Narrower Handlebars on R1200GS

I have long felt that the handlebars on the R1200GS were wider than necessary and much preferred the width of the bars on my F650 Dakar. So after months of thinking about it, today I got my dealer to chop 25mm (about 1”) of each bar end.
I’m glad that I did.
My arm position now feels much more comfortable and natural, with less strain on my elbows. I went for a three hour ride and found no ill effects at all. There was no added vibration or difference in control. Obviously there is a slight loss of leverage, but unimportant for my style of riding which is about 80% sealed roads and 20% dirt roads, no genuine off road. There is still plenty of width for the mirrors to be effective.
My dealer charged me for 1.5 hours labour.
So if you think the bars are unnecessarily wide and are thinking about making them narrower, then I’d say go for it.

I've got a set of Renthal FatBars at home that I'd like to put on, but I'm scared by the BMW-ness of the OEM bars (have heard that they've got he controls screwed on into a tapped hole in the bars...

... One sunny day maybe...

Oh yes, I'd like my bars a bit narrower, but also a bit lowered...

Been investigating bars a bit recently

There's just one threaded hole in the bars (that I can see), on the left hand side. The left hand grip is screwed to the bars, the right hand grip has a metal clamp holding it on.

I wanted to rotate the grips (and thus controls and mirrors) around the bars a bit to give a more natural position - until I get round to drilling and tapping a new hole for the left hand side I've only moved the right ones.

Mouse, if you get to strip the bars can you please take pictures of the stripping and the bars

I've always seen the tap at the bar, but never got round to drilling at the bar...


What are we talking about again? Oh yeah, pictures of the bars... Please.

Sounds like my weekend is planned then

Mouse said:

Sounds like my weekend is planned then

Click to expand...

We can always swap..?! I'm moving house...

The story so far ...

A long time ago in a garage far far away ... BAR WARS

err, sorry. On with the stripping

First, remove the branch guards - unscrew the large torx bolt at the end of the bar, and the small one near the mirror. The bar end weight, bolt and branch guards should come off.



Disconnect the clutch switch cable, unscrew the two bolts holding the mirror/clutch lever assembly on, and remove.



Removing the control cluster needs a smaller torx key than is supplied, but I found a 2mm (I think) allen key will do instead. These screws are self tappers into plastic, so be careful when refitting.



Disconnect control cables and heated grip cables.



This next pic shows where the heated grip is screwed to the bar (like Joker wants to be ). Theres another identical screw on the underside of the bar. Again this is an awkward screw, I didn't have the correct sized torx bit for it. So I filed an Allen key down a bit to fit. Bodgetastic. These screws are also self tappers, so if making new holes, it may not be required to tap a thread into them.



The totally stripped (weyhey) bar, showing the tapped hole for the grip screw.



The end of the bar, showing (sort of, bad pic, sorry) the threaded insert in the end that the bar end weight bolt screws in to.



This is as far as I have got to date. I am not sure yet whether I want to shorten my bars, or fit a different set with a better shape.

The problem I can see with shortening them, would be that the threaded insert in the end of the bar would need to be removed, and then reinserted into the bar after cutting a length off. I couldn't see how to remove this insert. An alternative would be to modify the bar end weight bolt so that as it's tightened, it grips on a bit of rubber or something that expands inside the bar, holding it firm.

The right hand side is simpler - the problem with the bar end weight will remain but there are no holes drilled in the bar, just a clamp that holds the twistgrip in place. I'll strip that tomorrow!

Thanks Mouse, very informative. I don't see myself putting on my FatBar anytime soon...
The small hole I reckon I could do (and get the excuse to go buy a tapping kit ) but, how to fix the bar-ends, that I don't have a clue...

Thanks again! Well done! Waiting for pics of the RHS stripping...

BAR WARS - A New Hope

I was messing around in mah tool shed today when I had a realisation. The handlebars are actually not as wide as they seem. The actual bar stops about two thirds of the way along the grip, and the rest of the space is occupied by the bar end weight. Therefore, you can effectively make the bars about two inches narrower without cutting anything off the bars themselves - you just need to modify the bar end weight.

So, I set about stripping the right hand side, as that would be an easier place to start. In this pic, I've removed the branch guard and bar end weight, and then loosened the mirror assembly and moved it along the bar (inwards) to make room. I then removed the back cover of the switchgear and disconnected the plugs.



This shows the single bolt you need to loosen to allow the switchgear and twistgrip to be moved.



I slid the switchgear and grip inwards along the bar by about 25mm. The end of the handlebars is now about 2mm inside the end of the twistgrip.



To do the same on the left hand side, new holes need to be drilled for the screws that hold the grip to the bars. I took the opportunity to drill the new hole slightly further around the bars than the original, because I wanted to rotate the switchgear around the bars, so that the indicator and horn buttons were easier to reach with my opposable thumbs. Here's the position of one of the new holes that needs to be drilled.



Two holes need to be drilled, the next pic shows the position of one of them. The other is directly opposite it on the underside of the bar. Use a 3.5mm drill bit, and then carefully tap a thread in the hole using the original screw as a tap - it's a self tapping screw. My usual procedure for tapping a thread is one turn in, half a turn out - go slowly and carefully and remove the screw from time to time to clean the swarf out.



Once the holes are tapped, everything can be reassembled. You can see in the next pic, the amount the grips have been moved by, by the amount of the shaft of the bar end weight that is showing. The final stage, which I haven't done yet, will be to cut 25mm off the bar end weight to allow the branch guards to be refitted. For now, I'm just going to use the bike for a couple of days to make sure that I like the new arrangement before I do anything irreversible. The only downside I can see is that with slightly less weight on the bars, there may be a little more vibration. After riding about a bit today though, the slightly narrower grip positions definitely feel more comfortable. I also took the opportunity to move the bars vertically in their clamps to what felt like the best position.

Superb, Mouse, utterly superb!

Took the plunge yesterday and chopped 25mm off each bar end weight. Reassembled and went for 120 mile blast round North Wales, to test it out Bought some socks in Cotswolds in Bewts-y-Coed (10% discount for bikers!)

The verdict - much better. I know it's the style of the bike and all, but the standard bars were just too wide for me, long rides were actually causing me a significant amount of pain (but I'm a wreck). After yesterday's ride, no pain

Possibly there's a bit more vibration in the bars, or maybe I was just looking for it so noticed it. And the mirrors show a little more of my shoulders and less of the road, but I can live with that.

Will post a pic of the finished job when I get home from work.

Thanks for the great work. Glad that the problem of the heated grip wires is much simpler to solve than on the 1150. The wires threaded through the bars on the 1150 which was a pain.

Any clues on how the threaded bar end insert thingy is held in place in the bars? It must have been shoved in there originally somehow and be fixed in there with something?

If that little conundrum can be sorted, then I'll be getting some Renthal's on mine pronto.

Tobers said:

Thanks for the great work. Glad that the problem of the heated grip wires is much simpler to solve than on the 1150. The wires threaded through the bars on the 1150 which was a pain.

Any clues on how the threaded bar end insert thingy is held in place in the bars? It must have been shoved in there originally somehow and be fixed in there with something?

If that little conundrum can be sorted, then I'll be getting some Renthal's on mine pronto.

Click to expand...

Agree, agree agree! I'm very glad to see that the heated grips are much easier on the 12...

Regarding the insert-thingy (technical term), I reckon it's probably heat shrunk in there... (i.e bar really hot, and insert-thingy really cold, and then quickly push it in there)

I'm not that worried about getting it out and put into my Fat Bars (location where obese people get intoxicated), but I'm wondering how to fix something into the FatBars that will stick.
On my Husky I had a small aluminium insert that was cut acoss, something like
. . . . . . . . . . _______
Screw --> ==___/____ <-- threaded piece
And thus it "misaligned" itself when it was tightened...

That could work

Someone with a lathe here...?

(had to put the dots in there to align the nice ascii art )

If you look in one of the pics of the bare bars, you can see what looks like two crimp marks round the bars, about half way between the end of the bar and the original threaded hole. I reckon the threaded insert is crimped into the handlebar, so removal might be tricky. Probably easier to get some aftermarket weights, although they have to be the right size to fit between the bar and branch guard.

Actually, I bet you could make something like Joker describes (a weight with a diagonal cut in it, and then a bolt through) using the original weight, just chop the thin part of it diagonally. Or get some sort of rubber bung around the bolt that expands as you tighten.

Mouse said:

Took the plunge yesterday and chopped 25mm off each bar end weight.
The verdict - much better.
Possibly there's a bit more vibration in the bars, or maybe I was just looking for it so noticed it.

Click to expand...

Congratulations on a most instructive journal and photos.
I seriously doubted my ability to do the job myself and I thought that the quote of 1.5 hours from my dealer workshop was good value (for me anyway).
I suspect that there might be a slight increase in vibration, but as you say, you have to be looking for it to notice.
Has been almost a week now since getting the job done and I've forgotten what the standard bars were like. I'm entirely happy with the narrower bars.

Joker - any update on the Fatbars?

A set of Renthal bar ends should do the trick - I'm sure there's no need to use the BMW ones.

I was looking at a set of Renthal Twinwalls just now. V nice indeed if a tad pricey at £85 or so.

Andy

Tobers said:

Joker - any update on the Fatbars?

A set of Renthal bar ends should do the trick - I'm sure there's no need to use the BMW ones.

I was looking at a set of Renthal Twinwalls just now. V nice indeed if a tad pricey at £85 or so.

Andy

Click to expand...

Yes, my Fatbars have progressed, in fact, they've been wrapped up, then they moved house, and now they're loitering in what one day will become my house's dining area...

... Regrettably they're nowhere near the bike...

The plan is *mission-impossilbe-tune* to fix them one day out in the sun when the weather is better and I've moved in properly. I might also have to contact my friendly fixer Husky @ Roost-Racing to see if he could craft or source me some of those inserts...

Admiddedly the narrower-lower bars seem quite tempting the more I ride...

... Sorry, no update!

OK - I'm buying some Twinwalls tomorrow and will report back. I'll use Renthal bar ends as well, assuming they'll fit with the BMW hand-guards.

I'll also look into making some risers to bring the flatter bars back a bit - I'll do the bars first and then see if I need to adjust them rearwards.

Tobers said:

OK - I'm buying some Twinwalls tomorrow and will report back. I'll use Renthal bar ends as well, assuming they'll fit with the BMW hand-guards.

I'll also look into making some risers to bring the flatter bars back a bit - I'll do the bars first and then see if I need to adjust them rearwards.

Click to expand...

OOoh... Excited now - Looking forward to that.

If my memory serves, the BMW bolt that goes into the bar has got a very big head, and the Renthal ones has got a "normal size" head - thus you'd need a spacer (washer type) for it, but the heads being "funnel shaped" the washer has to be like a funnel...

Something like:

\ \
\ \
| | /__ hole here
| | \
/ /
/ /

There's a washer type thing already, between the bolt and the branch guards. I think that may suffice, although it'll depend on the weights you get.

Glad to see this thread still running