Personally, I've never much liked the look of silver-painted bars on any bike and when choosing the V-Strom as my new bike, vowed that I would one day change them for black ones - yesterday was that day
!
Here's a familiar sight to many of you ...
That was my (2012) V-Strom as it was when I got it a couple of weeks ago. Being 6' 4", I really needed to do something about moving the mirrors to get a better view, as all I was seeing was elbows and tarmac
. So, the first mod was to add some rather nicely made (powder-coated?) alloy extensions, which push the mirrors higher and wider (bought on ebay for about £20).
I also needed to get some bar risers, not just for my comfort, but also to allow me properly fit the clamp bracket that holds my Garmin Zumo sat-nav to the centre of the bars. I went for the 20mm SW Motech ones, knowing that they would fit without stretching any cables.
The bars that I chose were Renthals - made right here in Blighty
. The walls on these bars are twice as thick as the standard bars, so new bar end weights were required - I went with these stainless steel ones from R&G Racing.
Installing them was much easier than the Haynes workshop manual had suggested it would be
. By taking off the mirrors and hand-guards, then removing the handlebar clamps, I was able to move the bars from left to right to create enough slack to slide off each control lever bracket - the switch gear simply comes off in two halves.
When putting the new bars on, I tilted them ever so slightly further forward than the standard bars had been, thereby gaining even more height and a more forward riding position for myself, which should help me not to 'slouch' down and get a sore back
.
And this was the result ...
Sure, at the end of the day, it's as much a cosmetic mod as a 'performance' one, but it's one that has made this V-Strom owner a lot happier in his 'office'
.
