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This was a nasty break while riding and pulling off to an exit ramp at highway speed. The owner said he nearly lost it, but got it under control.
The break was caused by excessive enlargement of wiring holes and not polishing all the edges smooth. The bars are also quite wide and long, putting a lot of force and stress on the weekend area. Still, they held up for a number of years until the cracks grew and then finally failed.
We changed them out this weekend with a set of Kromeworks bars that member @kngpn had.
Nothing to difficult about the about the swap but it took a bit of time, taking the tanks off, pulling the wiring out the bars and then repairing some wiring.
Almost done in this photo, the bars look pretty good.
I am always amazed at people who will randomly customize parts like this ("caused by excessive enlargement of wiring holes") without regard/knowledge of how their changes could affect the modified part....
With the amount of customizations and backyard mechanics (of which I am one) working on these bikes, we are probably very lucky more of this kind of thing doesn't bite people in the butt...!
Glad it turned out OK, and glad you got it repaired...
That’s an awfully large slot for wiring, way bigger than it needed to be. I slotted the handlebars on my ‘94 FLSTN for internal wiring but the holes weren’t half that size. I must have done something right as I ran mine for 15 years.
That’s an awfully large slot for wiring, way bigger than it needed to be. I slotted the handlebars on my ‘94 FLSTN for internal wiring but the holes weren’t half that size. I must have done something right as I ran mine for 15 years.
Agreed, It’s a big hole ( and it’s a rough cut.) That Heritage Springer has turn signals on the clutch and brake perches. They ran all four harnesses with covering through the bars and made big holes in three places.
I’dev relocated the turn signals to under the passing lights.
if the owner was unwilling to relocate the passing lights, they could have removed the harness covers from both the turn signal and control control covering and put the combined wiring into that nylon braid loom... it would be a much smaller bundle and easier to pull through smaller holes.
Agreed, It’s a big hole ( and it’s a rough cut.) That Heritage Springer has turn signals on the clutch and brake perches. They ran all four harnesses with covering through the bars and made big holes in three places.
I’d've relocated the turn signals to under the passing lights.
if the owner was unwilling to relocate the passing lights, they could have removed the harness covers from both the turn signal and control control covering and put the combined wiring into that nylon braid loom... it would be a much smaller bundle and easier to pull through smaller holes.
As did my FLSTN. In my case the turn signal wiring was just a double wire with no sleeve. Only years later did I relocate the turn signals below where the passing lamps would have been (if I had them).
Broken Handlebars and replacement
