IMHO, the higher they are, the harder they are on long trips. If you ride all the time and bundle up for cold any in town riding is hard. Parking lot lock to locks you'll find one hand under your chin and the other so far out you have to slid up on the seat. Looks vs comfort Bro...

 

For me it makes the bike handle much better and it is way more comfortable than pull backs...I seem to be able to maneuver the bike a lot easier... It wasn't for look for me. Mine are Yaffee classic bagger apes.

 

First. On a cold morning my hands get cold with stock bars.

I went with 10" LA Chopper Bagger bars on the advice of my indy. The difference between the 10" and 12" was twofold. I might need to extend the wires with the 12" and the 12" would be higher than the fairing (aesthetics).

I have short arms and am changing the 10" out to 12". The 10" hit the tank if I pull them far enough back to be comfortable.

Go with what's most comfortable to you.

 

2010 flhtk chiming in here. had stock bars for a while, cold air would come from under the fairing and hit my hand. thought 10" chubbies would put my hands perfectly behind the fairing. nope. now they're just slightly above the fairing. enough for wind and some debris to hit my knuckles. maybe 8.5 inch would be perfectly behind fairing. i still love the 10" though. get some heated gloves and ride on.

 

Man, you guys must ride in some strange places. Never had a problem with debris or bugs hitting my hands. Occasionally a bug will hit my hand, but not a big deal.

 

When I got my SG I had the same thoughts of trying to keep my hands behind the fairing. I went through a few sets of bars in the first couple of months. One set was 10" Yaffe's. Not only were they too wide, but also too short to be comfortable to me. I settled on Wild 1 12's, and they are really nice. Go for comfort first, and don't worry about staying behind the fairing.

As far as the mirrors, I used LA Chopper plugs after removing the stock mirrors. I am running Performance Machine mirrors inverted on the bars. Visibility is good, and I think it looks better than the factory fairing mounted mirrors.

 

I have WO578 10" on my flhtk and WO577 12.5" on my sgs .............. both get air over the fairing but just the tops on the flhtk. It's definitely nicer on the limited in cold weather, plus it has heated grips so you know which one I'm on 50F or lower ...... . A plus for the 10" is no extended wires or brake lines needed, only a 4" over clutch cable!

See below ....................

BTW, .... AFA fit, I'm comfortable riding both and just having apes reduce the shoulder strain of stock bars.

 

Keith, you should take the bike out and ride it every once in a while so you can get more bugs on the knuckles man...you're missing out.

 

I'm averaging about 12K miles a year. You?

 

Bugs? On the hand? No problemo. Now, a june bug or locust in the forehead at 80? Bar height won't fix that...