LSL Flat Bars (XD2 Drag Fat Bars)

Ok so I fitted my LSL bars and so thought I'd write something up for those wanting to do the same.

Firstly you'll want to know where to get them, they don't seem to be available in the uk so you're probably going to order them from here

EDIT: If anybody wants silver bars let me know as I originally wanted black so maybe we can do a deal on you ordering black and swapping for my silver bars for a small cash incentive from me to you.

Also the link below are apparently not stocking them anymore but Big Ash has posted another link below where he has ordered his from.

https://www.polo-motorrad.de/en/drag-fa ... 75524.html

Ok, so the most important thing about all of this for me was getting the width right, I wanted the exact same width as the std bars as I have limited space to run my bike down the side of my house and didn't want to reduce the leverage I have on the bike which helps us to chuck these bikes around so much.

So after careful measuring of the std bars, centreline to centreline and laying it up on the new bars I worked out that you need to cut 47.5 mm off of each side to get the same width as std.

To cut the bars to size I used a pipe cutter like this one although mine was not in the best condition and so it took a while longer than expected, the 2nd side was easier, I just kept winding up the pipe cutter to keep it really tight and held onto the bar with my foot on top of an outdoor table while i did it, a vice and something to protect the bar from marking would of course have been easier though if you have them, alternatively you could mount the bars in the risers to hold em while you cut em down but I didn't think of this till after, doh!

Once I cut em down to size I unbolted the headlight cowl and dropped it forward to give the cables room to move.

I then took the left hand grip off of the std bars by just peeling it back and fitted it to the new bar, in hindsight I should have used something to stick it with as it was moving at cadwell recently.

I loosened all the bolts on the hardware (levers, controls, etc) so they were holding but only finger tight and unbolted the std bars from the risers and rested them on the headlight cowl so all the fluids stayed mostly upright.

I didn't want to have to mess around with the adjustment on my throttle to remove it so I slid all the left hand controls as close to the centre of the std bars as I could to give me enough slack to slide the throttle off with cables still attached and then slid it on the new bar before bolting it into the risers, if you don't have enough slack you might need to remove the left controls completely. Once bars are mounted In order to still have the throttle cables pointing downwards in the normal fashion, you'll need to route the cables underneath the headlight cowl bolt point on the triple clamp so that they come out between the mask and fork instead of over the top of the fork otherwise it is too kinked to keep things nice and smooth, alternatively you could rotate the throttle so they point upwards and still go down through the top of the cowl like mac boarder did but I didn't like this look.



Once in the risers there are some vertical lines to aid with centering the bars, the inside edge of each riser should be virtually clamping on to the 4th line on each side so you'll have 3 lines definitely showing on each side between the risers and the 4th barely distinguishable under the riser.

For 0 degree of tilt, you need to line up the 0 horizontal line with the uppermost bend of the riser, ie; as you work back from the front bolt there is a clear line where the angle of the riser clamp changes, I don't know how you line up on the newer SDR clamp though, I finger tightened the pinch bolts to do this so it didn't move too quickly and could be tightened a little more once set to hold it in place




Bolt the bars in evenly into the clamps by doing each bolt up a little at a time until tight and making sure the risers have a matching gap on either side when you start.

Now you need to transfer the rest of the controls from the std bar to the new bar.

To be continued, got an appt in 10 minutes

Ok, so now you've got the left grip on and the throttle is on, first thing is to stick your bar end on the throttle side and make sure your throttle grip is lined up correctly so the rubber doesn't rub on it and hold the throttle open, now you can line up the other controls next to it, I didn't want to faff about with drilling holes as I wanted to move the levers further round than they were anyway to make the pull more ergonomically correct and to do that you also need to rotate the button housing so I did the tried and tested method of chopping off the plastic nubbin on the inside of the button housing and sticking some electrical tape round the bar.

I initially chopped away as much as I could with a pair of wire cutters and then cut the rest off smooth with a knife, a stanley blade or box cutter for the americans would have done the trick too, I just happened to have a sharp lockknife to hand, I tried to do the 2nd one straight in with the knife but it didn't seem to want to come easy so I went back to the wire cutters to get things started again which worked much better.

Don't put too much tape around the bar, I got a bit carried away first time and then couldn't screw the housing closed properly, a single wrap of tape was enough under each side of the housing, I tried to do it to exact width so it can't be seen easily once the housing is mounted doesn't matter if two pieces of tape overlap in the center as it's the outside edges that do all the clamping.

Now you put your levers on, I wanted to rotate my levers more downward to maintain a straight line from elbow to fingertip when etending for the clutch so I left my button housing less than tight so I could rotate both lever and housing as required and then pinched them all up, the clutch side is pretty straight forward.

On the brake side I found that the brake line connection fouled the top of the fork as the metal hose part from the banjo was rotated to much towards the fork and so I undid it just a pinch so that I could rotate it away from the fork slightly to give me more space to position the lever, word of warning though, you only want to crack the seal a tiny amount and then only a tiny bit of fluid might escape under pressure but it won't leak, it's similar to bleeding where you just crack the nipple a tad to let the air out and close it back up again. The connector will try to move back when you tighten it up so be sure to have something wedged in there to stop it moving back to where it was as you tighten the bolt fully again, or turn it a little more out than you need to give it room to move back a bit, making sure you're not undoing the bolt at the same time by keeping your spanner on it.

And that's it, job done, just sit on your bike and feel good about the new sportier feeling positioning.

Here's some pictures from a couple of different angles

Also when your doing the throttle housing check it on full right lock as the cable s can hit the tank if not pointing slightly forwards.

My first post in months!

Instead of running the cables in the usual way over the top of the fork and down between the yolk and headlight mask, I ran mine around the outside of the fork and between the mask and fork so they're now somewhere underneath the bolt that holds the mask on, it seemed the tidiest and obstruction free way.

I know I promised pics on this thread ages ago but never did get round to it, I still intend to add some at some point.

Great stuff, probably a damn sight easier on the bike than me trying to hold the bugger down with my foot on a table

Pictures finally added

I do like those bars a lot!!! just a shame they dont do them in orange or id have some I think

Awesome info!! Now just need to source the bar!!! Thanks Jester

4 days!

Thats a worry ordered mine last monday still not here!!!!

OK, heres aload more pics for Boney whos having problems with throttle housing and brake lever positioning, hope these help dude -

Arrived, fitted, LOVE em!!! Thanks to everyone who posted info on these

Really like the look of the flat bars they look great and aggressive, I'm a bit worried about the body position, I love the upright position as it is.
Can anyone who had the flat bars fitted please post a picture of yourself sitting on the bike holding the bars, so I can get an idea of the seating position. Just wondering how much of a difference the flat bars make.
Thanks!

I fooking love my flat bars! Does throw you a little bit further forward but nothing I had a problem adjusting to.

It does throw you a little further forward onto the wrists but this is only noticable in traffic! If you ride road only stick with standard bars, but if you enjoy trackdays and do more than a handful a year then get the flats, they put you in a much better forward riding position for track use!

A quick update for those with 07 onwards bikes.

After discussions with another member Boney I think, there is no room between the headlight mask and the fork with the newer masks and so you have to put the cables through the original slot, he said the routing didn't look too bad or putting too much stress though so all should be good.

Also there doesn;t appear to be as much clearance between the tank spoiler and the throttle cables on full lock as there is on the earlier bikes so in order to get levers where they were wanted the steering lock for the right hand side had to be adjusted out a couple of mm.

I've got some pics of it which I'll get posted up