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I had tall ape hangers that were on my bike when I bought it. The pic will show how tall. I tilted them back quite a bit which looked stupid but rode OK. Straight up or tilted it was a major pain trying to maneuver in close quarters under power or not. I replaced with 6-1/2" risers with 1-1/2" pullback and stock 1990's vintage Sportster Buckhorns. It now fits me like a glove and is a joy to ride! Not an ape hanger fan here! Not by a long shot.
This comes up so often that I finally made a Word document of what I like to prescribe. As far as makers, the wild ones site has about the best I have seen as far as the bars they offer along with the measurements and they are great to talk to on the phone.
Here is a guide that is easy to follow, especially if there is someone with you. Have them take pictures of you sitting on the bike as if you are at a traffic stop. Easiest to close your eyes and without your hands on the bars, extend your arms to where you would feel comfortable riding, especially for an extended period of time. Maintain that position and when you feel good about it, have the person with you take pictures. Now you have a good "model" if you will. Then you can measure the height, width and pullback of the bars. At this point you can start shopping and I like to suggest wild ones website as they have an excellent selection giving measurements of each set of bars. Once you have bars picked out go for the proper length of cables and wire extensions. Very important to not skimp anywhere or you will only be wanting to start over.
Interesting. Couldn't really picture the new Fatboy with apes. Looks better then I thought. I would go with 2" thick fat apes though. I think that would look sick.
I had tall ape hangers that were on my bike when I bought it. The pic will show how tall. I tilted them back quite a bit which looked stupid but rode OK. Straight up or tilted it was a major pain trying to maneuver in close quarters under power or not. I replaced with 6-1/2" risers with 1-1/2" pullback and stock 1990's vintage Sportster Buckhorns. It now fits me like a glove and is a joy to ride! Not an ape hanger fan here! Not by a long shot.
Not an ape hanger fan either. I don't care how comfortable they are, to my eye, they look stupid. But to each his own, I'm sure there are things I've done to my bikes that others think look stupid. As long as someone likes apes, then more power to them. But, like you said, not for me.
I've had apes on road kings, ultra's and road glides. The kings are probably best looking with apes. You'll adjust pretty quick to riding with them, if you ride twisties hard, I probably wouldnt recomment them. Outside of that, they are comfy and adjusted correctly, take a lot of strain off your wrist/shoulders. And of course they look cool.
Actually I would as all I like to ride is thetwisties and from my front door it takes less than 5 miles to start my 250 mile loop of twisties. With taller bars it takes less pressure to counter steer a bike so it actually makes it easier.
As for how hard I ride them I don't think I do it as hard as I used to but I still have friends that think I go too fast..
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