The first time I rode an NT I really felt like I was gonna get along with it immediately. The one thing that felt odd to me was both the handlebar position and the wrist angle it made me adopt (put a lot of pressure on the outside of my palms). That along with the vibration (yes mine has some) it was causing some numbness after 30-45 minutes. I thought I would give it some time and see if I could adjust, but it just wasn't happening. I was surprised there weren't more threads about alternate bars on this or the Deauville forum in Europe and I thought someone might find the info useful.
I guess I am spoiled from dirtbikes where getting the right bars is one of the first things you do with a new bike, and it is just too important to me to ignore. Lucky for me the PO had installed longer throttle cables for the one up, one back MCL risers that were on it. I replaced the clutch cable with the stocker for the Honda Trans Alp and had a Goodridge brake hose ready just in case (didn't end up using it, hose is tight but not stretched).
I originally started searching for bars more like the stock NT's but taller with a flatter bend at the grips but it is really tough to translate the specs the manufacturers publish to what it would actually be like mounted. Sites like Vortex and Protaper do a much better job of illustrating the length and angle of each section of the bar and it is much more intuitive to me on what it will ultimately look like. The problem is off road bars just aren't tall enough to work with the kind of height the NT needs.
I saw a thread here by RedBird that mentioned Rox risers so I checked out their website. In their closeout section I saw a pair of 5" risers for 39.00 so I figured I would take a chance. They are very well finished, anodized aluminum, no issues fitting them at all and they gave me a lot more options to choose from. This is because they essentially took care of the rise portion of the handlebar fitment and let me concentrate on sweep and pullback.
I still tried three different bars in the end, started with a pair of CR high bends I had laying around, but they were way too high with the 5" risers, tried some Vortex Mini Coops and rode them for a couple hundred miles until I decided they had too little pullback. Using the charts on the different websites I finally decided on Renthal 7/8"s Road Low bars and I think that is pretty much perfect for me. Not that it would work for everyone but that's why they make so many different bends right?
The one thing that took the most fabrication type attention was reusing the stock bar ends. I considered aftermarket but the stockers are so dense I really wanted to keep them. Whatever alloy they are made of (I'm guessing tungsten) it is very tough to cut and drill. I took the end that goes into the stock bars off flush with a cutoff wheel on a three inch grinder and it was tough. To drill the hole for a larger mount bolt nothing but cobalt drill bits will touch them. I installed them with some threaded inserts from Fastway that thread to the aluminum bar ends and then have an 8mm threaded hole inside. In the end I have about 175.00ish into it, and for me that is well worth it.
I thought I would pass this along because I know that sometimes things like this spark and idea for me to build on, and thought it may help others.
I guess I am spoiled from dirtbikes where getting the right bars is one of the first things you do with a new bike, and it is just too important to me to ignore. Lucky for me the PO had installed longer throttle cables for the one up, one back MCL risers that were on it. I replaced the clutch cable with the stocker for the Honda Trans Alp and had a Goodridge brake hose ready just in case (didn't end up using it, hose is tight but not stretched).
I originally started searching for bars more like the stock NT's but taller with a flatter bend at the grips but it is really tough to translate the specs the manufacturers publish to what it would actually be like mounted. Sites like Vortex and Protaper do a much better job of illustrating the length and angle of each section of the bar and it is much more intuitive to me on what it will ultimately look like. The problem is off road bars just aren't tall enough to work with the kind of height the NT needs.
I saw a thread here by RedBird that mentioned Rox risers so I checked out their website. In their closeout section I saw a pair of 5" risers for 39.00 so I figured I would take a chance. They are very well finished, anodized aluminum, no issues fitting them at all and they gave me a lot more options to choose from. This is because they essentially took care of the rise portion of the handlebar fitment and let me concentrate on sweep and pullback.
I still tried three different bars in the end, started with a pair of CR high bends I had laying around, but they were way too high with the 5" risers, tried some Vortex Mini Coops and rode them for a couple hundred miles until I decided they had too little pullback. Using the charts on the different websites I finally decided on Renthal 7/8"s Road Low bars and I think that is pretty much perfect for me. Not that it would work for everyone but that's why they make so many different bends right?
The one thing that took the most fabrication type attention was reusing the stock bar ends. I considered aftermarket but the stockers are so dense I really wanted to keep them. Whatever alloy they are made of (I'm guessing tungsten) it is very tough to cut and drill. I took the end that goes into the stock bars off flush with a cutoff wheel on a three inch grinder and it was tough. To drill the hole for a larger mount bolt nothing but cobalt drill bits will touch them. I installed them with some threaded inserts from Fastway that thread to the aluminum bar ends and then have an 8mm threaded hole inside. In the end I have about 175.00ish into it, and for me that is well worth it.
I thought I would pass this along because I know that sometimes things like this spark and idea for me to build on, and thought it may help others.
