Bar Ends

[syjang40]

Correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't the function of bar ends is to reduce vibration...right?. So if I were to replace them with lighter and prettier ones from ebay (anodized aluminum with carbon effect), would they still dampen the vibration?.

[Guest]

not as much or at all.

[DougFromIndy]

I went to delrin plastic (light)and noticed no difference in vibes 6th gen

[solohvs]

A friend of mine filled the bars on his motorcycle with "steel shot" to increase the mass and reduce vibration. He said the result was noticeable, but not miraculous.

Good luck with your modification / upgrade. Let us know if it works.

[Veefer800Canuck]

I went with heavier stainless-steel barends and could not be happier.

As a matter of fact, while doing the RC51 fork mod to my bike, I rode around for a couple of weeks with NO barends or internal weights and found the increased vibration to be very bothersome.

After I modded the Ducati 900SS Helibars to accept the Honda internal weights (which the barends themselves thread into) the vibration was reduced to nearly nil.

[timmythecop]

There are bar weights and bar sliders.

The blingy stuff is usually sold to guys who are on their bikes for 10 min at a time.

[Rivcyko]

Made my own stainless, years ago. Heavier than throttlemeisters, by a couple grams.

[Guest]

They were originally made to meet requirements for a non-hollow bar end that many race organizations have.

[tharkun]

I put heavy bar end on all of my road bikes (except the Goldwing). They really do make a difference, IMHO. I had a vibration at certain rpms on my 6th gen & the Manic Salamander heavy weights cured it.

http://www.manicsalamander.com/bar_end_weight.htm

Good people with a good product.

[Veefer800Canuck]

Excellent link, Tharkun. I got mine from RatRace Cycle, who are no longer in business.

Another good vendor for bar ends is HVMP. http://hvmp.com/

I culled this off the Salamander FAQ page:

Q. How do they work?

AAAAAAyyyyy!!!

Bar-end weight theory:

As your motorcycle runs, the handlebars form a resonant mechanical system. That is, the bars tend to shake at a certain frequency. If this frequency is any component of the characteristic frequency spectrum of your motorcycle, then the bars start to flap away, bothering your hands.

More technical:

As your motorcycle runs, the handlebars form a resonant mechanical system. That is, the bars tend to shake at certain frequencies, in certain ways. The lowest frequency, or fundamental, is a motion you could call, "flapping." This is where the center of the bars, between the clamps, is motionless, and the tips of the bars are vibrating most. This is typically the strongest mode of vibration, and the first one you should attack. If this frequency is any component of the characteristic frequency spectrum of your motorcycle, then the bars start to flap away, bothering your hands.

There are three ways to solve the problem.

Stop the vibration. Many aspects of motorcycle design can come into play to check vibration at the factory. Details of crankshaft design, firing order and angle, mounting location, and counterbalancers can be used in concert to make for smooth running. If the engineers who designed your bike were skillful and careful about these factors, as they affect vibration, you can stop reading now- you don't need this product.

Dampen the vibration. From an engineering standpoint, dampening means eliminating the resonant frequency of the handlebars. The proper way to do this is with a precisely designed flexible attachment between the vibrating part and a solidly mounted part, in other words, a shock absorber. The flexible attachment must be tuned to exactly oppose the specific frequencies of resonance, so vibration put into the bars will not be allowed to build up in them and hurt your hands.

Unfortunately, there is no proper way to dampen the handlebar motion, without a mechanical linkage from the outside of the bars to the frame of the bike, other than the bars. There are products out there which purport to dampen handlebar motion, but they can't technically "dampen" the fundamental frequency, since there is no linkage between the bar ends and the frame.

That is not to say they don't "work." I haven't tried them, but I know many who are quite satisfied with them. Why, if they aren't dampening the bars from flapping? The higher-order harmonics of the resonant frequencies should be effectively reduced by, say, inserting a combination of weight and viscoelastic material into the bars. Due to the physics of the situation, the higher the vibrational frequency, the less weight is required to disrupt the motion, and the less solid the mounting point of the dampening system needs to be. So having a heavy elastomer all the way through the bars would be great for the higher harmonics, with the internal motion of the elastomer discouraging the formation of standing waves in the bars. But that lowest resonant frequency, the flapping motion, is typically the strongest. For that motion, all that elastomeric stuff in the bars is only as good as its mass. In other words, it operates just like plain weights- it lowers the resonant frequency, and discourages the tips of the bars from changing speed quickly.

This brings us to the last means of vibration control.

You could change the resonant frequency.

When operating in this mode, the closer the weight is to the tips of the bars, the more effective it is. Solutions that involve equal mass throughout the length of the bars, have only a fraction of their mass working for the cause. The rest is dead weight. As a rule of thumb, any mass between the first two curves of the bar from center, is dead weight, and any mass at the tips of the bars is fully effective.

That's why our bar-ends are designed to maximize weight just outboard of the bars. They are 12.75 oz. per side, and every ounce hits home.

Q. How do bar-end weights change the resonant frequency and reduce vibration?

A. Resonant frequency is the frequency at which an object "rings" if it is moved. When you hit a tube with a hammer, and listen at the end of the tube, you are hearing the audible portion of its resonant frequency spectrum. The "fundamental" is the lowest note. In handlebars, this is the frequency made by the bars "flapping." By flapping I mean that the bar clamps stay put, while the tips move most. This fundamental frequency is typically the strongest frequency, thus the first one to attack.

Weights on the tips of the bars reduce vibration by moving the resonant frequency lower, away from the frequencies generated by the engine. This happens for the same reason that a heavier guitar string sounds lower, under the same tension, than a lighter one.

Because the effectiveness of a weight in reducing vibration this way reduces to zero as the weight approaches the bar clamp, I was careful to keep as much weight outboard of the bar ends as possible. All the weight is concentrated where it is most effective- right near the bar-ends. All the weight is within 2.5" of the bar ends. There's no dead weight as with solutions that go all the way through the bars. By moving the resonance lower, it typically moves further from the frequency of the engine, which reduces the build-up of vibration in the bars dramatically.

The other way to look at it is in terms of inertia. By solidly mounting the weights to the ends of the bars, the bar-ends gain a great deal of inertia, which means that they are much more reluctant to change speed. Since the flapping motion involves the bar ends accelerating this way and that in rapid succession, any weight on the ends reduces this motion.

When you are trying to contain vibration by changing the resonant frequency, solid-mounting is the way to go. Any flexibility to the mounting muddies the effect of the extra weight, hurting the cause.

Q. Will all that weight on the bar ends slow down the responsiveness of my bike?

A. Theoretically, yes, a little. However, people typically report that responsiveness is not affected by measures like these. I have even heard of people pouring molten lead into their bars, filling them to the brim, (a few times the mass of our bar-end weights) and saying their handling was unchanged.

Why wouldn't you notice a slow-down in turn initiation? A way to understand this is with the concept of resonance, and its effect on the ability of the bar ends to change speed, discussed above. The fundamental frequency of the engine (67 Hz, for a single, operating at 4000 RPM) is at least 130x the frequency of a rider's steering input. (0.25 - 0.5 Hz.) That means that a weight which is sufficient to seriously discourage the engine resonating with or flapping the bars, is inconsequential to the much lower frequency involved in steering the motorcycle.

Q. Can't I just tough it out and save money?

A. Maybe. If you are lucky, you have very good circulation, well-routed nerves, strong wrists and hands, and you can tough it out. But long days in the saddle can wear you down, and in the long run, it's best to take care of yourself. Depending on you and the bike, vibrations can get seriously harmful to your health. Vibrating bars can worsen carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis, aggravate circulatory problems, cause numb or tingling hands, etc. If this happens to you, take it seriously. Most of these problems get aggravated more, the more they get aggravated. Give your wrists a break!

[Knife]

There are bar weights and bar sliders.

The blingy stuff is usually sold to guys who are on their bikes for 10 min at a time.

Heeheehee...

[enzed_viffer]

A friend of mine filled the bars on his motorcycle with "steel shot" to increase the mass and reduce vibration.

I did the same with my left footpeg, 'cept I just used melted down fishing sinkers, scraps of roof flashing offcuts, etc.

It helped, and even better, it's a StealthMod so no-one knows my bike is even porkier than it appears.

[Guest]

I have the same HMVP bar ends (11.8 oz) and I don't think that I noticed hardly any difference from the cheapy carbon look ends that were on it. I dunno, maybe if I went back to the old ones I would notice. I still get a numb right hand with these new bar ends as I always had with the cheap lighter ones. Just my personal experience.

[Guest]

I done away with the bar ends when i put gel grips on.....I dont have any vibration problems, unlike my R6, which vibrated my whole arm numb when I done the same.....I guess t depends on the grips you have....

[JES_VFR]

I done away with the bar ends when i put gel grips on.....I dont have any vibration problems, unlike my R6, which vibrated my whole arm numb when I done the same.....I guess t depends on the grips you have....

And which bike they are on.

I replaced the chrome and rubber pad grips on my RC51 with a set of gel grips while I waited for a set of heated grips to arrive.

The only thing better about the gel grips were that they did not hurt my hands when the bike was not running.

I installed my thicker hot grips with a set of manic salamander bar ends and I don't even feel like I'm riding the same bike.

In fact I'm trying to find a new set of the maniac bar ends for the old style honda mounts. All I can find are the new metal to metal ones that MS is selling.

[mrmatt]

Bar ends?

Both of my bikes had lost them somewhere before they made it to my garage, maybe I should try some out and see if I like riding with them...

[Beck]

Correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't the function of bar ends is to reduce vibration...right?. So if I were to replace them with lighter and prettier ones from ebay (anodized aluminum with carbon effect), would they still dampen the vibration?.

The weights on the bar ends are there to cancel out some of the vibration reaching your bars by acting like harmonic dampers.

In my case, the vibration I used to get with my 4th gen's original clipons was mostly eliminated when I switched over to VTR1000 bars and weights which I suspect has heavier weights to counter the big V-twin's vibrations. The vibration that used to reach my hands and make them sleep after long rides is now gone. It was an unexpected bonus I got when I switched over to the VTR bars.

So, I would not switch to those lighter bar ends which are just really sold for cosmetic purposes, much like those similarly cheap and useless "crash bobbins" that replace the big faring screws on bikes. :fing02:

Beck

95 VFR

[Auspanglish]

What sort of weight are we talking here?? The heavier stainless ones weigh how much? And the aluminium ones? Or the OEMs??? I'm about to buy some...

I bought some cheap imitation carbonfibre ones and the bolt that came with them rusted big time... :wheel:

[phaedrusman]

Made my own stainless, years ago. Heavier than throttlemeisters, by a couple grams.

Holy Crap Travis, you could put an extra set of grips on those babies.

[Auspanglish]

How does 185g sound to you guys??

[VFRMAN]

I'm considering some 2oz gold coloured bar ends from ebay to match the gold wheels,what weight are the oem bar ends does anyone know?

[TampaDave]

I rode around for a week with elcheapo bar ends, it doesn't vibrate that much although I suspect 500 miles of that would get mildly irritating. Got some Vibrinators... those things are cool. You get very little vibration in the bars, although if you touch the bar-end itself, it's buzzing like a bumblebee. Which I think is how it works. So there's your two strategies: to change the mass of the bar, thereby changing the harmonic frequency. Or to tune the bar-ends to cancel that vibration.

[treschlet]

A bar end weight changes the mass of the bar which changes its resonant frequency.

The vibranators are neat because they have a separate weight mounted in the bar on a dampened spring. So, the bar has one resonant frequency, and the weight inside has another, and they're designed to be out of phase so that when one vibrates, it cancels out the vibration of the other.

cool stuff! Never tried one. Been thinking about ordering a set for my old 1982 Yamaha XJ650 seca