Sorry if this appears as a stupid question, but you'll have to forgive me as this is the first "dirtbike"I have owned...BUT why do I see so many people with aftermarket handlebars? What improvement is achieved by a new set of bars?..just curious

 

First the stock ones bend very easy.

Second you can suit them to your liking, the stock ones have to much sweep for me. I went a straighter bar.

A distant third they are lighter.

And then there is always poser points.

 

KLXer hit it straight on:

Lighter
Taller
Stronger

 

my reason for replacing:

besides turnin them into pretzels after a semi high speed wipeout.. the stock bars made my hands go numb after long rides due to vibration... aluminum works like a charm. coupled with dual mount point brushguards their ALOT stronger and vibration is virtually nil.

 

Well if I ever drop my bike and bend them I'm probably going to go with some aluminum bars that will hold up better, but to just change them when they are working fine, I don't think so.

 

Stock bars are crap for fitting Bark Busters, the Renthals I bought have no such problem

 

You forgot ******.


I installed a set of Pro Taper Twin Wall bars with a bend more to my liking, these bars make a nice difference in the over-all feel of the bike and like jsac said they greatly reduce hand numbing high-frequency vibration.

There are a few parts that I normally damage on a bike (such as bars, levers, pegs, shift levers, seats and etc), I like to swap them out with good after-market pieces before I damage them and store the stock items, then reinstall the OEM parts when it comes time to sell the bike.
I have found that most buyers prefer an unmodified bike.