Installing Clubman Bars (The Hard Way)
It could have been simpler…
…and I made some mistakes along the way.
It looked simple enough until I realized the Clubman bars weren’t pre-drilled or slotted. This makes sense. It would be virtually impossible to manufacture bars that accommodate for all makes and models of motorcycles.
So I had two choices: route the wires on the outside of the bars (messy looking) or route them through the bars (clean).
I wanted a clean look and decided to route through the bars. Since the bars didn’t have any holes or slots, I had to drill them myself.
A fresh set of Clubman Ace Bars. Not as low as clip ons but they look cool and feel great.
First I had to mock them up to figure out were the control assemblies was going to be and mark were I need to start drilling. Notice that this set of Clubmans has the sharp corner weld. Its nearly a 90 degree angle and pulling wire through them was miserable.
So the two points I decided to drill where near the control assembly and about an inch and half from the corner weld. A few incremental drill bits later and I had four nice sized slots to feed and pull wire. I also used my dremel tool to clean up the edges. I didn’t want the sharp inner rim to cut or strip the wires.
I wrapped the exposed portion of the wires with masking tape, and in true MacGuyver style I fashioned some string from a shoelace and tied one end to the wrapped wires.
I spent all morning pulling wire for both sides.
Things I learned:
1. Some type of lubricant is required. I used liquid soap.
2. Never route through the bars. Its not worth it. I spent all morning doing it. Granted, it looks super clean, its just not worth the trouble I went through.
3. My stock control assemblies had little metal tabs that fit into pre-drilled holes in the stock bars. These tabs prevented the controls from sliding. I tore these metal tabs off thinking I wouldn’t need them and as a result my controls are sliding. I’ll figure out how to stop that later.
Here are is a before and after photo.
From 70′s japanese stock to 60′s London cool in one morning.
