I sat on some bikes at the local dealer and noticed the handle bars were angled more upright than mine. My originals are tilted back a bit but not crazy. I do find that I sit pretty far back on the seat and placing the bar more upright would put me a tad more forward.

I am riding on roads dirt and paved so not aggressive.

Is there a good reference for where they should be?

 

Whatever works for you. I rolled mine forward a bit after I installed 1" risers.

 

i find the renthal cr hi to be perfect combination of upright and fowardness.no fatigue..and a hell of alot stronger

 

Are these also somewhat taller?

 

yup.perfect fit. makes the ride more comfy in my opinion. they seem to bethe favorite amongst renthals for the klx

 

protaper s.e. bars...custom bent little up more and cross bar bent to bow to fit scott damper...the first month i got it...going about 45 mph....didn't see a van pull out...couldn't stop, so just jumped...the klx250sf went flying away from me sliding on the right edge of the handlebar...surprisingly...no damage..nothing bent...plastic didn't even scratch....just black sharpie to the edge of the handlebar...good as new!...really like these handlebars even more...

 

Which ones did you get? The KX high?

 

On my 09 the closer I scoot forward the less stable it is, gets twitchy, slide back and it's better, so the bars are where I'm in the sweet spot.

 

Riser line to follow line of fork. When looking from the side the taper riser of the bar should be 1) Parallel to the fork line and; 2) behind the fork center-line

1) Makes the taper flex as designed, max flex, max comfort.
2) Stops the steering from cranking as the bar is turned.

With the handlebars, the Fork line is the blue line and the riser line is the Yellow line in the image below. You want the yellow line to be parallel to the blue line (as they are in the image).



As far as I understand, the US pros ALWAYS run the riser parallel to the fork line and then swap bends to achieve optimum feel. ALSO genuine 'ProTaper' bars only flex properly in this position due to their internal wall arrangement.

Hope this helps!

 

This does help a lot. Thank you. I figured there was a proper way to set bars up. I will take look at my bike and see how it looks. I still may choose one the after market bars as well.