Hey, ever tried standing up on the pegs of a factory GS? Notice how you're all bent over, and it's difficult to keep your weight from pulling on the bars. That makes the bike wander because you aren't letting the bike move freely under you. Well, these handlebar risers aren't the whole solution, but they're a lot of help. They move the bars up and back by about an inch, which may not seem like much but is fairly significant ergonomically. The pair shown here is made from some aluminum bar stock I had laying around, but there are commercially available risers if you don't want to make your own.
The drawing at right is pretty self explanatory, so I'll just make a few comments about the machining sequence. I started with a block about 2.5" x 3", and the first thing I did was mount it in a four jaw chuck, center it, and drill and bore the .875 hole for the bars. That let me get a very smooth hole of exactly the right diameter. I then used the milling attachment to square the ends and sides, and to drill the bolt holes. The last thing I did was split the block through the handlebar hole, and then square up the saw cut ends. The last step was to round the corners to match the triple tree and handlebar clamps. For this I just used a belt sander. A little satin black paint finished 'em up. I found longer mounting bolts at a local fastener supply house.
When you raise the bars you'll probably find that you'll either have to tip them toward the back of the bike to keep them from hitting the wind screen. Since I was trying to lift the bars, this defeated the purpose and it was clear that the screen would have to tip forward. Two things keep that from happening: The slot at the side of the screen is too short and the front fairing mounts will hit the bottom of the windscreen. To fix that you can remove the screen and use a file or Dremmel tool to make little half moon cut outs on the screen (see photo at left). You can use that same tool to lengthen the slot.
Work slowly when making either of these modifications to avoid melting the plastic or going too far. As a final touch, remove the anti rotation stub from the bottom of the attachment screw as shown in the photo below. After reassembly, you'll find that the wind screen now clears the front master cylinder with the bars nearly vertical.
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When you raise the bars you'll probably find that you'll either have to tip them toward the back of the bike to keep them from hitting the wind screen. Since I was trying to lift the bars, this defeated the purpose and it was clear that the screen would have to tip forward. Two things keep that from happening: The slot at the side of the screen is too short and the front fairing mounts will hit the bottom of the windscreen. To fix that you can remove the screen and use a file or Dremmel tool to make little half moon cut outs on the screen (see photo at left). You can use that same tool to lengthen the slot.
Work slowly when making either of these modifications to avoid melting the plastic or going too far. As a final touch, remove the anti rotation stub from the bottom of the attachment screw as shown in the photo below. After reassembly, you'll find that the wind screen now clears the front master cylinder with the bars nearly vertical.
