I was wondering how high can I go with my 01 RK without changing cables. While talking with somebody with taller bars he was telling me 12”, I find that hard to believe. What has me thinking of taller bars is I had seen posts where people claiming the put you into a much mor comfortable position.

 

General rule is 14".... but that has a lot to due with the bike and how you re-route them.

 

This 💯

 

Has anyone ever raised their bars and regretted doing it?

 

not possible!

To the original post. 12-14in sounds about right for a bike with no faring. My 08 ultra could never have gone 14” with stock length controls, maybe 12 which didn’t look or feel much different from stock for my riding position. Dont be intimidated by a bar swap. If you get the bars pre-wired its really not that bad of a job and then your wires will be internally routed which look 100x better. Wiring the bars is the worst part. Hill country Custom Cycles does pre-wired bars that are fantastic. Plug and play. Did mine in a couple hours.

 

It’s an 01 RK with no fairing. Depending on how these are measured but mine look to be about 10” so I would need 14”. By the looks of it I would need cables. I actually started thinking about them again because I would like to change out my old clutch cable. I’m not sure about the wiring.

 

I’m definitely in the minority around here, I put 12’s on my Electra glide but feel like I would have been happier with 10’s. I find my hands start to lose blood flow after 30-45 minutes. They’re still better than stock, though.

i didn’t need to extend the wires but I think I would have with 14’s. There wasn’t much extra left. I replaced all the stock cables with stainless so I can’t help there.

 

Extending the wiring and routing the harness inside a set of handlebars is not a difficult job, and one easily accomplished by a typical owner. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials and tips on extending your bike's handlebar wiring. Taking on all of these little jobs are how we learn and build a set of skills that will eventually allow us to do most, if not all, of the work on our bikes.

Pick the bars that fit you the best (and have the appearance you want), then figure out what you need to do with the wiring and control cables to install them correctly. Having said that, you can probably go to 12" bars without doing any re-wiring. 13's or 14s may or may not fit, depending on amount of pullback, and your preferred handgrip location. You likely cannot install 13s or 14s with internal wiring without extending the wiring harness. Not all 13" bars have the same wiring requirements.

 

I am kind of concerned about the blood flow issue on high handle bars myself.

 

This should be a one time job. Pick the bars you want and get the cables/wires necessary. Don't be that guy.