Renthal - do I need the brace?

[fridge]

Looking at narrowing my bars so the bike will fit through the front door!

Thinking I might get some new bars as there's not much to play with if I just cut the Honda bars down. Read various threads extolling the virtues of Renthal bars but the most suitable sizes look like their road bars.

The road bars don't have the cross brace although according to their site are made of the same material. Obviously the cross brace bars look more gnarly but for someone who's more Derbyshire than Dakar are they necessary, especially as I guess Renthal bars are pretty strong??

Ta

[Lord Vader]

Looking at narrowing my bars so the bike will fit through the front door!

Ta

Not sure about your question but what a brilliant opening line
I try to tell my wife something like this i would be dead mid sentence

[fridge]

I think my girlfriend thought I was joking when I first suggested it, she's not so sure it's funny now!

[faantjie]

I think it is essential to fit the cross bar.
This way you have a cool pair of handle bars to look at when you're sleeping in the same room as your bike.

[harrisphil]

Hi Fridge
you don't need the cross brace unless you are regularly going off road doing BIG air and dropping the bike
Also in my opinion adding the cross brace makes the bars too stiff so they don't absorb vibrations quite as well
but the cross brace looks cool and acts as a good mounting point

Its style over function both are right

If you are after narrower bars have a look at some that are designed for Youth motorcross bikes
A good off road bike shop will have lots in stock all different heights widths and bends and may let you trial fit them on your bike.

the angle of the final bend effects the angle of your wrists when sat on the bike
get one that is right for you it makes a big difference

[fridge]

harrisphil,

Did wonder about the vibration damping effect of not having a brace. Will pop into the local mx place at the weekend and check out their selection; good idea. Difficult to choose a bar from the many Renthal versions without actually seeing/feeling one.

Cheers

[harrisphil]

Hi Fridge
glad to be of some help

let us know which bars you end up with size /spec
and how they compare with original

Also any problems you find with the clearance on full lock with the tank or fairing?

[sproggy]

Did wonder about the vibration damping effect of not having a brace.

I have Renthal 'Dakar Medium' bars on mine, with a cross brace and without any bar end weights. No problems with vibration at all, either on a motorway run or in mixed riding.

These bars aren't narrower than the standard one (possibly a bit wider, actually) but they're far more comfortable through being pulled back less - they give a more natural wrist angle. There is potential for them to be cut down by a couple of inches (?) either end and still have room to mount the controls.

Also any problems you find with the clearance on full lock with the tank or fairing?

My switchgear does just touch the tank but not enough to restrict lock significantly. I'm not sure what the MoT will say about it, though.... Bar risers would solve this (the bars are low by design because I'm short and prefer a slightly leant forward riding position) as would using the 'Dakar High' bend instead.

[fridge]

These bars aren't narrower than the standard one (possibly a bit wider, actually) but they're far more comfortable through being pulled back less - they give a more natural wrist angle. There is potential for them to be cut down by a couple of inches (?) either end and still have room to mount the controls.

Sproggy, if you cut the bars down so that the controls were as far in as possible how wide do you think they would end up?

[sproggy]

Having waved a tape measure over the bike I reckon you could get them down to 770mm (there's not actually scope to take 2 inches off each end) - this compared to 720mm for the standard bars. The standard ones are that much narrower because they're pulled back so far.

My front door opening is about 760mm - you could get a bike with 770mm bars through there with a bit of wiggling (one bar end at a time) but I wouldn't want to have to do it regularly for the sake of the door frame.....

If you look here http://www.renthal.com/application_result.asp?type=29 you'll find some bars that come up a fair bit narrower, but check that the grip width is going to be wide enough for all the controls - some of the little bikes don't have much in the way of switchgear and don't have mirrors either.