Today I took delivery of a nice shiny set of Renthal 755 handlebars, purchased from the Bay of E.
At least I thought I did. I thought that they seemed a lot higher than the stock bars, but after seeing a couple of other bikes with them, cracked on with fitting.
But I later found out that the eBay seller had misread the stamp. These were 'Road High' 756 bars! So i was potentially marching into unknown territory. For me at least!
But anyway, first off I had to remove the old bars. A thin screwdriver around the inside of the old grip to loosen it, 3 different allen keys, an 8mm socket and a philips screwdriver later (why so many different fittings Mr Yamaha!?), and the bars were off.
As many of you probably already know, the switchgear on both sides has a little tab that fits into the drilled holes on the OEM bars.
Now you can drill your Renthal bars if you like. Some even come pre-drilled. But I found a Bandit forum thread in which somebody phoned up Renthal and was told that if you drill your own bars, the warranty is voided due to the potential weakening and subsequent potential stress fatigue.
http://www.banditforum.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5428.35;wap2SO I decided to get rid of the tabs. You can file them, sand them, even use a tiny saw to get them off if you like. I used some little wire cutters and snipped all but a mm or two off. I left the little bit so it would bite into the large bit of heatshrink that I put around the bar. I used heatshrink because I know that Electrical tape can sometimes go a bit gooey (I work a lot with electrics and outdoor lighting, so I've seen tape thats left outside in the wet go weird and slimy many times!) and I didn't fancy this happening under my switchgear!
The 756 bars are 20mm taller than the 755's I was expecting, so fitting wasn't all plain sailing.
The brake line from the front master cylinder was originally routed behind my fork stanchion. I'm not entirely sure if this is normal, or a cock-up on my part when I changed the fork seals! But in any case, I had to jack up the front of the bike, loosen the triple clamps and slide the forks and front wheel out of the top clamp just enough to move the brake line in front of the stanchion. (I had to detach the brake calipers because the brake lines are just long enough so had no more give, but the speedo cable was slack enough to allow an inch or so of downwards movement.)
At the same time, I had to move the cabling to the right hand switches. It originally passed through the forks and around the front of the yoke. now it goes straight to the switches. Of course I secured it to the brake line with a cable tie to prevent any chafing or trapping of the cabling.
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Also, due to the extra height, the bars had to be raked back quite far to avoid the throttle unit fouling the fairing on full left lock. Luckily, this position seems to be far more comfortable than the stock bars!
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Also, the extra height eats into the grip real estate meaning that there is quite literally only just enough space for the grips, switches and levers. I'm even tempted to trim the grips down by about 10mm to get the levers a bit more onto the straight end section of the bar.
Also, when positioning the throttle grip and the front brake lever, I had to make sure that the throttle cabling was rotated such that the lever could go through it's full motion. If you're not careful here, the throttle housing can actually foul the lever. Glad I realised this in the garage rather than while storming towards a red light!
Next up was the issue of bar end weights. The Yamaha OEM ones won't work straight off as there is no nut welded into the bars. After watching this great video:
I took a visit to Screwfix and picked up a 5 pack of Rawl Bolts for just under £4.
I also took a further step and sleeved the bolts in a small length of silicon tubing to give them a bit more grip, and prevent them marking the bars on the inside.
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And they work fantastically! I could have spent more money on specific bar ends, the Renthal ones would have cost more than the Bars cost me! Instead I just used what I already had! I did need to use longer bolts though.
After a test ride down to London and back, I'm pleased to report that the bike feels MUCH better. Far more comfortable. Almost like it was made for me!
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