[dazco]

Finally got the risers on. Don't buy them ! They are for 7/8" bars, not 1" as they say they are. This has been a frigging nightmare. And to top it off the brake hose is tight and i'm not even sure i like the height and pullback over the stock ones. The bolts were too long, i had to drill the clamp to 1/2", and there are marks on the triple clamp from the stock riser's base that show because the new ones are smaller at the base. I was able to tighten the top clamps to make them work. The clamps force themselves to conform to the 1" but then when i loosened them to move the bars a bit more to my liking i realized the bars are forced so tight i had to pound on the bars with a rubber sledge about 30 times to break the bars loose.

What a friggin nightmare ! I'm about ready to become a full time cager. The ***** i went thru for the last 2 months was enough to last me forever, now more?! F'ing bullS.......

I just hope no one saw my initial post on them and bought some !

 

[tba-golfer]

No... like an idiot I bought the one's from Brent!

:-D

Couldn't resist!

Get this man a Corona, stat!

[ This message was edited by: tba-golfer on 2006-12-07 15:11 ]

 

[dazco]

Yes, but on a serious note, and i've said it before, i don't like those risers. And to me 1/2 the reason was looks. They do look great tho, and If i could rdill the holes for the bars out another 1/32 or whatever it takes they be ok. But i don't think that would be easy w/o a drill press and a bit inbetween 1" and 7/16" which i don't think they make or at least would be hard to find and expensive. The only thing i can't see a solution to is the brake line aside from getiing a longer one. I don't understand how these guys with 6" risers get away with it. Mine are only 5.5". I do like the pullback and height, but i feel as tho theres not as much control of the bike as with the stockers. Time will tell and hopefull i'll be ok with that and figure out all the little issues. But geez, i'm so burned on ISSUES!

 

[mag10]

Daz, I been following your tribulations with the risers and have (IHMO) a nice design that will fit the speedmaster. 5.5 rise .5 pull back. I expect to make some up this winter and will post a pix as soon as they are done. If there is interest I could make more.

the spacers that i have under the risers now is close to feeling right, but I think the slight pull back will do the trick.

BTW if you do try to drill out your risers you should verify that the hole is round first. It is most likely a flatted hole (so it clamps) if you clamp some shims between the 2 halves you can make it round again, then drill - carefully !

 

[dazco]

I don't wanna drill it. I'm afraid i'll screw em up. What i may do is see if i can find a drum sander for my drill like those that work with a dreme. I'ce has one before thats about an inch. So if i can find one i may try to carefull remove an even amount all around, and if i can find on slightly smaller than the hole i should be able to do it w/o going badly out of round. i only need to take of enough so the bars don't stick when i unclamp them. I may even be able to use a dremel drum and remove some from the inside w/o touching the edges so the edges will still be round and conform to the bar shape as they do now, but the inside wouldn't be too tight. Then i also have to polish them better. i got some blue magic which seems to work much better than mothers aluminum polish. But i'll probably have to sand them again first using an even finer grade. 2000 should do it. I really liked the feel today after i got used to it. but i'm a bit worried about the riding position because my back was hurting a bit, and that rarely happens. Hopefully it was just coincidence. If not i may eventually have to go back to stock. Funny, i thought it would be just the opposite.

 

[Silverado57]

Sorry to hear that Daz. I've been considering risers lately so thanks for eliminating those. :hammer:

 

[dazco]

yeah, and it's too bad cuz they look great and feel great. But the amount of work i'm going thru is just too much. I'll be glad i did it once everything is sorted, but had i know what i'd have to go thru i would have passed.

sand an polish

grind the tops down to rid the logo dimple then sand and ploish
drill the clamp

find the right bolt length or add spacers under the bolt head as i did

ream out the bar clamps bigger to easily accept 1" bars

A LOT of work. But they do look awesome. And if i hadn't gone wth them there was nothing else i found that i liked in 35 pages of google searching. Nothing is ever easy lately, which is wierd because up to a year and a 1/2 of ownership everything went so smoothly ! Soon as i got those tires all he|| broke loose and it's been a nightmare ever since.

 

[glazer]

If you were able to clamp them down on the bars then they are made for 1" bars, NOT 7/8" bars... they are tight for a reason. You would not be able to clamp them down tight at all if they are made for 7/8" bars without having a HUGE gap between the two halves and if indeed they did "flex" enough that you could fit them then you are dealing with some really cheesy material and/or they are stressed to the point that they run the risk of fracturing.

 

[dazco]

No, they're for 7/8. After clamping them down as hard as i can there is still gaps between the clamps and the bars and between the clamps and risers. Thats not right. And as i said, i can take the clamps off, which by the way has to be done by PRYING them off after screw removal because they're so tight, then pounding on the bars to loosen them from the risers. I mean literally pounding them as hard as i can 20 or 30 times with a 2 Lb rubber sledge. and thats with the clamps OFF. you think thats normal?! Nope, these are definatly not for 1" bars.

 

[Silverado57]

Daz, can you post some pics when you get a chance?
Especially the ones of you with the hammer. :-D

 

[dazco]

I don't know if you were serious about posting pics or if that was part of the humor, but theres not much reason to since no one's gonna want these with all the work it takes.

 

[rwright]

daz,
What risers are you talking about?

 

[dazco]

The ones in the pic in this thread. They look awesome actually. The more i ride it and look at it the more i'm likling them even tho i had to go thru a lot of $hit to get em on.

 

[neves7]

Hey Daz,

did you need to re-route any cables? please post some pics, i dont care about the risers you bought, i am more interested in the new riding position, where the bars are located in relation to the tank. this would be super helpful. thanks

Andy

 

[dazco]

Ok, i'll try and post some tonite after work. And no, i didn't have to re-route anything but as i said the brake line is a bit worrysome. It's fine normally. But if you pull up on the bars and lift the front end to extend the forks to thier max it's sorta tight. No a probelm during normal riding, but it worries me that if i ride over a bump or thru a dip the forks may extend fully and eventually cause it to go bad. During normal riding or just sitting there to it's fine. It may be fine but i'll just have to see how it goes and check it out more critically. I was however suprised to find i didn't have to re-route the throttle cables to keep it from revving when the bars are turned full right. What suprises me is that those like Sal who used 6" risers (mine are 5.5") say they had no problem. I think for me that would have been too much for sure since it's so close now.

 

[dazco]

Ok, i'll try and post some tonite after work. And no, i didn't have to re-route anything but as i said the brake line is a bit worrysome. It's fine normally. But if you pull up on the bars and lift the front end to extend the forks to thier max it's sorta tight. No a probelm during normal riding, but it worries me that if i ride over a bump or thru a dip the forks may extend fully and eventually cause it to go bad. During normal riding or just sitting there to it's fine. It may be fine but i'll just have to see how it goes and check it out more critically. I was however suprised to find i didn't have to re-route the throttle cables to keep it from revving when the bars are turned full right. What suprises me is that those like Sal who used 6" risers (mine are 5.5") say they had no problem. I think for me that would have been too much for sure since it's so close now.

 

[Matrix04]

Daz...sorry to hear that your new risers were so much trouble. I was waiting to see them on your bike before I ordered them for mine. Now I'm not sure what I'll get as I didn't want to drill the triple to 1/2 inch bolts for "Deuce" risers. I guess I'll keep looking (and waiting) until someone comes out with direct replacements for the SM! Still looking forward to seeing them on your ride.

 

[dazco]

To be honest, drilling the holes in the clamp to 1/2" is easy as pie and takes about 10 seconds each and is reversable by using sleeves over the smaller bolts if you wanted to go back to stock. After this i wouldn't hesitate to buy risers that require that. I felt you and was disappointed to find i had to drill. But that was the very least of the issues and really not an issue at all. But if you DO get the deuce rizers, realize that unless you somehow get a set without the extended part on the bottom which they all seem to have, you'll have to grind those off. Sal got lucky somehow and got some w/o those. But every set i've seen has them and even the auction sal got his from show them in the pic.

Seems no matter what risers you get you gotta do something.

 

[dazco]

Here ya go Andy.....

By the way, i'm getting used to them and i'm finding it's the rise that i really like. the pullback is ok, but i'm not sure if i need it or not. Maybe, maybe not. Hard to say. But the rise is definatly what i think i like best about them. i think if i had my choice a 7-8" riser with no pullback would probably be what i'd like best. But i can't say for sure. what i can tell you is these are 5.5" with about 1.5 of pullback and they really feel great. At first i was a bit worried because it was so different that i was unsure whether i'd get used to them and like them more than stock. I can now say i like them more w/o a doubt. Plus on a side note, i'm really happy with them now. it was some work but now they look awesome and after a bit of dremel sanding in the clamp pockets and some correct length screws they fit fine and even clamp the bars w/o those big gaps i mentioned. i could never recommend them w/o prefacing it with a description of the work i had to do. But now that i have i feel they're the best speedmaster risers i coulda bought for looks.

[ This message was edited by: dazco on 2006-12-10 00:29 ]

 

[crockabull]

dazco... Murder is again the law an I dun want to spend any time in one of your fine left coast penile institutions. Therefore I will sentence you to riding a stock '57 900 FRX for an entire southern California riding season. Since SoCal has a never ending season for riding that should suffice. You can keep the Speedy in one of those Harley air bubbles so that you can admire it while you are breaking your knees kicking the FRX over endlessly until you succumb to heart failure due to hyperventilation.

I would not worry about the brake line too much. I put 9" buckhorn bars on the America and the line was a bit on the taunt side. I had the same worry as you but after 12000 miles the line has not cracked or leaked. Whenever it does I will just have another made up.Sometimes, something worth having takes a lot of hassel and work. Congratulations! Maybe you would not do it if you had to do it all over again; Because you did go to all the trouble, you can now have a bit of pride in a job well done!