Handle Bars Break without a Wreck?
 

My friend has a 2005 Road King Classic with about 40,000 miles on it. He had a local dealer install HD pull back bars on it about three years ago. Monday, while he was loading his bike on a trailer to take it to the dealer for service, the left bar broke and went totally limp! The nacelle is kind of holding the bar on, but man! We both kind of paused when we thought about what that would be like going down the highway!

Anyone ever had experience with this? It's a harrowing prospect, and we are scratching our heads about it.

One thing we thought about is that the part could have fatigued during trailering. On the RK, he ties down on the front over the top of the bars. What other causes could there be?

Not a handle bar break. But my left grip slid right off the handle bar twisting trought Spearfish Canyon. Woo hoo!

Does he trailer often? I think you are on the right track. My guess would be that he has over tightened his handle bar staps on the trailer.
Does he put the tie-downs at the end or near the tripletrees?

My bud bent a set of wide beach bars that way on his Fatboy.

A friend of mine had a pair of stock bars break on his (then) brand new wide glide. He said it made for a pretty interesting ride.

Yes, he does trailer a lot.

Last year, he trailered to Sturgis with a buddy. I rode alone and we all stayed in the same rental house. He also trailers to New York a couple of times a year. I'll bet he has 10,000 trailer miles on that bike.

He does put the tie-downs near the triple trees, and he is precise about everything he does. However, he has a really heavy bike and a really light trailer. My thinking is that bike is constantly bouncing up and down against the preload on the bars and, voila! The fatigue is too much.

WTF, Chuck??? :rolleyes:
This must be the year. Brian, a good friend of ours, was s'posed to come up two weeks ago to ride and spend the weekend. He calls me on Friday afternoon.
"Gumby, you're NOT gonna believe this. My Chubby drag bars are cracked, the LONG way" Luckily he discovered it in the grudge whilst doing some basic maintenance, BUT what the H*LL would happen on the road???

He went to Dennis Kirk, they looked up his account, they were installed (bought) in Nov '05, and he has NOT done that much riding.
Dennis Kirk said it was a bad set of bars, that he should call Drag Specialties. They even gave him their 'secret' # to DS. He called Customer NON Service, they said, "So what?" :eek: :eek:
DK told him to call again, BUT ASK for the 'legal dept', this time. ;)

I've BENT bars til Hannah wouldn't have 'em, BUT never 'broke' a set like I have heard the last couple of years.
GOOD Chinese steel???? Quality Control???? :( :(

His bars cracked and the supplier said, "SO WHAT?" I'd ask for the legal dept. right then and there! Holy Sh... batman. People in customer service amaze me. If you have any knowledge of motorcycles and motorcycling, you know that broken handlebars are a serious safety issue. The first thing I'd say is, "Sir, you have a very serious safety matter here. I'm glad you found it before it caused harm. We want to do everything we can to understand what happened and rectify the matter to your satisfaction."

My friend is getting his bars replaced under his extended warranty by HD. Don't think it's happening til Monday, but we'll see what happens.

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My Wild One 513s came with a sticker that warns against putting undue loads on the bars for that very reason. Some even suggest switching to a different style bar mount in the middle.
No doubt it's from the load the tie-downs put on the bars. Play the game, I guess you take your chances.

CN