Spiegler bars on a 5th gen

I recently purchased a 2001 VFR, a bike I had been lusting after for some time. However shortly after the purchase, and having completed a short ride, I realized that the bars were much too low for my liking.
I researched around and found a few differant solutions.
Gen-mar bar risers- cheap but not enough rise
Heli-bars- better rise but not adjustable
Converti-bars- adjustable but too much money
LSL Handlebar risers (from Spiegler)- about the same price as Heli-bars but offer potential adjustability.
So I went ahead and purchased the LSL kit from Spiegler the U.S. importer.
The kit includes two clamps that replace the stock clip-ons and a low rise Superbike style aluminum bar.

The kit comes with an instruction sheet that starts off with telling you to take the bike to a mechanic to do the job, I did not and found the install to be relativly easy.
I will give a quick overview of my installation here, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
First, you will remove your controls making sure you do not tip the clutch and brake master cylinders. I taped them to the mirrors and fairing.
Next loosen off the pinch clamp bolts that hold your clip-ons to the top of the fork tubes.
The brakeline, clutchline and throttle cable will need to be rerouted from the front of the fork tube to the back. You will need to remove the top of the triple clamp to accomplish this. You need a 32 MM socket to do this. Once the nut was removed and the TOP pinch bolts loosened the clamp lifted off easily. I experimented with this step several ways and ended up installing and removing the triple clamp about four times until I was happy with the routing of the lines. The brake and clutch were plenty long enough, but the throttle cables are JUST long enough.
Next you will mount the new clamps to the top of the fork tube. They clamp on in the same fashion as the stock clip-ons. Do not tighten yet, just make them slightly snug.
Here you can see one clamp installed-

The throttle slide should be placed on the new bar now, as you will not be able to place it after the bar is mounted.
You can now drop the supplied bar in place on the new clamps. Now you will see why you did not tighten the clamps. As you place the bars down the clamps can rotate slightly to allow the new bars to seat correctly. Place the supplied bar clamps on top of the bars and slightly tighten them. You can now go ahead and tighten the pinch bolts holding the clamp to the fork tube. No torque specs were provided.
At this point you will need to play around with the location of the bar as it can rotate within the assembly. You need to check clearance from the clutch and brake master cylinder to the fairing and windscreen by holding them roughly in place with the steering moved from one side stop to the other. The placement of the clutch and brake control is not critical as you can adjust it later. However the throttle control and turn signal control have a pin which requires you to drill a hole in the bar for correct placement. Again
you do have some play so don't obsess about it. I got my bars roughly in the place I wanted them marked where the controls needed to be with a pencil.
Drilling a hole in a round bar can be tough but I found a method to make it work. After locating where the holes needed to be and marking them I used the drill with the drillbit side to flatten the spot where the hole was needed. I could then have a flat surface in which to start drilling the hole. I know there is probably a tool out there to accomplish this, I just don't own it. A file would accomplish the same affect.
Anyways you're almost down now, just replace the controls on the bars.
Now you can do some final tweaks of the bar to find what you feel is the best position for you. Then tighten every bolt up.
This whole process took me about four hours including a meal break and a couple beers. It was actually quite straight forward.
The parts supplied are of a very high quality and look almost original after they are installed. I think the bar supplied with its brushed aluminum finish matches the bike as well. The barends will not install in the new bar but to be honest I don't think they are a necesisity anyways.
I have now had a chance to spend a couple days riding the bike to work. I feel the new riding position compliments my riding style. There is much less pressure on my hands, wrists and neck. I ended up with the bars about 2" closer to me and about 2 1/2" taller. Doesn't sound like much but it is a huge difference.
Here you can see the stock clip-ons from the side-

and the new bar-

Stock from the back-

and new bar-

The (kinda) finished product. I still need to trim the bar and get new grips.

 

Hey mailman,

Mucho thanks for this write up. I realize you did this nearly 4 years ago. But it sure helped me out. There's not much I can add to your experience except that there was absolutely no way the throttle cables were long enough. I must have routed them four different ways and all of them came up short. Literally.

I started looking at getting some longer throttle cables made up by Motion Pro. Fortunately another member here with a yellow 5th gen showed how he routed his cables under the tank and behind the top triple. I did that and it worked like a charm.

I'm 6'2" and the LSL bars make my 2001 significantly more comfortable. I also added 1" lower pegs from Knight and that helped a lot, too. It now feels about like it has roughly the same ergos as the current models FZ1, Ninja 1000, CB1000, etc. I'm very glad I made these changes.

 

It is still true. I was about to order some from them when I saw the post where another 5th gen owner rerouted the stock throttle cables under the tank. I did that first and it did the trick.

 

I made up my own Spiegler kind of setup and re-ran stock lines. Worked out fine.

Jose