I'm in the market for a used Road King and some of the ones i like have ape hangers. I'm not into them and would like to run either stock or an improvement on stock bars. Would i need new cables? Can the cabling be cut down? any suggestions on how to do this and what bars to use would be appreciated. Thanks

 

The extensions yes the cables no

 

Plenty of used stock cables and bars laying around in garages, sure you could pick up a set pretty cheap

 

I have stock '07 FLHR handlebars cheap. buy new cables like Barnett or sterling save yourself the grief of buying used ones...

 

Stock take off bars are almost give-aways for most people. Any swap meet would be littered with them. IMHO, beware........ beware stock Road King bars like the 2013 generation bars. They are nothing short of Chinese torture implements. They force you to hunch over, and no amount of adjustment will help. They work fine on smaller frames like softails, or with pullback risers. But otherwise, garbage. As far as shorter cables, thats your call. If lots of slack bothers you, replace them. The big issue will be wiring. Almost every set of apes is internally wired. So be prepared to have to do a complete rewire job with the new bars. And that always sucks.

 

Run with the apes for a while 1st...you might find you like them......

 

Find someone with stock bars that wants your apes. Trade trade with them. Cables and all.

 

Thanks for the advice. sat on it today and it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. internal wires and looks like a hassle so I'm going with jg4660's suggestion.

 

You'll thank him later.

 

You could install a nice set of beach bars and internally wire them also. A wide bar should pretty much use up the extended length cables currently on the apes. I love the look of beach bars and unlike apehangers, they still look cool even with the windshield on.