Hacked Handles | Narrowing Wide-Gliding Apehangers
01. To get started Anthony took some measurements of the width of the forks, the bars, as well as the outer width between the risers. This will give him the parameters in which to work within.
01. To get started Anthony took some measurements of the width of the forks, the bars, as well as the outer width between the risers. This will give him the parameters in which to work within.
02. Anthony made a mark in the center of the bars, then added the amount of how much he was going to remove from the center of the bars squarely on each side of the center mark. It was almost four inches.
03. Over at the the band saw Anthony got busy cutting the center section out of the bars.
04. Each side of the handlebar was then cleaned up and prepped for welding.
05. Once the center was cut away, Anthony made a simple slug that slid into the center of the cut bars to secure both sides squarely to each other.
06. Each side of the narrowed handlebar was tacked into place and allowed to cool, then checked for proper alignment.
07. The bars checked out to be arrow-straight, so Anthony finish welded them.
08. He then removed the excess welds and smoothed the joints out with an air sander.
09. This is how they look bolted up to the bike. As you can see they lined up with the width of the fork perfectly.
One thing that bugs us more than anything is the lack of symmetry when customizing or building bikes. Things have to flow right, or it looks goofy and nobody wants a lame looking ride after they have spent time and money to make it stand out.
Such was the case with our pal’s Sporty. He wanted to get a set of ape hangers on his bike, but was only obsessed with the high-rise semantics and having it match the profile of his forks was never a concern. That was until we said something to him about having the bars sticking out past his fork tubes, which is a big pet peeve of ours.
After talks of buying new bars and the cost involved, we suggested yanking them off and sectioning the width down a bit to match the narrow glide fork. He was into it so we headed over to see Anthony of Chassis Design Co to show how you could do this yourself. HB
The Lowdown
Man Hours: 1
Difficulty: Moderate
Aftermarket Parts Used: None
Total Cost: $0
Source:
Chassis Design
(909) 982-6905 | chassisdesigncompany.net
**HTP Welders **
(800) 872-9353 | htpweld.com
