Just purchased a 2011 Ultra Limited and the stock bars are not comfortable. Pain in the shoulders and neck after a couple of hours.

I like the height & width of the stock bars and the angle at the grips, but my arms are stretched out straight which is very uncomfortable for me. I like to lean back a little into the backrest with my arms in a bent position for all day comfort.

Basically I want the bars back 2-3 inches. 3 Inches would be ideal. So maybe a pullback bar that is the same height , width and grip angle as the stock bars. Is there such an animal?

Trying to avoid changing any cables or wires also.

Not looking for Apes.

Nothing I hate more than trying to find the best fit by trial and error, not to mention the ridiculous expense in shipping back bars. I have already tried 2 Flanders bars and neither worked. One was 2" rise,3" reach and the other was 3" reach. Almost $$90.00 in return shipping so far.

 

Take a look at the Khrome Werks sweepers.

 

I might be easier to buy a reach seat, it moves you forward!

 

Before you spend any money, simply adjust your current bars! I had the same problem with my bike, but a bit of effort spent moving my bars closer to me also lowered them a little and - voila! Been comfy ever since.

I learned the hard way that an extra pair of hands is useful, as once the clamps are slackened off the bars plus levers etc are quite heavy and will move, all of a sudden! That makes it difficult to be sure where they started from. It took me a few goes to get mine just right, but all it costs is a little time.

Having owned Harleys for many years I commented long ago that whoever assembles the bars on the production line must be a gorilla! The grips routinely seem too far away for my comfort, whatever I ride, but that is easily put right.

 

You need to find out the specs of your current bars. Until you know that, you’re not going to be informed enough to make a decision on new bars. It sounds like your current bars are comfortable except for the fact that you’re having to lean forward too much, which causes pain between your shoulder blades and in your neck. You say the height is perfect, but in reality that may be the culprit.

Look st a set of T-bars. They have no bend to them, they’re perfectly straight. They have no pullback. Imagine you’re sitting on your bike with a set of T-bars. Place your hands on the grips and imagine pulling the grips inward, as if you’re trying to make the ends meet over the middle of the gas tank. The more you pull the ends of the bars towards the center, the more you are increasing pullback. Pullback is basically the angle of the grips as they move off that initial straight line of the T-bars. A bar with 9” of pull back will have a more severe angle than a bar with 6” of pullback.

i mention this because if you’re comfortable with the angle of your wrists with you current bars, you don’t want to change the pullback by very much.

You also need to know the width of your current bars. If you are small in stature or have narrow shoulders, you won’t want a bar that is wider than the current bar.

Finally, if you know the height of your current bar, you can probably go to a bar that is 2” taller without having to swap cables. This becomes riskier if your replacement bar is much wider than the stock bar. My opinion is that you get a bar with the same width and pullback as what you have, but 2” higher. The extra height will allow you to tilt the bar back and bring it closer to you, allowing you to lean back like you want.

My situation is the same as yours. I’m long in the torso and sit high in the saddle. I added 2” taller bars to my Road Glide and tilted them back. It was a huge improvement. I also changed the pullback from the OEM bars to have less severe of a wrist angle.

So find out the specs of your current bars and go from there.

 

I went with the KW +2 sweepers on my 08 ultra when I had it. They were the most comfortable bars I ever had and a decent price to boot. Didn’t need to extend any wires, just got a 38649-08A clutch cable for about $30 from HD. I think you’d be happy with them.

 

I also experienced the same problem with the 8" stock handlebars being too far forward on my Ultra. I tried moving them back a couple of inches but they were still too far forward and too low and uncomfortable after a couple of hours. I wanted to keep the stock look so I replaced them with Paul Yaffe 10" Classic Apes. The stock throttle and clutch cables and brake lines would not reach and I replaced the throttle cables with +4" Hill Country cables, the brake line with a Magnum +4", and a Diamondblack +4" clutch cable. (I used the longer cables just in case I decided to go higher with the apes in the future). The wiring length was sufficient for the 10" and maybe even for the 12" but I am not sure they will work with higher bars.

The reach is much better and the look is still stock like I was going for, but I think the 12" would have been a little more comfortable.

 

A drivers backrest is worth its weight in gold also. I had the same issue on my RK, once I added the backrest I had no more shoulder nerve issues. Good luck!