I have a 2019 Softail Slim, I want to change out the Hollywood bars for the Harley Reach bars . Dealer quoted $900.00-1300.00 , 6-8 Hrs. labor and I believe that is what it would take . The bars are $98.00 , longer clutch cable with adjustment , longer front brake cable and bleed out brake fluid and re-fill brake fluid . Remove tank , maybe windshield and front headlight . Remove clutch and brake controls and old bars . Need longer throttle by wire , remove and feed through all new wires ,throttle and turn signals . Connect to wire harness ect.... Also forgot may need to buy a different or longer handlebar stem at least another $100.00 . I think I can do this but not sure I have the patience . I swapped out my bars on my 2016 883 Iron,took me less than one hour . Has anyone installed their own bars on one of the new bikes ? Thanks

 

If your goal is just to shorten the reach to the bars, you can put on a pull-back riser and not have to change anything else, other than re-routing cables. I did that on my 2015 Slim. If you want to change bars to get a different look, then I'm no help at all.

 

I just changed bars and risers on my Fat Bob last week - I went about 4" up and 2.5" back. I'd say the entire process took me about 5-6 hours. My bike was almost brand new so I only reverse bled the air out of the new brake cable that I needed, also needed longer turn signal wires. Brake line, wire extensions and brake fluid cost me about $100 from the dealership. Clutch cable, control cables and throttle cable (the longest of the 3), all reached in my application.

I didn't try to solve the problem in the abstract (figuring out cable lengths), and went ahead and did the install and then went to the dealership to source the longer brake line and turn signal wires. Luckily they had some in stock (they were all 2-3" longer than I needed, but that's what they had). Inventory is low and many of those items on back order - that'd be the biggest variable.

See posts #2687 and 2693+ of "what did you do...2018+ Softail" thread (last couple of pages). I'm glad I did mine myself, it wasn't that difficult.

 

The first thing I did was to install a pull-back-riser like Brian 15 mentioned , it did help some . I'am only 5"7 with a short arm reach. My issue is the factory Hollywood bars that came on the bike are to wide and make turns at slow speeds difficult . Harley's reach handlebars are more narrow . El Mago did you install Mini Apes ? Also what was your process for the throttle by wire ? Did you have to by an entire new cable with the plugs or did you just attach an adapter ? Was it hard to feed the wires through the handlebars ?

 

Brue, I installed 1” ODI MX style bars, precut for HD throttle etc. the 1” bar made getting the 3 sets of wires tight through the MX turn on the bars, so I sprayed some WD40 on a rag and lubed the wire sheaths with the rag, made the pull super easy. On the throttle side I staggered the 3 sets of wires on my string and pulled all 3 at once.

no “process” for the throttle - pulled it out and it only goes back in one way.

I just bought cable extensions for the turn signals and a new longer upper brake line.

 

I've installed 4 sets of handlebars on my 2019 Streetbob, including a set of reach bars and a set of hollywood bars. Now, the streebob comes stock with mini apes, so going from mini apes to hollywood bars is going longer to shorter.

The thing is, there's more wiring length than you might realize, and some rerouting of the clutch and brake line can be done without needing to even detach them from their components, you can just move the cables/lines around some. So, if HD is quoting you $900+ dollars ( ) for hamdlebar changeouts, for that cost, it'd be well worth just buying the bars at first, detaching the current bars from your clamps in your garage and just seeing how much wiring, cable, and line play you have. They might actually reach just fine at a HUGE cost savings. Once you pull that wiring bundle out for the turn signals and such, sometimes there's actually enough room for it to still work, especially going from Hollywood to Reach. Now Hollywood to miniapes+ might be beyond limits, but from Hollywood to Reach, at $900+ current estimate, I'd definitely do some tinkering first just to see what kind of cable and wiring lengths I have to play with.

I've done 4 sets of bar changeouts and only had the clutch cable done because it was in for 10k mile service anyways, I was going from Reach to 12" apes, and looking back I didn't even need to do it, it's too long now.

As far as doing the throttle by wire, I was worried, but it's actually pretty easy. It has a geared throttle sleeve under the grip, so once you loosen the signal cluster, the grip will just come off. Then you unplug the TBW plug and gently pull the TBW piece, along with the signal wiring, out through the bars. So you're pulling on the TBW at the grip end, pulling the wiring out. When pushing it back in with the new bars, I lube them up with soap to make it easy, then just kinda work them back and forth until they make it through. A small set of needle nose, or a small screwdriver, helps with fishing the plug out of the handlebar hole.

Basically, handlebar changeouts are really easy unless you have to change the brake line, then it gets harder. Even if you have to do the clutch, just buy the longer upper, the new plastic Harley clutch cables separate in two so you can change the upper without having to mess with fluids or anything. Basically that $900 quote will only cost you the price of the handlebars and maybe the clutch upper cable if needed, as long as you can stomach messing with the controls and wiring, which isn't bad once you see how it works.

(oh yeah, even if you do need longer wires, it'd just be a matter of buying the extension kit, plugging it in, to make that wiring run longer, but same routing process. The main hangup is if the brake line will reach. Harley will say it won't, but it might. My stock brake line for the mini apes reaches with the 12" bars rolled back.)

 

Goodguybiker good info , few questions since you have messed around with the Hollywood bars . The Hollywood bars come standard on the 2019 Softail Slim and about six months ago I installed the Harley pull back risers , around 4" back and 1 1/2" higher. Needed to adjust the clutch cable and the brake line which probably is to tight but works . Can I use the original riser with the Reach handlebars ? Harley I think states , you need a riser kit ? Would the new higher riser I installed work with the Harley Reach handlebars ? I cannot find real time measurement specs on the Reach handlebars . So if I can use the original riser I may even have more wire length than with the Hollywood bars and the higher riser I installed . I'am going to take your advice and just buy the Harley Reach bars take off the Hollywoods and just see where I'am at . One last question , do you need Harley's Digit-tech system to remove the front brake caliber ? For example you need Fords computer to unlock my brake calibers on my Ford truck . Thanks

 

Hmm, wonder why they're saying you need a riser kit? I think the Reach bars are supposed of kinda give you a 2" pullback and some rise with the bars itself. Does the stock riser have a space for the wiring to come down and route back to the bike? I would think it does, so I'm wondering why they say you have to have a riser. If the stock riser has space for the wiring to come out, then you should just be able to use that. The reach bars and the Hollywood bars both had around the same amount of space coming out the sides of the riser clamp, so I don't anticipate any clearance issues there. And obviously they're the same diameter, so you should be fine with the original risers, which like you said, may give you more cable/line length to play with. Those reach bars were really comfortable for me, had a lot of pullback, so you'd probably be OK without the pullback risers anyways. But if you want maximum, keeping the pullback risers would also likely work as far as attaching them goes, but you might actually run into the length issues at that point.

As far as the brake caliper stuff goes, I didn't have to mess with any of that so I'm of no help there, lol. Couple words of advice going in though, especially since you're just tinkering to see if it'll work without needing HD to do it all: The clutch is weird taking it apart, if you have to take the upper section off. Watch a youtube video on it and it'll make sense. It's also kinda weird detaching it from the hand controls (if you even need to go that far with it). On the hand controls, they're actually fairly easy to disassemble to get to the wiring when you fish it out, just make sure you don't pinch any wiring when you clamp them back together. They have little grooves and channels they sit in so everything sits right. If it seems like you're forcing something, you probably are, so just fish it around until it fits into its home. And finally, for the front brake line, I did have to unscrew the clamp that holds it under the fork tree for mine to be loose enough. It's not "right", but it's also not snagging / getting pinched or anything like that when my forks decompress and such. So if your front brake line is too tight, try unscrewing it from the fork tree clamp and letting it hang loose, that may give you the extra length you need. Just test it by pulling up hard on the forks to make sure it doesn't go too tight on you.

Let me know how it goes, I'm curious to know how much play the Slims have, or does ANY bar changeout force complete new wiring/clutch/brake lines.

 

Tomorrow if I can, I'll get some pics of how I ran my wiring and brake line so you kinda see what I mean. My wiring is probably at its limits now (having gone from 10" mini apes to 12" apes with way more pullback), brake line as well, but you'll at least kinda see how it looks. That way if you start undoing yours and it looks way off right away, you'll know you'll probably have to have a pro run some new lines and such. In the meantime, this was the dimension info I found when i bought my Reach bars, you may have already seen it, it's off the Harley website but kinda hidden:
REACH BARS:
Base Width: 8.25
Base Width UOM: Inches
Knurl Center-to-Center: 3.25
Knurl Center-to-Center UOM: Inches
Sold Seperately: Additional installation components
Sold In Units: Each
Material Content: Steel
In the Box: Handlebar only
Pullback: 2.0
Pullback UOM: Inches
Rise: 8.25
Rise UOM: Inches
Tip-to-Tip: 30.0
Tip-to-Tip UOM: Inches

HOLLYWOOD BARS:
Base Width: 9.0
Base Width UOM: Inches
Knurl Center-to-Center: 3.5
Knurl Center-to-Center UOM: Inches
Material Diameter: 1.0
Material Diameter UOM: Inches
Sold In Units: Each
Material Content: Steel
In the Box: Handlebar only
Pullback: 6.25
Pullback UOM: Inches
Rise: 7.0
Rise UOM: Inches
Tip-to-Tip: 31.75
Tip-to-Tip UOM: Inches

So you can see, even though the Reach bars have more pullback, its dimensions are actually kinda close to the Hollywood bars. It surprised me when i saw it because the Hollywood bars look and feel more flat and wide than they really are. So the difference may not be much from what you already have. I know when I pulled my wiring out for the original bars, there was quite a bit bunched up, I was like "wtf I've got plenty here" lol

 

Yes there is an opening at the base of the handlebar . Thanks for all the info you provided . I did find the dimensions for the bars that will work with the 2019 Softail Slim in my 2019 parts and accessories catalog . The standard Hollywood bars for my bike tip to tip is 31.75 " , tip to tip for the Reach bars for my bike is 31.60 " basically the same . I think with the risers I installed on my factory Hollywood bars actually gives me more pull back and the same height than the reach handlebars . I need a more narrow bar for short arm length and ease of turning at slow speeds . The Chizeled bars are only 27.5" tip to tip but with those I would be replacing everything including the brake line . I thought the Mini Apes might work but they have a tip to tip of 35.0" . Now theses are bars from Harley's 2019 catalog that will fit my bike . Any other ideas for a handle bar that would have the shorter tip to tip without the height would be appreciated . Thanks