07 RWB bar risers

I have several bikes to choose from whenever I actually get a little time to go for a ride. The other day I looked over in the corner I saw a bike cover and remembered there was a really nice bike under it. My 07 RWB. I haven't ridden it in years for any distance. It only has 5500 miles on it while my V Strom has over 40k. Why don't I ever ride it? So, I stuck a new battery in it and went for a scoot around the neighborhood. Now I know why I never ride it. I'm old. And this bike sucks to ride at slower speeds. I know, a lot of people are going to say I'm just old and crazy. But you'll have to admit there are more comfortable bikes out there. At 70+ MPH it's not too bad. The wind takes a little pressure off of my wrists, forearms and neck. But riding it slowly just plain stinks. So, my question is: What have you done to improve the ergos of your 6th gen? I would like to make this thing something I really want to ride rather than a trophy sitting over in the corner hooked to the battery tender.

 

I know Gen Mar makes a decent set of risers, and they appear to be an easy install. Check out Kev's Shed video of them:



In his recent most videos, he mentions how happy he is with the new riding position.

 

Hi Eddie - a long way back I purchased a 6th Gen after a brief test ride which suggested I would get on fine with it as stock.

How wrong could I be. A few weeks later I set off from London to the French Alps and found the pressure on my wrists was awful so when I got to the Alps I visited a motorcycle dealer who suggested it could be solved by fitting risers which he just happened to have in stock, and kindly agreed to fit them for free. I now wonder how long he had them in stock - but yes they made a bit of a difference but certainly not enough.

So I hit this forum and found numerous recommendations for HeliBars - and yes they are still available on their website for 6th Gen models.

Helibars replace the stock clip ons and move the bar position upward and nearer to you as far as is possible, without having to extend cables etc. This provides a more upright riding position and far less back stress.

Sadly the Helibar installation instructions were on par with IKEA so it took a lot of cussing and beer to get them installed (removing and transferring over the dampers from the old clip ons was the main chore). This video gives an idea of what you are going to have to do. Suffice to say despite the installation chore, the switch to Helibars was night and day better than when it was fitted with just risers, hence my return trip to London was a breeze with bugs on my visor being the only issue.

Given the price difference you may want to first try out risers to see if they are enough for you. But if your wrists are still struggling - sell on the risers and fit Helibars - you and your back will not regret it and you will enjoy a brilliant mile munching machine indeed by the time I traded in my 6th Gen for an 8th Gen it had well over 200,000km and was running perfectly.

So fit Helibars and go out and ride the dust off that machine



Take care ATGATT



SkiMad

 

I have risers on mine and they help but what made the biggest difference for me in around town riding was changing my riding position. If I move my body closer to the tank it makes a huge difference. I can ride the bike all day with just limited issues.

 

I too found the stock bar setup to be uncomfortable, i researched and found Moto Cnc , which were both reasonably priced and very easy to install , i find the difference much more comfortable.

 

Big fan of Moto CNC here, too. I've used his conversion setups several times now.
On my 6th gen, I was able to finagle the cables and hoses pretty far, although not quite as far as a 5th gen bike will permit- there's a mile of extra length built in for the police conversion.
Still, I got my 6th gen working well enough for a 70-year-old with a bad neck using a set of old parts very similar to the Moto CNC setup that I had laying around. I have a separate thread about it here.
I did have to resort to an odd throttle cable routing because Motion Pro is pretty far behind and I needed to relocate the bike to another state for recreational purposes on such-and-such a date. It works, it just looks odd.