after bending my form to match the bars. I then used the wire form to develop a finlal shape I was comfortable with at the end of the bars. This would be my template.
Not having a tubing bender, the BBQ grill became my charcoal forge. First I prepped the bars by packing them with clean, fine, DRY silica sand. I shaved down a wine cork to jam in one end to keep the sand in. Then after drying my sand at about 300 degrees on a couple of flat cookie sheets in the oven to remove any moisture. I started very slowly filling the bars from the open end. All the while tapping and bouncing the bars With the ends pointing up and don to get the sand to settle compactly. Just go slow and tap and vibrate to get them full solid. Don’t try tamping the sand in with anything. If you use fine sand with no moisture there is no room between the grains and they will pack good and tight. Plug up the other end with another cork, and then drill a 1/8inch hole all the way through the corks for a vent Incase there is any moisture. Water expands to 1700 times it’s volume when converted to steam. So even just a few drops with the sand packed tight could cause a bulge or crack in the tubing at the next step.
I found a 3 foot piece of iron pipe that was just big enough to slide over the end of the bars to aid in bending. Now to heat them. Lay your template against the bar and you can see just where you want to work a gentle curve in them to move them into the perfect position. This is where I put them directly in the white hot coals to heat slowly over a period of 30 minutes, heat until just glowing a dark orange, so not to take the temper out of the steel. Then place them in your vise using some wood blocks to hold them without scratching.
Using your wire form template as your guide slide your pipe over the end and gradually start to work the bend you want in. Go slow, re heat gently as needed, and don’t be tempted to overheat. Again you don’t want to put a crease in the tubing and threaten the integrity or strength of your bars, go,for. A gentle curve. I found I only had to move them about a total of 5 degrees out to match up to my form shape.
When you are happy set them off somewhere safe to cool slowly and naturally. Do not,quench in water or oil or you could make the steel brittle. This is a good time for a beer or two.
now I know you are saying this will ruin the less than already perfect chrome job on them but that is little worry. Once cool, mount them loosely in your risers and check your handy work. If you are pleased, them remove your corks, and tap,the bars to remove all the sand. And run water through to clean out. Set in the sun for a few hours for all the water to come out. I then ran a light film of wd40 inside just for some corrosion protection. (I forgot, I used a few dabs of high temp silicone to close up the holes along the bars fir the cable clamps. It pulls out easy enough.When done.)
Next I cleaned them up with mineral spirits an stelel wool to remove any carbon residue. I chose to paint them with 3coats of a black chrome rattle can paint and two coats of clear. When we did my buddies, he took them to the power coater. I suppose you could even have them plated again.
I know this sounds like a lot of work for five degrees bend, but let me tell you it made all he difference in the world. No pain, and I have a feel that was custom made for me.
Sure, a shop with a tube bender could do this faster, but as with most things, it is the little tweaks you make yourself, that no one else will ever notice that makes her really your girl. Made for something to do on a fall weekend where we were just hanging around the house anyway. All in all if you subtract the time waiting for the bars to heat, cool, and for the paint to dry, I probably put 90:minutes of work in..
Like I said they look great, like they came from the factory black chrome, and the feelis exactly what I wanted.
Forgot,to mention I did mount them using a set of 2”Rox Risers, which provides a tremendous amount of adjustability that I was really happy with.
