Might be a bit off topic but are there any bars that have more room for the controls/grips. When I put on my fullwrap hand/lever guards I wanted to move the clutch/brake inboard a bit more to clear the outer end of the levers away from the bar in the guards. But then the clutch/brake mounts ran onto the bend in the bar. The bar dimension charts I've run across show pullback & rise but not the length of that outer straight section. Anyone have any tips. The only local MC shop has a very limited selection of bars and they all seem to have the same length on that section

 

I haven't noticed any suggestions on longer straight portion. Some have tried different hand guards with more room, others have cut the levers short or installed shorter ones. I noticed the barkbusters, and hopefully the tusks I just ordered, have more room.

 

Any cable issues with the TUSK clamps?

 

Yeah, because they raise the bars I found the clutch cable a bit too short to route the normal way. Instead I had to route it through the bars and behind the steering head (rather than routing it in front of the head and just behind the light assembly). It's only just long enough now, and causes a bit of an kind bend right near the clutch lever which will speed up fraying of the cable - so I expect to have to replace the cable more often.

 

Whatever bars you get I would recomend risers and barkbusters. Risers keep me from bending over so much when standing up(I'm 5'11") Besides their intended use I feel that Barkbusters make the bars just a bit stonger also by moveing the stress points in.

 

Here's a picture of my new Renthal 1 1/8 bars. There isn't much extra length in the stock cables, so I had to order some longer ones. I got +3 inches but I think +2 inches would have been a better fit. Not a huge deal, everything is hooked up and I had a great ride.

 

Wouldn't doing big bars lead to needing new controls? I would think both levers & throttle wouldn't fit?

Good thread, I'm anticipating new bars somewhere in my future.

 

Just remember, it may be cheaper to replace a $30 handlebar than breaking a fork lock stop or bending something else. It's like transfer of stress. Wear really stiff MX boots the stress goes to the knees, wear knee braces and the stress goes to the hip.

So it is kind of a take your chances deal. I went with low buck bars myself. I don't crash out much and the cost of a bent bar is far more affordable should something break.

 

Here's a pic of my bike with the Tusk KX high bend bars. I've had them for about a year and they've been in a few crashes that, as you can see in the picture, tweaked the Tusk bark busters but not the bars. So they are a pretty good deal. There is room to mount the bark busters on these bars, but the clutch cable, where it comes out of the lever perch, has a bit of an issue with the left inner bark buster mount. The cable and the mount want to be in the same place. I rotated the clutch perch down as much as I could tolerate, but they still touch. Not ideal, but it works. I picked Hi-bend bars to bring them up so riding in a standing position would be easier, and it made a big difference over the stock bars.

 

No, the bars taper to the same diameter tubing as your current controls/throttle. The fatter bit it more where you clamp the bars on. If you have bark busters that clamp onto the bars (rather than the triple clamps) you will need to get a new mounting kit for the fatter bars.

Just on that note, from experience I've learned that it's best to use triple clamp mounts for the bark busters as it means that if you do fall, some of the stress is transfered to the clamps which can handle it better - rather than all the force having to be absorbed by the bars alone.