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slightly bent bars

  • Thread starter Thread starter BentRod
  • Start date Start date
B

BentRod

Guest
I have realized that the ride side of my bars has been bent in a little bit.

http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p41/BentRod_photo/my 81gs400/?action=view&current=IMG00233.jpg

The bike shows other signs of have been down on its right side.

I was wondering how much of a difference this bend will make when riding? is it going to throw off the feel of the bike? It looks like the right side was bent in about 1.5''

should I look into repairing/replacing? or can I just shift them over?

Thanks!
 
Given your name, I'd say it's perfect :-D

Seriously, though, I can't tell it's bent in that picture. If it bothers you, replace it, if not, leave it. It's not a safety issue.

I know if it were me it would drive me nuts, and I would definitely replace it.
 
You can do any or none of what you mentioned. As far as how it changes the ride, I've had bikes with bent bars and when straightened, felt strange! It's all what you get used to. I've had success by pulling all the controls off, remove the bars and standing on them while the're laying on the floor (chrome). Painted bars can be heated, straightened and repainted. Check your forks to make sure they're inline with the rest of the bike.
 
BentRod said:
I have realized that the ride side of my bars has been bent in a little bit.


I was wondering how much of a difference this bend will make when riding? is it going to throw off the feel of the bike? It looks like the right side was bent in about 1.5''

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Not much, just tilt your head just a bit and your bars will be straight... :)
 
First of all. Thanks everyone.

I checked the forks today, they seem to be strait when i was just kinda eye-balling them against the down tube. Any methods for checking this?

I think for now I will leave the bars alone. my goal right now is to get the bike ready for spring. I may just slide them over.

Thanks again!

BentRod
 
I tried to straighten a set of slightly bent bars on my 79 750E once. I took em off the bike, clamped them in a bench vise and couldnt twist the bend out at all,
So then I put an 8 ft pipe over the end of the handlebars and heaved on it.
I snapped the jaws of a big heavy vice. Didnt do a thing to the handlebars.
Next, I got a stack of 1ft square pieces of 3/4" plywood and sandwiched the straight end of the handlebars in the middle of 6 layers of plywood. I placed the plywood on the driveway with the handlebars sandwiched between and parked my truck on top of it. Then I picked up the 8 foot length of pipe to place over the bar end and act as a straightening lever. All I succeeded in doing was picking my truck up and down, up and down. It didnt change the bend in the handlebars one bit. I gave up and ordered new ones. LOL

Earl
 
earlfor said:
I tried to straighten a set of slightly bent bars on my 79 750E once. I took em off the bike, clamped them in a bench vise and couldnt twist the bend out at all,
So then I put an 8 ft pipe over the end of the handlebars and heaved on it.
I snapped the jaws of a big heavy vice. Didnt do a thing to the handlebars.
Next, I got a stack of 1ft square pieces of 3/4" plywood and sandwiched the straight end of the handlebars in the middle of 6 layers of plywood. I placed the plywood on the driveway with the handlebars sandwiched between and parked my truck on top of it. Then I picked up the 8 foot length of pipe to place over the bar end and act as a straightening lever. All I succeeded in doing was picking my truck up and down, up and down. It didnt change the bend in the handlebars one bit. I gave up and ordered new ones. LOL

Earl
Click to expand...
That will teach you not to drive a Toyota!!!!!! 8-[
I wish I knew who made the bars you're talking about, I could use a set of those on my three wheeler project. Anything that I've ever ridden off road, sooner or later ends up with bars that look anything but straight!! :-D
 
BentRod said:
I have realized that the ride side of my bars has been bent in a little bit.

http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p41/BentRod_photo/my 81gs400/?action=view&current=IMG00233.jpg

The bike shows other signs of have been down on its right side.

I was wondering how much of a difference this bend will make when riding? is it going to throw off the feel of the bike? It looks like the right side was bent in about 1.5''

should I look into repairing/replacing? or can I just shift them over?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You can see if you can find a used set or what I did on my honda was clamp between some blocks of wood in the press at work and used the 4 ft. handle of my aluminum floor jack slipped over the bars and threw all 230 lbs of me on the end of it to straighten mine.
You need to take the bars off and look and see where they are bent and IF you can straighten them.

BentRod said:
First of all. Thanks everyone.
I checked the forks today, they seem to be strait when i was just kinda eye-balling them against the down tube. Any methods for checking this?

Thanks again!

BentRod
Click to expand...
You have got to strip them down to the bare tubes then you can sight down them for any bends, I used a 2 ft. straight edge for checking cylinder heads with feeler gauges for a final check of straightness.
 
Last edited:
A replacement set of bikemaster bars costs $18. It's not even worth the aggravation and wasted time trying to straighten out tweaked bars. You will almost never be able ever get them correctly straight.
 
rustybronco said:
You have got to strip them down to the bare tubes then you can sight down them for any bends, I used a 2 ft. straight edge for checking cylinder heads with feeler gauges for a final check of straightness.
Click to expand...

Nice...Very Nice nothing beats precision......! =D>
 
Road_Clam said:
A replacement set of bikemaster bars costs $18. It's not even worth the aggravation and wasted time trying to straighten out tweaked bars. You will almost never be able ever get them correctly straight.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Don't screw around with a safety-critical component that's this cheap and easy to replace. If it's a stock handlebar, it probably needed to be replaced with something humans can actually use anyway.

Your brain has adapted to riding with tweaked handlebars, so much so that when you do mount up a straight set, they'll seem odd for a while. If it doesn't bug you too much and it's only tweaked a little, just ride with the tweaked bars until you feel like replacing them.
 
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