Does anyone have any experience with handlebars from this company and what are your thoughts on their quality?

I have been trying to find the perfect set of bars to fit me on my '21 Ultra Limited. I had a seat built by RDL that moved me up about 2" and back about 1.5" and now need handlebars to move roughly the same. I've tried Khrome Werks 2+2 narrow sweepers. These fit pretty well but I'd prefer 1ź" bars and I wasn't crazy about the way these bars kind of curve. Next up was the KW 2+2 stretch. At 1ź these looked better but were too wide and the wrist angle was too flat. I also tried Wild Ones WO579. I have a set of WO bars on my Deuce and these are the best quality bars I've seen. Unfortunately these didn't come up & back quite for enough for me.

Enter KST Kustoms. I purchased a set of their reduced reach bars. These are 1ź" bars that are very similar in shape to the WO579s but are a little longer. I think I found the sweet spot with these as far as fitting me but was very disappointed with the quality. For being nearly identical, but longer than the WO579s, these were much lighter. They are polished stainless as opposed to chrome and didn't look terrible but did have some imperfections and could have been polished better. When I went to install the wires, I noticed the center hole was kind of diamond shaped and smaller than the oval holes at each end for the hand control wires. All of the holes had extremely sharp edges. For being large bars with nice sweeping bends, these were much more difficult to pull wires through than any of the other bars I've tried. As I pulled the wires out, I also got a ton of metal shavings that were not cleaned out. Ok, so I can clean the bars out and debur all the holes but I shouldn't have to. Once I got the grips and hand controls on, I noticed there were gaps between the clutch clamp & master cylinder and the 1ź section of the bars. I couldn't push the clamps on any further because of the welds where the 1" ends meet the 1ź" section. This was not an issue with any other bars I've tried. So I called KST to ask if maybe I got a bad set of bars that quality control missed or something. The guy I spoke to basically shrugged it all off and said no, that's just how we make 'em. So now I have to decide if I can live with the visible gaps and overall lack of quality to keep the most comfortable bars so far. Unless anyone has another suggestion for a better set of reduced reach bars...

 

I have the fat baggers reduced reach bars. I like them. You might want to check them out. They are a quality bar but a little costly compared to others.

 

I did look at those but I'm afraid I won't like the 34" width and flatter wrist angle. Not to mention the $450 price tag, which is more than the Wild Ones that I would consider premium quality bars.

 

Post up some pics of your kst concerns. I haven’t heard anything negative about KST quality or customer support. “That’s how we make them” is hard to swallow.

 

I didn't take pics of the weird holes, sharp edges, or metal shavings coming out as I figured I could fix that and live with the bars if I liked them and there were no other issues. But they didn't debur anything at all and the bars were very difficult to pull wires through. I do have pics of the gaps left by the mc and clutch clamps. Maybe people don't worry about that, but I haven't had that problem with any other bars I've tried, so I expected better. I really wanted them to tell me they could do better and was surprised at their response when I called.

KST gap at clutch clamp. Can't push clamp on any further due to weld between 1" & 1ź" section of bars.

KST gap at master cylinder clamp.

This is the set of Wild Ones WO579s. Clamps can butt tight up against 1ź" section.

 

I have the 16" KST Pathfinders. Spend time with a dremel and hand files to deburr all the sharp edges before handing over to the shop for the install

 

Looks like this is not a unique complaint about their handlebars. Go onto KST Kustoms web page and look at the 1 and 2 star reviews people have left.

 

Understand the frustration with the gap. Seems to be an issue with many bars. My LA choppers had the same gap but my controls are black and just used a black zip tie to fill the gap. It’s unnoticeable now.

 

I’ve run six sets of various KST bars on three bikes (Street Glide with Six Bend Kickers, Road Glide with adjustable Pioneers, and Road King with Straightjackets). The reason for six and not just three is because it takes me two tries per bike to get the height that makes my back happy. I’ve ridden about 50k miles with their bars.

I’m a fan of their products and would buy again.

 

oh now you’re just bragging!