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I put new 16" apes on my ride (Tsunami Motorsports off Ebay) and quickly discovered that my ideal riding position with these boosted the windshield forward *just* a bit too far. After puzzling over it for a bit, I went and grabbed $5 worth of hardware from Home Depot and fashioned a solution. I imagine that others have thought of something similar, but I wanted to show off my work. It doesn't look like much, and it didn't change the angle too dramatically, but it's noticeably taller from behind it and will keep me from wearing a blemish into my screen with my clutch cable!
At first, I thought, "I'll just ride without it" and that idea was squashed quick by taking a big bug to the cheek on the test ride out in the country! (I know, I know, I'm a *****, but I need the 'screen baby!)
I'm liking the new bars, a lot and the new windshield position is working out pretty good too! (the new sig pic is a shot from yesterday with the new bars and new long stem mirrors)
Sure. Here's the hardware that I used. I had to drill out the holes in everything to fit over the 3/8" mounting bolt on the forks.
I had those white spacers in my hardware bin, from some tv mount a while back, but the brackets, bolts, and nuts I got from Home Depot. Once I enlarged the holes, I took the top bushings off of the bike and attached them to one end of the bracket and put the other end and a white spacer in it's place.
The bracket holes are about 2" apart, which allowed the bolt head to clear the edge of my passing light mounting bar, and now gives my windshield a solid connection to the bike with the new bars and keeps everything spaced apart. No more loose shield and no more rubbing cables!
Here's a larger pic of the one in my signature.
You can see, there's plenty of space between the shield and the bars now.
Thank you sir ...pure genius!!!!!
I have 14 inch apes and have always wanted to move the bars forward, but the windscreen is in the way.
I got a big face splat the other day at 65 mph hurt....
Thanks! Yeah, I knew my 'shield wasn't going to bounce or fall off, but it was tipping forward (getting stopped by the passing lights) at stops and when I'd park, so I decided to hit Home Depot on the way home. It was tricky finding 'flat' brackets; most of their brackets were angled, one way or another! I'm sure glad I could do this cheap! I hope it helps you or anyone else looking to keep their windshield on and secure with the apes!
The Road King styling is the big reason that I got a Roady and that iconic windshield is a big part of it. I just didn't want to do without it!
w/ apes need to change the riser bolts every year- Grade 8. I ran 18s years back and had the bolts crack and break a few times due to the extra torque from the higher bars. Something one definitely should not ignore. Rarely see this mentioned on this board for some reason.
Do you get a lot of vibration from those brackets that you made or does it ride like as if it was meant to be there.
It's solid as a rock. With the brackets that short and thick, there's no extra wiggling or bouncing at all. It's one of the very few solutions I created for a problem that actually didn't make 3 other problems for me!
w/ apes need to change the riser bolts every year- Grade 8. I ran 18s years back and had the bolts crack and break a few times due to the extra torque from the higher bars. Something one definitely should not ignore. Rarely see this mentioned on this board for some reason.
Very smart. I have the new bushings, but I was going to just use the existing bolts! Thank you very much for that heads up! Didn't even occur to me! Brilliant!
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New apes, plus a fix to the windshield issue...
(the new sig pic is a shot from yesterday with the new bars and new long stem mirrors)
