I am doing an old school Panhead chopper and need to change out my handlebars. Currently I have a set of tall apes which are to tall for me.

A buddy of mine has a pic of a chopper he built in the mid 70's that has what he refered to as "Pull back" handle bars. I kind of like the looks of them and am considering maybe they would something I would like to run.

Now days "Pull back " is kind of a generic term and it has been 40 years since my friend wrenched on bikes back in that era and his memory is not like it used to be. The were kind of like apes in that they went up high, but they then sweeped back down and slightly angled out. It is kind of hard to explain so I have attached a old pic of his bike.

Anybody have any idea of a "Name" or maybe can suggest a source for something like them? I have tried looking in a number of the Catalogs such as Drag Specility, Custom Chrome and V-Twin and am not seeing anything like them or I am just not recongizing them. I have had a couple people say "Buckhorn", but that is not exactly what I was looking for either.

Thanks in advance,

Joe Davis

46 Flat
50 Pan
73 Shovel
99 RK
Pan Project in progress

 

Your friend has it exactly right. They were indeed called "pullbacks." I ran a set back in the early 80s. Although they were very comfortable and kept your jacket sleeves from riding up, they weren't the best for handling. Buckhorns were the closest thing (to my recollection) that was available stock. I don't know where you'd find them now, other than a swap meet.

 

Chopcult classifieds and search pullbacks. There is a whole thread on them over there. A similar style would be six bends

 

I am guessing that those were the forunners of the Buckhorn bars. Most of the Softail Standards and Softail Customs used Buckhorns from 84 to 99. They were also used on my 84 Sportster. I like both the pull back and the buckhorn style. To me they are the most comfortable bars. I had a buddy that had an old Honda scrambler that he put pull back bars on, and they were great even on that bike.

 

http://www.chopcult.com/BowmanMotorc...sifieds/39339/