Agree with Buckinfitch. Wrist angle was totally wrong for me. i went with one of the Wild1 pullback bars & they are perfect for me.

 

I'm on my third set of handle bars, Stock, Heritage Style and now the Wildones 12.5 Apes.

The stock handle bars were bad, The Heritage were an improvement. The good thing about the heritages were they were cheap and did not require cable or wiring changes. The bad thing is the wrist angle sucked. There to narrow causing a pain between the shoulder blades.

After a lot of measurements and research I ended up with the Wildones 12.5 apes. They did require the wiring to be extended new +6 clutch cable and +6 Brake line (Non- ABS)

The handle bars are now about 95% Perfect, After riding with these for two years I feel the 14 inch apes would have been the 100% choice.

The easiest (simplest) way to figure out what you need is to block the bike up so you can sit on it in your normal riding position. Sit on it put your feet and *** were you normally ride. Close you eyes and put you hands out to where they feel most comfortable, the open your eyes and see were your hands are in relation to your existing handle bars and note the difference.

The first thing your going to notice is your hands are going 4 to 6 inches above you stock handle bars and more than likely your grip is going to be wider, somewhere around 30 to 34 inches.

One other thing to note, not all handle bar manufactures measure the handle bars the same way. So you have to measure you handle bars the same way they measure theirs to get the actual difference.

One final note, The handle bars should be the last modification to your comfort. You want to get the lower half of your body were it comfortable. Feet and seat before you do the handle bars. If you change the feet and seat after you change the handlebar they my not be in the right position after the change.

 

Thanks guys for posting your oics and comments. I'm still undecided on which way to go. I want 16 inch apes but don't know if I'll like them after riding with them. I've tested them and liked them but just short trips. The heritage bars I am looking at are the ones harley sells if that helps. Thanks again

 

They are comfortable, but FUGLY. They look like the came off of a Stingray bicycle.

 

Texas rapier love the look of your bars on my bike.
Can I buy all extensions and can I do it or is it a dealer job?
About how much will it cost me to go your route?
Do you have cruise?
Hap

 

I just installed Khromewerks fat 14" apes(300326) on my 12 Rk to replace the the crappy H style bars . Just about perfect for my almost 6ft frame.i may install a pair of FLD risers ,that will move the bars an inch back and an inch higher.

 

I have had the Heritage bars on both Road Kings I have owned, they might not be the best loking bars to some people but for me they were and are very comfortable, enough for multiple 1000 mile days and multi day long trips. I had to pull them back closer to me to become comfortable. FWIW i am 6'2" have a 33" inseam and 77" wide arm span. I could give half a crap what anyone thinks they look like, they are comfortable to me and that is all I care about. Function over form almost always. I guess that is why my bike never gets compliments or second looks. The veiw from the saddle is awesome though.

 

Texas Rapier, what are those extended footrests you have hooked onto your crash bars? Are they more adjustable than the "normal" bolt-ups that hook right on the bars?

Thanks

 

The Short answer is yes you can do it yourself. Somewhere on the forum I did a write up of doing the job. It took the better part of an 8 hour day for me to do the job. But that was not working at it constantly.

The biggest part of the job is the wiring. This is due to having to take the plugs off the ends of all the handle bar wiring harness. Lot of pictured and drawing and good diagram of where all the colors go into the harness plugs. The next trick is getting all the wire through the handle bars. once the wiring is through all the handle bars you have to put the harness plugs back on.

The next task is the clutch cable. the manual state to remove the exhaust. But I did t with just loosening the heat shield. You going to loose some oil. but not a hard job.

The front brake lines are not hard. BUT, Mine is a non-ABS bike. If you have ABS Brakes a trip to the dealer may be required to have them bleed the brakes.

Cost Is a different story. I think most dealers charge between 4 to 6 hours for the job. So if you do it yourself your 4 to 6 hundred dollars ahead.

I picked up my bars 2nd hand for 100.00 (Like New) extension wire about $50.00, Don't Skimp Here. I also got the Stainless Steel clear coated clutch and brake lines, expensive. Black line are cheaper.

Parts wise your going to be between $500.00 and $700.00 Dollars

This is not a cheap job so make sure you have the right bars picked. You don't want to do this job twice.

Speaking of doing it twice, I will probably be doing the job again this winter. I want to add the radio control switch to the controls. I have the switches but I basically have to do the same work as replacing the handle bars to install the switches and run the wires. I may consider going to the 14 inch apes then.

The foot peg mounts are called the long angle mount and are a HD product. There also what are called the short angle, you guessed there shorter. I like them better than the dual knuckle style, they seem to fit tighter to the bike and work with the fairing lower where the knuckle style don't.

 

For my ABS bike, I bought a banjo bolt with a bleeder in it to use where the front line attaches to the ABS module. You can bleed the new front line without having to try to bleed through the ABS module to the front caliper. By not introducing air into the ABS module you don't have to take it to the dealer to be bled by their computer.