So what’s involved in putting them on and what are the positives and negatives? It’s not quite a simple “bolt on” affair but its something anyone can do in no time at all.

Bad news first, the stock brake lines don’t reach the new bar’s higher position by about 2”, so you’ll need after market steel braided lines. Most people already have these, or are going to get them so this is not a big deal. I went with Goodridge because they had an option to go +1 or +2 inches on their order form. I went +2 which turned out to be totally unnecessary as my lines are now +2 inches too long :P Better long than short hehe

So assuming you have after market lines on, take all the **** off your old bars and plop on the new naked ones. You will note that the little male sticky downy thingy on the bottom of the new clip-on (where it fits into the triple clamp) is on the opposite side of where the stock one goes. This doesn’t matter as it clears the top of the triple tree mount, but just not quite enough, so you need to shave a little off the inside of it with a hand file or dremel -easy as pie. Now the clip on will sit flush on the fork tube top/triple tree.

When you begin to bolt on your throttle, kill switch and turn signals you will notice that they have nipples inside that fit into holes in the clip-on’s. Well they don’t match up anymore. I filed off the tabs on my turn signal mount and my kill switch but I didn’t on the throttle as it really needs to be there. Just mock it up, mark where the hole goes and drill it out with the same diameter drill bit as the male tab. If the hole’s too big your throttle could wiggle. If the hole’s not in the exact spot, forward or back, then you may not be able to open your throttle wide open without readjusting your hand on it and if the hole is too far left or right then you might show too much bar or bunch it up against the bar end.

Once you have all your stuff on then crank your front end over to the left and set your left clip-on as close to the gas tank as possible. The horn button will touch first. Tighten the bar up then set the right bar accordingly.

So the other bad news, which is dick all imo, is that the right bar clears the fairing and tank by a mile but the left bar slightly nicks the bottom of the fairing where the hi-beam switch is. This means that unless you either, shave off a bit of the bottom of your fairing OR, put a bushing in between where your fairing meets your mirror mount to push the fairing out a bit, whenever you crank your bars all the way to the right, your gonna flip on your high beam switch…big deal.

The good news: I’m 5’9” and with my stock bars the palms of my hands would ache horribly, eventually go numb and throb. I couldn’t ride far and even though I loved my bike, I dreaded the riding position for any distance. People say you get used to it. Well I rode all last season and I kinda did by the end of it. The day after I installed these new bars I rode from 9:30am till 8:00pm taking short stops for gas, lunch and a beer in complete comfort. I couldn’t help but notice all the other riders around me shaking out their hands during the day.

If you compare these VFR bars with Heli bars you will see that they are much more robust and WAAAY cheaper. Also I’m sure they’re higher and angled as far back to the rider position and you can possibly get, as well as angled more horizontally to the earth. They polish up great as you can see in my pics.

After doing this mod, along with my Sargent seat and Puig double bubble style windscreen, I can honestly ride in complete comfort for hours on end and concentrate on having fun and riding better.

 

Last pic

 

Do you know if they are the same as the VFR 800 bars? Thanks for the install help.

 

No I don't but other people in this forum do. Thats one thing this thread needs is a list of VFR years that will fit. I'll ask in the main forum.

 

AFAIK, all VFR bars from 1990-2001 will fit. The only real differences that I know of are styling and the method of end weight installation which is typically different than the SuperHawk. If they are from an 800, you need to find out if they are 98-01 (will fit) since 02 to present will not work because they are 43mm.

 

Thanks Superbling

I'm pretty sure the bar end changes from '95 -> '96 to use a larger bolt as it becomes a heavier bar end so you need to verify the year your using. Don't assume you can use your Superhawk bar ends.