Spiegler Bar Risers

[Guest mailmanbob]

I recently purchased a 2001 VFR, a bike I had been lusting after for some time. However shortly after the purchase, and having completed a short ride, I realized that the bars were much too low for my liking.

I researched around and found a few differant solutions.

Gen-mar bar risers- cheap but not enough rise

Heli-bars- better rise but not adjustable

Converti-bars- adjustable but too much money

LSL Handlebar risers (from Spiegler)- about the same price as Heli-bars but offer potential adjustability.

So I went ahead and purchased the LSL kit from Spiegler the U.S. importer.

The kit includes two clamps that replace the stock clip-ons and a low rise Superbike style aluminum bar.

The kit comes with an instruction sheet that starts off with telling you to take the bike to a mechanic to do the job, I did not and found the install to be relativly easy.

I will give a quick overview of my installation here, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

First, you will remove your controls making sure you do not tip the clutch and brake master cylinders. I taped them to the mirrors and fairing.

Next loosen off the pinch clamp bolts that hold your clip-ons to the top of the fork tubes.

The brakeline, clutchline and throttle cable will need to be rerouted from the front of the fork tube to the back. You will need to remove the top of the triple clamp to accomplish this. You need a 32 MM socket to do this. Once the nut was removed and the TOP pinch bolts loosened the clamp lifted off easily. I experimented with this step several ways and ended up installing and removing the triple clamp about four times until I was happy with the routing of the lines. The brake and clutch were plenty long enough, but the throttle cables are JUST long enough.

Next you will mount the new clamps to the top of the fork tube. They clamp on in the same fashion as the stock clip-ons. Do not tighten yet, just make them slightly snug.

Here you can see one clamp installed-

The throttle slide should be placed on the new bar now, as you will not be able to place it after the bar is mounted.

You can now drop the supplied bar in place on the new clamps. Now you will see why you did not tighten the clamps. As you place the bars down the clamps can rotate slightly to allow the new bars to seat correctly. Place the supplied bar clamps on top of the bars and slightly tighten them. You can now go ahead and tighten the pinch bolts holding the clamp to the fork tube. No torque specs were provided.

At this point you will need to play around with the location of the bar as it can rotate within the assembly. You need to check clearance from the clutch and brake master cylinder to the fairing and windscreen by holding them roughly in place with the steering moved from one side stop to the other. The placement of the clutch and brake control is not critical as you can adjust it later. However the throttle control and turn signal control have a pin which requires you to drill a hole in the bar for correct placement. Again

you do have some play so don't obsess about it. I got my bars roughly in the place I wanted them marked where the controls needed to be with a pencil.

Drilling a hole in a round bar can be tough but I found a method to make it work. After locating where the holes needed to be and marking them I used the drill with the drillbit side to flatten the spot where the hole was needed. I could then have a flat surface in which to start drilling the hole. I know there is probably a tool out there to accomplish this, I just don't own it. A file would accomplish the same affect.

Anyways you're almost down now, just replace the controls on the bars.

Now you can do some final tweaks of the bar to find what you feel is the best position for you. Then tighten every bolt up.

This whole process took me about four hours including a meal break and a couple beers. It was actually quite straight forward.

The parts supplied are of a very high quality and look almost original after they are installed. I think the bar supplied with its brushed aluminum finish matches the bike as well. The barends will not install in the new bar but to be honest I don't think they are a necesisity anyways.

I have now had a chance to spend a couple days riding the bike to work. I feel the new riding position compliments my riding style. There is much less pressure on my hands, wrists and neck. I ended up with the bars about 2" closer to me and about 2 1/2" taller. Doesn't sound like much but it is a huge difference.

Here you can see the stock clip-ons from the side-

and the new bar-

Stock from the back-

and new bar-

The (kinda) finished product. I still need to trim the bar and get new grips.

mailmanbob

View Public Profile

Send a private message to mailmanbob

Find More Posts by mailmanbob

Add mailmanbob to Your Contacts

[Rogue]

Hmm. You must be one of those rare people whose thumbs point downwards when you hold you hands in front of you....I've STILL never seen a pic of a bike fitted with these kind of bars with the bars at anything approaching full lock.. I wonder why ?

[Knife]

Not my cup of tea, but as long as they work for you, that's all that counts.

[FotoMoto]

I researched around and found a few differant solutions.

Gen-mar bar risers- cheap but not enough rise

Heli-bars- better rise but not adjustable

Converti-bars- adjustable but too much money

LSL Handlebar risers (from Spiegler)- about the same price as Heli-bars but offer potential adjustability.

May I add a 5th option? Make your own:

SuperBike Bars Gold renthals with off-road mounts.

I've STILL never seen a pic of a bike fitted with these kind of bars with the bars at anything approaching full lock.. I wonder why ?

Kinda' hard to tell but here ya' go. No issues at full lock; especially on a 6th gen as the fairing seems designed in mind for this option/mod.

IMG_0469.jpg

[Guest mailmanbob]

Hmm. You must be one of those rare people whose thumbs point downwards when you hold you hands in front of you....I've STILL never seen a pic of a bike fitted with these kind of bars with the bars at anything approaching full lock.. I wonder why ?

I don't know what you are trying to say about the thumbs pointing down thing, however I do have pics of the bike at full lock...

And as you can see here other bikes do have similar bar setups. Like my W650

[VFR4Lee]

I can't see your pics MailmanBob. :cool:

FotoMoto has a cool looking handlebar there.

Looks comfy, how much different is it vs stock?

Maybe it's the gold, reminds me of my Tuono. :biggrin:

[Pooville]

Great work Good to see pics, also comments about full lock as I have wondered about this on my cbr steelie, not sure what the thumbs pointing down is all about though?

I'm going to do this in the future thank you for sharing 

Gary pooville