Custom Handlebar conversion

Custom Spiegler style Handlebar conversion

Ok, so I bought my bike with a Gen-Mar handlebar riser kit installed. I know that for some people that works well, but I am about 2-3 inches wider in the shoulders than most people and am also long in the torso. As a result, the angle of my wrists is sharper than most people and the stock bars feel narrower. Nobody makes wider clipons for our bikes and Helibar conversions are $300. The Spiegler handlebar conversion gets GREAT write ups and seems to be the Cadillac of bar conversions, but they are price like it at close to $500 for the kit to fit my Gen 5. As I was going through parts that I had collected for a CB750F cafe conversion, I realized that I could put together a very low cost option if I was willing to be creative and put in some work.

This is what I came up with.

My Gen 5 has 41mm fork tubes. So does a 1993 CBR 600 F3, but the fork is narrower than our bikes. My solution was to buy an F3 top triple and cut it in half. I trimmed off the unneeded casting bits and and purchased a simple set of 7/8" handlebar clamps off ebay for $20. I figured out where to put the bolt holes by measuring the width of the clamps on the bar, mounting up the triple halves and measuring on center. In hindsight, a better way would have been to put the triple halves on upside down and make holes where there would be no interference issues. As you can see, I had to do some extra trimming because I DIDN'T have them upside down and the bolt holes were too close to the strengthening ribs of the casting.

The bolts that came with the handlebar clamps were too long, so I had to go to the hardware store and buy some shorter bolts. I used my benchtop disk sander to drind down the bolt head diameter and index it.

 

Custom Superbike Handlebar conversion

I wanted to try out a medium rise Superbar firts and as it turned out, I had one in my spare parts bins. Once the triple had been modified, I had to figure out the fit with the existing controls. I realized that it would be possible to use all the stock pieces if I re-routed the throttle cable, clutch cable and control wiring.

The throttle cables had to go under the tank. I disconnected them from the throttle bodies and a quick test fit proved it would work out fine.







The stock routing for the wiring of the controls is between the fork leg and stem. You must pull the controls back through and route around the outside of the fork legs. It took some fiddling, but I was able to pull both sides through the space between the fork legs and stem.





The brake hose has to be freed from the rubber cushioned clamps, but I didn't like the little bit of tension at full extension of the forks. I had some stainless braided lines, but they were pretty long. I was able to get them routed in a way that works for now, but I will buy some shorter lines so that everything fits just right. The clutch hose just needed re-routing.




The last thing to do was re-use a trick I figured out to install my favorite grips. I have long fingers, so 1" grips fit my hands better, but they won't work nice on our 7/8" bars. The solution is to use the clutch side grip on the throttle and use some SUPER sticky, real duct tape to build up the clutch side. It took 12 layers in three steps. The end piece I wrapped and trimmed the excess with a razor.

 

Once I had the new brake hoses fitted, the clamps mounted, the bars mounted and all wires/hoses routed, I had to re-attach the controls. I foolishly tried to pull the indexing pin on the throttle side to try something different and damaged it. So I had to grind it flat fabricate a bracket to keep the throttle side controls from spinning. For the clutch side I just drilled a hole for the existing pin. Once it was all said and done, it turned out AWESOME and all the necessary parts cost me less than $100. The most expensive parts in my conversion were the $40 worth of stainless brake lines I bought a couple of years ago. I also bought a $15 mount/case for my smartphone. The plastic allows you to touch control the screen so it is fully functional. I re-used some old wiring that the PO installed to run a radar detector and re-used an old micro-usb 12V car charger I had laying around.



I have higher res. pics for anyone with a more inquiring mind.

The total parts list and cost are below.

Used 1993 CBR600 F3 top triple - $30 shipped
New 7/8" bar clamps with flat bottoms - $30 shipped
New bolts for bar clamps - $2

All stock hoses and controls are re-used. - FREE!!!!!!

The ONE issue I have left is about contact against the windshield. Because I chose to put on a throttle lock, I have to be careful about where everything is rotated/indexed. If you look at the pictures you see that that the controls don't touch the tank. However, at full left lock, the kill switch will hit the windshield and kill the bike. DOH!. I will live with the whole setup and see if I want to rotate the bars a bit. If they actually sit right where I want them, then I will grind a little index mark in the windshield so that the switch isn't tripped.

Jose

 

Dahorse.........:hail::hail::hi2::thumbsup: great job nice write up.
Cannot see pictures on the last post.

 

Ok, Scuba. Fixed the images.

 

drilling the stock triple is the way that most go about this. interesting, although somewhat puzzling, approach.




.

 

I saw much about drilling the stock triples, but that requires you to take apart the top of the forks and now you have two (or four) holes in your stock triple. I didn't want to alter or drill holes in the stock parts.

This approach gets me the best of all worlds. Wider bars, slightly higher rise from the thickness of the triple, easily changes back to stock and it doesn't cost me huge sums of money.

I also wanted some adjustment capability, so I can loosen the parts and move the bar centerline forward/rearward from the stem centerline. I can experiment with small changes in position until it's exactly where I want it. I might choose to weld it all together once adjusted.

Jose

 

I made some adjustments and changed how the throttle lock is held in place. One hole and a piece of heavy gauge wire is all it took.





Now the kill switch doesn't trip at full left lock and the lock doesn't risk hitting the tank.



The new setup feels WAY better, but wowzers it's different. It feels like a totally different bike. My initial thoughts are that I might want to change to a slightly narrower bar, but the angle and rise is just right. It'll be interesting to get it on my local mountain roads and see how different it feels now.


Jose

 

I have a buddy who is an orthopedic surgeon who could have fit you to the bike for just a few bucks more.

 

Hose,

Thanks for the pics and the write up. Your throttle cable reroute saved me from buying longer cables. I considered doing my handlebar conversion by drilling the top triple the way you did, but ultimately the very nice machining of the LSL kit won out. It was a little spendy, but it looks really good.

 

Nice! I think the LSL kit looks great, I just like doing things on my own.

Saving $400 doesn't hurt either.

Jose

 

I have a small update for this thread. Another 5th gen. owner asked about this homebrew conversion, and I realized that since the first write up, I have replaced the cut triple. I ended up not moving things much, so I sourced a triple from a scrapped 5th gen., and drilled it to accept the mounts. I also changed my throttle cables out for a set from an ST1100. The new triple looks totally stock ... because it is.

Superbarmount by DaHose posted Oct 17, 2019 at 10:01 AM

I just can't bring myself to spend the cash for the LSL, because my setup looks ok, and works great.

Jose