1150 GS handlebar swamp

[motoplus40]

I have tumbled into an annoying problem.

Basic question is, does has anyone have a method to straighten the right side of their bars with the handlebar still on the bike, avoiding a cesspool of disassembly?

All I wanted to do was tweak the bars on my 2001 GS 1/4 inch up on the right side.

History: The problem began with an obvious separation between the bar end piece at the pivot hinge showing that the end of the bar, I am supposing the internal bar, was bent down at some time in the previous-owners past. The bar end does not go parallel into the center piece but is cocked up. (I am imagining the internal bar is bent.)

It has taken me two years to figure this out. The originating irritation was the right-hand brake lever constantly creeping down to hit the inside of the hand guard, causing the brake light to remain on. First, I tried to lower the guard (I think the guards are stock) by twisting forward. But this was stopped in the guard opening on the bar by the brake banjo fitting.

Finally, I looked closely at the hinge separation. Noticed that on the left side the the bar end and the center bar met parallel at the hinge, with only a small space between the bar pieces.

I then theorized that, on my troublesome right side, if I were to bend the end of the bar up toward parallel, the brake lever would go up (away from the guard) and the brake line banjo would go away from the guard at the bar at the same time. And problem solved!

Simple. But then i started taking everything apart.

After taking off the tank, chasing down the heated grip wire and loosing enough length, I got the throttle grip hanging off the end of the bar.

Plan was to slip a pipe over the end of the bar and bend it. But this was not enough, too much spring in the bar end.

Now I am looking at removing the master cylinder and getting the 1/3 bar end off and trying to bend the internal bar to make the correction.

This will entail cutting the heated grip wire and a bunch of other complications.

I now realize that I do not really understand what this three-piece handlebar is all about. No help in the exploded parts diagram, it looks like a single unit there.

Research through Inmate posts for the last 400 years only hints at bar straightening, most often suggesting to buy new bars. No can do, must spend money on new riding suit.

Anyone been here, done that????? Any ideas much appreciated.

[SourKraut]

When I bent my bar I put a wanted ad in the flea market here and got an original stock handlebar for super cheap (can't remember exactly how much $) and swapped them. Worth a try since some folks took them off when new and just have them laying around.

[motoplus40]

SK: Looking at your photo, it looks like you took the bar ends off, with all controls intact. The handlebar is on the floor against the wall. So did you slide an outer bar off of the handlebar on each side? If, so did you have heated grip wires to worry about?

[SourKraut]

I unplugged the heated grips back at the wiring harness and the controls come off in one piece like you said. It wasn't that bad once I had all the zip ties snipped and the wires free but I didn't want to cut the wires.

Here's a couple more pictures if they help.

[motoplus40]

Ok, tnx very much. So the bar end with controls is actually another bar which slips over the inner one. So it will be the inner bar that is bent I guess. So if I take off the control portion I could probably bend the inner bar a little with it on the bike. Whaddya think?

[SourKraut]

I think you'll have the best luck getting back to original with an unbent bar and swapping. If I recall correctly there is some sort of rubber damper in there but I killed all of those brain cells a while ago and I'd have to dig back into mine in order to tell you for sure.

Good luck!

[motoplus40]

tnx for your help, and the photos. I'll get it apart first. It's clear that I have to finish tracing the grips wire back to the connector and pull it out of the bar for starters.

[vintagerider]

Consider a fat bar upgrade. Low cost. You just need riser adapters and a drill to make holes for the grip heat wires. Re-use the BMW bar end steel to accommodate heated grips. I would also remove the upper clamp because the angular contact retaining bolt may be bent. Remove horn, heat bolt from underside to melt thread lock so you don't damage soft alloy threads in the front frame section. The bolt, bearing and upper clamp come off together. Tap out bolt assembled to bearing. A small press is used to dis-assemble bolt from bearing. Do not use press to seat the bearing/bolt back in to upper clamp- just tap in to place. Have done all this on an 1100GS. Worth the extra effort imo.

If you go with used stock bars make sure they are not 1100GS bars.

[motoplus40]

This is an update so if anybody is looking to mess with their 1150 gs bars my research/experience may save some time:

Sourkraut got me started and then I finally tracked down a thread that had what exactly I needed: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...t=90799&page=2 this basically goes through each step of getting the bars off and dealing with the pesky heated grips connector to the harness.

In that thread it gives you the details to move the individual connectors through the handlebars so that the bars can be untethered to the bike. I needed to do this because I finally came to grips (: with the fact I was going to have to bend the bars back into shape in my boat-anchor-heavy vise, not on the bike as my lazy self was initially trying to finesse.

Finally, I did get the connectors through the bars and then back again on reassembly. But it was not worth the effort. If I had to do it again I would just cut the wire at the extra coil near the harness and resolder. Taking apart the connector with a jewelers glass and greasing and taping to get them through the impossibly small hole was really futile because I had some problem on the bent side inside that was causing me fits.

Bars off, and in the vise, and a 2 ft section of black pipe from Home Depot for leverage, and things quickly came into shape. The bars are an ingenious sandwitch of inner and outer bar and rubber insulation. But I still don't quite understand what exactly you get for all that creativity.

I took advantage of the close look at the harness to recover the two controls bundles of wires with F4, which sure beats the hell out of electrical tape.

I can't believe how long it took me to do what I thought was a little job for an afternoon. But the bar adjustment sovled a bunch of hidden problems (and saved me $100-$300 for used/new bars) that I hadn't picked up on since I bought the bike two years ago: let me properly position the handguard so the brake light stopped coming on at will, gave me a level master cylinder for the first time, allowed for the much better brake hand position, and stopped my interminable staring at the bike parked and saying: "there's something not right there but I cant' see what it is."

Thanks for the above inmates' help for getting me out of the swamp (again).