| Author | Message | ||
     Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise) |
Installed a set of 0 degree Crossroad bars on Rocketsprinks XB12S last night. Nice bars & they feel great but holy crap were they ever a pain to install. Al from American Sport Bike sent pics because the sheet that comes with the bars is a photocopy & its very bad, cant see anything. And the bars dont just install without some "creative" work, but the pics will illustrate that. All told we probably invested about 4 hrs screwing around before everything was working as it should. Here's the 1st pic I took, we decided instead of dropping the forks down to gain clearance to install the cables we would just loosen up the instrument cluster, serves the same purpose. So far so good, we thought we had everything well under control. Rocco's chopped cheesegrater Notice the severe bend in the clutch cable housing. This isnt good, throttle was sticking. Cables must be binding up. Working on readjusting the cables for about the 20th time to eliminate the binding. (Message edited by dynarider on February 20, 2005) | ||
| Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise) |
Pulled the throttle assembly off & pulled the cables out from the way they were routed & everything worked fine. The routing is simply too severe & was causing the binding. No other way to route them so it was time to get "creative". Here we have removed the right side panel. Marked the area we had to cut away in order to allow the cables a straighter shot & avoid binding. Dana decided to name this the "Al" notch. As it says "cut here", you cant see it when everything is re-assembled & we actually ended up taking off a bit more than that the 2nd time around. $10,000 bike & Rocco is attacking it with a hacksaw  | ||
| Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise) |
This was a lot better but as I said we still needed to remove just a little bit more. Finally got the cable binding all straightened out & then discovered the horn wouldnt go back into its original position. It would also hit the cables & push them back causing binding. Time to remove the headlights so we could pull the bolt that held the horn bracket in place. Damn Jason got a pic of me working on a Buell. Just took the horn & stood it up & used the hole the bracket had been attached to & bolted the horn to it. We were able to eliminate 1 part & it looks good. Hows that for a clean & sanitary horn installation? Rocco likes his new bars. He also painted the mounting bracket & added the Buell sticker to it. We all thought it really made a huge difference. | ||
| Daves |
Dyna working on a Buell!  | ||
| Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise) |
Yea, like I have never done that before  | ||
| Al_lighton |
Wow, guys, I'm at a loss to explain all the difficulty you had with binding. I don't have an "Al" notch  on mine and there is no binding in my cables. I had to drop the forks briefly (per the crossroads instructions) to get the wires routed acceptably, but I never took the cast part of the bike. That said, it doesn't look like a bad option to allow a straighter cable path. I can say that the Buell throttle grip is weird. I put it together, it was dragging. I took it apart, all seemed normal. Put it back together, it was dragging. Did the above sequence about 8 times. On the 9th try, without knowing if I'd changed anything at all, it worked great. I have no idea what I changed. It wasn't the external cable path. Had it apart recently, did the same thing, it took several attempts to get the throttle grip to go together without dragging internally. I have no idea what I do differently when it works. They say that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity, so I must be certifiable. I still don't know what I do differently when it works vs when it binds. But it definitely is something internal to the throttle assy, not the external cable runs. Is there a chance you guys were experiencing the same thing? The stock crossroads bars are a little easier to install than the flat ones, but that is because the stock crossroads bars are wider and the cable turns more gently. But they are too wide in my (and several other customers) opinion. I would have liked to pull another 1/4" off of the width on both sides of the flat bars, but the cable routing doesn't support it so I left them where they are. I very much like the flat crossroads bar position, ti is a very neutral riding position, not too much lean forward/wrist weight, but not so damned erect with your hands in your lap like the stock XB-S bars. I've been working with another customer to try to identify a tubular bar that gets some forward lean into the S models, and none of them we've played with works. The problem is that if you flatten out the pullback and height in the bars, they tweak your wrists at a funny angle. Can you say "carpal tunnel syndrome"? Getting the angle right requires pullback, and any pullback on an S results in not enough forward lean. The Crossroads work because the move the point that the bars start pulling back to a more forward position, so the wrist angle stays good while still getting some body lean. The only way to do it acceptably with tubular bars will require some type of clubman "bend" with a welded sharp break in the bars, I think (i.e., the style seen here or here). But they're gonna have to be custom built for the lightning, I'm afraid Al | ||
| Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise) |
Al, we pulled the trottle assembly apart probably 20 times & everytime we reassembled it on the bar it would bind up. The throttle sleev was turning freely if we disconnected the cables. So then we pulled everything off the bar & assmebled it just hanging & depending on which way we lifted up on the assembly putting different bends on the cables they would bind up. Definitely wasnt anything internal at all. Once we notched that panel & allowed the cables to exit in a straighter path then the throttle worked great. We screwed around with it for the better part of 4 hrs last night, trying different routes, cables on the bottom, cables on top, etc etc & the only thing that worked was the notch. Buell definitely packs a lot of stuff into such a small space & that makes it much harder to get a perfect route. It all worked out in the end & the bars look & work great now. Just trying to give folks another option besides trying to cram the cables in the spot between the top of the triple clamp & the instrument panel housing. You cant see the notch no matter how hard you look & it only takes a couple minutes to pull that panel off....just make sure you have the correct Torx bit with the tamper proof hole in the center or you wont ever get the 2 center bolts out. We also considered notching the top of the panel to allow the cltuch cable to run in a straigter path as well, but we opted to leave it as is for now. Clutch pull is harder but managable. Routing it across the top & thru 2 very small slots would allow a straight run & the pull is back to being stock. I think Glitch ran his clutch cable a totally different way to try & lessen the clutch pull some. If you want you can have the patent on the "Al" notch It saved us a lot of grief. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
I still don't know what I do differently when it works vs when it binds. What I found with as many times as I have taken the throttle apart, if the bottom cable piece doesn't go in and STAY in place as you put it all together it binds up. I did elongate the clutch hole in the triple to make the bend less severe, otherwise I didn't need to make the Al notch either. | ||
| Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise) |
Wycked, you have the R front end on yours now. Did you have the Crossroads installed when it was still an S? I think with the R you have more clearance for everything. | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Would I have commented on the install of Crossroads bars if I hadn't had them on my bike  Yes, the Crossroads were my first mod. I still have them though I shortened the bars themselves about half an inch due to controls placement the last time I used them. This is the crossroads installed with the 'Bolt Fairing. There is a clearance issue between the mastercylinder and the fairing itself that made me have to twist the mastercylinder forward as far as it would go, then I would tap my knuckles on the fairing, but that was almost at full lock.  | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Not much I can add. Love the bars and the seating position, but man, what a pain! Not faulting Al in any way. All I can say is if you're going to try this, have some good friends over with understanding wives and girlfriends. Order 4 Monster pizza, and make a night of it. You don't have much of a choice. | ||
| Dago |
They seemed to go on fine for me. 20 minutes. No cuts. My cables routed fine with no binding. Nor did I have to loosen or remove anything other than the original handlebars. I wonder what the difference was. Glitch, did you have any trouble installing yours? | ||
| Stainlessmag |
I just bought a set from a fellow badweber, hope my install goes as easily as Dago is sayin. But knowing my track record that will never happen. | ||
| Dago |
I'm not trying to be a smart-a$$, but I really had no trouble at all. I didn't have to lower my forks, make any cuts, or do anything special. Everything just bolted on. Keith bought mine from me and installed them on his. I don't seem to recall that he had any trouble either. Maybe he'll chime in here and let us know. | ||
| Buckinfuell |
I just installed the 0° bars without a problem. The throttle works smoothly and returns promptly. Although I must say, the Crossroads instructions could be better. The guys above really worry me...  they are coming nowhere near my precious Buell. | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Guess he don't have a precious Buell anymore! |
