Shorten the bars on your 1150 - they're too wide!

When I bought my 1150 I was peeved that the bars were nearly two inches wider than on the 1100. I couldn't get through the gaps in London traffic - instead of riding like the couriers I was holding them up - the shame of it!

I also found that I couldn't easily reach the handlebar grips when doing a U turn on full lock.

I never intended to take the bike off road, so I reckoned I would never need all the leverage that the stock bars give. So I got Mark Hill of MHP exhausts to cut 4" out of the middle of them and weld them back together. And I've been delighted with the results ever since. I was expecting the steering to be heavier, and I suppose it must be. But in practice I never noticed any difference. The only problem was that the BMW hand guards didn't fit any more. So I swapped them for Touratech ones. (Which are better anyway.)

Go to it, men. Shorter bars are the way ahead!

Maybe...but where would you put the wiring for the heated grips?

The cutting and welding is nothing to be scared of, according to the guy who did it for me. He's a bit of an expert on such things, and reckons the bars are stronger at the welds than anywhere else.

Guys

I've just ordered a new 1150 from Woolaston, and have the problem that I need to store my bike in a building in the garden. Now the only access to the garden is via an alley between my neighbours and my house which is exactly 1 inch too narrow for the GS bars.
The standard bars have an anti vibe setup which stops you cutting of the ends to shorten, but as they are standard 22mm bars you can fit a set of Renthals no problem.
The only issue is the fitting of the BMW Heated grips, but this can be cured by drilling a shall hole in the bars so that the wires can enter the bars near the yolk, this is the same as the standard bars anyway.
Next you can buy a BMW bar end weight kit which allows the wire's to exit the bars at the ends without being trapped, sorry but I don't have part number etc.. but if you speak to the nice parts guys at Woolaston then I'm sure they will be only to pleased to sell you one.
I think that the Renthall Enduro High bars are the closest to the original bars but if you take a look on their website they have all of the measurements etc...

Simon