No. You shouldn't have to cut anything. As long as you buy "heritage bars" or "heritage / road king" bars
It's an easy install with a good return on your investment. They are better than the stock bars.

 

A year and a half later and still feel like these bars and the back rest have been the 2 best investments of time and money spent on my bike. really really noticeable on those long ride days. Much better than stock for me and very simple to do.

 

Best mod I made to my 2010 King!!

 

I love forums for this exact reason! Thanks for taking the time to post this, it's some excellent info to share and will be a great help in avoiding some potentially expensive mistakes! Cheers!

 

Anyone done an earlier Road King Classic? I have an 04.....the "Heritage bars" are no longer listed as being available from H-D, so wonder what folks are buying for the older bikes?
TIA,

 

bump bump

 

Here's what I went with on my 05 RK Custom

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...k-rk-bars.html

 

Mistake #1: Forgot to internally run cables. $60.00 from Amazon.
Left side view with fairing pulled back bars a tad back breaking line of forks.
Riders view

Complete profile

First of all thank you for your time, patience, and attention to detail in putting this together. I decided to undertake this endeavor with my 2011 Road King. I must say with service manual and your instructions in hand I began this journey. I went with 13” apes in order to have my arms parallel to reduce the stress on my shoulders. I must admit now that it’s finished it enhances the overall profile of the bike as well.

i went with 13” bars because I did not want to buy new cables. I priced the job at my local shop and it was over a $1000 not to mention you had to buy the bars directly from them. So that was enough for me to say hell why did I buy this manual if I’m not gonna use it?

In reading other post I did not finish in a couple hours. This turned out to be an all day next day project. I did snap the tab on the throttle cable you mentioned. I recommend buying the new cable anyway it was $100 and with the money you saved doing it yourself your still coming out ahead. Plus the length of the cable gives you plenty of room to spare if you decide to go bigger in the future.

I made the mistake of not internally threading the cables. To bad I noticed after I put it all back together. With this fatal flaw I had to tear it back down and do it correctly. I recommend you get the part number for the cables and order them from Amazon I got them for $60. The hardest part of this for me was threading the bars. On YouTube it looked easy I had Crisco and shredded pieces of tape everywhere I attribute this to the angle of the bars I ordered.

I say this with much love because redoing it will try you patience and make you drink. When putting your molle pins together label, label, label, and draw a damn diagram believe me it helps I even took pictures. Be gentle when pulling them apart and remember to twist and pull. Save your old ones because you may use them after you break a pin. Yes I broke two.

All in all I I’m happy with the outcome. The ride is different but easy to get use to. I recommend what others have said about finding an open space to practice. In closing thanks again for putting this tutorial together. I consider this a must for anyone whose not a seasoned mechanic to use along with the service manual in doing this. Actually if you just have this it’s better than the manual because of the pictures and the simplicity of the instructions. For me this was a case of beer job because of my own mistakes but very well worth it and proud that I did it myself. A big thank you now I’m ready to break something else.

 

you need to change cables? wanna put those on a 2005 road king

 

I also have a 2011 RK FLHRC and still has the stock bar. Does anyone know the max rise of a bar i can install without needing to extend the cables?