Magura X-line Handlebars

The old power line road was generally in good shape, at least it was between the arroyos. When the road dipped into the washed out beds of the dry creeks the gravel got pretty loose and deep. When the road dropped into the creek bed itself, there wasn't much else to do but stand on the pegs and stay on the gas. Sometimes that went on for quite a while, and my lower back started to remind me just how far out of shape I was. It didn't help that the Answer Hyperlite bars I'd installed with Ricky's risers were a good inch and a half lower than the stock GS bars. I was pretty happy with the standing position on the newer R1200GS, and wondered if a taller aftermarket bar would help on the R100GS. With Answer, Moose Racing, and Renthal the most rise I found was about 150mm. BMW's R100GS bars have about 200mm of rise, which is comparable to the new R1200GS bars. Santa Cruz County BMW offered a bar through Wunderlich that was a match for the one on the 1200, but at almost two hundred bucks it was a bit too much for my budget.

Width - 778mm
Center Width- 104mm
Grip Length- 201mm
Rise - 198mm
Pull Back (Sweep) - 92
Part Number - 722120

A quick call to my buddy Mike at Fremont Cycle Salvage and he had a pair on the way from Parts Unlimited.

Magura X-line (bottom), R100GS bar (middle), and Easton ProTaper (top).

When they arrived I was delighted to see that the bend was almost an exact copy of the R100GS bar, and relieved that the price was under a hundred bucks! Installation was pretty straight forward, especially since I'd nuked the unreliable BMW heated grips in favor of a Heated Grip Kit from Aerostich several years before. No more drilling handlebars and trying to figure out how to get the wires out the ends under the bark busters, as the wires on these heaters exit the grip on the inboard end on the outside of the bar. I also had some inside-the-bar hardware left over from installing Cycra handguards on the R1200GS, which conveniently replaced the bar end adaptors that came from Ricardo. The result was a very solid install with about two inches more rise at the grips.

Easton ProTaper bars on the bike.

Magura X-line bars on the bike.

I was a bit concerned that I'd have problems with there not being enough control cable or wiring harness length to reach the taller Maguras, but that wasn't an issue. There is a little more interference with the Laminar Lip windshield extension, but it's slight and harmless. I also ditched the barrel shaped Grand Touring grips in favor of some much thinner Pro Grip 791 Triple Density motocross grips. They are much easier to get a hand around, and let me keep my pinky and ring finger wrapped around the grip when using the clutch and brake levers (another Jimmy Lewis trick). The only down side is one carried over from the Easton bars: The aluminum is such a good heat conductor that the left grip doesn't get nearly as warm as the right, which is somewhat insulated by the throttle tube. I tried to help that out with a few wraps of electrical tape under the heater foil, but it looks like something thicker is going to be needed.

In use the taller Maguras do provide a more straight up and down posture, but I'm still bent over a little bit more than I'd like to be at the waist, even after flipping over the Fastway footpegs to their low position. But it's a heck of a lot better than with the lower Easton bars, or even with the factory bars without risers. By deep sixing Ricky's bar end adaptors, I've also reduced the width by a couple of inches, useful for negotiating narrow halls and doorways when parking indoors in Mexico, as well as when lane splitting here on California's