[FactoryCostcoDH]

Just bought a set of pro taper evo dirtbike bars for my DH bike and made some bar shims out of 1/16" thick by 1" diameter copper tubing. It looks a little bit overkill on my bike but it sure rides nice and makes it feel quite a bit easier to throw around. It's probably a little heavy for the weight weenies but I hear a lot of people wishing they could find wider bars. If anyone else wants to try the same thing, I recommend going for the Charmichael bend, otherwise most of the other bends have about a 2" rise

 

[SteezyWeezy]

holy crap, they look huge, and those brake lines, where's the engine?

 

[RaID]

are they compatible with lock on grips or to install shifters?

ie is the diameter of the bars the same as standard mtb bars?

 

[jvnixon]

Dang, look at those antlers on that buck...

 

[Broken_Spoke]

Dang, look at those antlers on that buck...

no joke better get out my rifle

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

Dang, look at those antlers on that buck...

Well I guess this means no woods riding for me anytime during deer season

That is... If they can catch me

 

[mxer338]

if you rotated them back a bit they would probably feel a little better.
did you have to cut to even up the throttle side? how much room do you have to cut them down (looks like alot) if you wanted bars around 30"?

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

are they compatible with lock on grips or to install shifters?

ie is the diameter of the bars the same as standard mtb bars?

Not sure about the inner diameter of the bar, so lock on's are in question, but everything else mounts just as it should. However we used digital calipers to measure the bars and they are ~1.12 inches at the clamp and your traditional oversize MTB clamp I believe was somewhere around 1.28 (can't remember exactly).

At first I tried using a small cutout of garden hose which we glued to the inside of the clamps, and it fit pretty nicely when it compressed, but during my first ride I started to ride progressively harder and the bars completely spun around while I was bombing through a rock garden, giving me quite a scare (not to mention a bruise just east of the family jewls ). Everything had worked fine for jumping though...

So to fix that problem we took a less redneck approach and bought a 1/16" thick by 1" diameter section of copper tubing, sanded the inner surface a little bit to roughen it up, and then glued that to the clamps. The bars fit very snug now and show no signs of rotating (I rode my bike into a wall a couple times at a reasonable speed just to be sure). Plus the copper looks quite a bit better than a piece of green garden hose covered in black sharpie

 

[WestCoastHucker]

IMO that amount of upsweep is ridiculous. not to mention uncomfortable...

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

if you rotated them back a bit they would probably feel a little better.
did you have to cut to even up the throttle side? how much room do you have to cut them down (looks like alot) if you wanted bars around 30"?

The throttle side on dirtbike bars isn't any bigger than the other side. Only the grips are different, which in this case you can use quad grips (which are even because they use a thumb throttle)

I'd say you have around 2-3" at most on each side to cut them down if you wanted to. They painted a few lines at 1/4 inch intervals up to 1" on each side if you didn't want to measure your cut anywhere down to a 30" length.

And I have experimented a lot with bar positions, and though more forward bars might not be quite as comfortable, they seem to help a lot more for getting a flatter table, bunnyhopping higher, manualing easier, and emphasizing your weight transitions on the bike. I always used to like my bars right at the middle position or back 1, but as soon as I experimented for the first time with a forward position I could immediately tell the difference and got used to it pretty quickly. I could say pretty confidently that it makes it nearly twice as easy to to get a good solid table on your bike, at least from my experience.

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

IMO that amount of upsweep is ridiculous. not to mention uncomfortable...

It's actually more backsweep, I just have the bars pretty forward. It suits my riding style

 

[TankerX]

Trials style!!

 

[CrabJoe StretchPants]

It suits my riding style

what kind of riding style? scoliosis?

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

I used to ride MX a lot so that style has trickled down into my DH riding. Lots of riding and cornering over the front wheel, lots of whips, and lots of throwing the bike around. I agree it's not very comfortable when you're just cruisin around, but I feel more in control when I'm hauling butt. Maybe it's just me, but it seems to work the best out of everything I've tried.

 

[ridefast]

those are ridiculous

 

[Bearmntpicnic]

retarted

 

[AlmostHeaven]

retarted

huked on fonics werked phor me!

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

Well as far as I'm concerned, if they give my bike a more precision feel, I could care less how they look or what anyone else thinks of them, so thank you very much. There's a few pros out there that run 30-32" bars so I don't see what's the big deal. My bike weighs around 48 lbs, I don't make anywhere near enough money to make it any lighter, and if a wider bar makes it feel more flickable, then that's the option I'm going to take

 

[manhattanprjkt83]

gay...

 

[buildyourown]

Damn. What's with all the haters.

6 weeks ago, everyone was asking who made the widest bars. This guy figures out how to get Rennie width bars without resorting to some scabbed on plugs in the end. Good on ya!

Sure there's a weight penalty, but it might be worth it.

 

[Bicyclist]

The positioning looks awful, but I'd run the width.

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

Just messed with it a bit more and moved the bar back to the middle position. The upsweep was starting to bug me. It was somewhere between 1 and 2 forward earlier. Like I said, I jump a fair amount (check the Vista dh and hucking action thread in the Socal forum) and the forward position helps a bit, but the upsweep wasn't doing anything but making it uncomfortable. It's back where it was yesterday when I had it in the dirt.

The bars look wider in the picture than when you're actually riding it anyways.

 

[sayndesyn]

Cool homemade jobie. I personally hate any upsweep, but that's just me.

 

[V-Dub GTI]

you need new brakes.....

 

[Sandwich]

yeah the upsweep looked bad but i've thought of doing the same to mine. The only problem is that the weight difference is HUGE...like 450gm compared to 270 for MTB bars...

 

[WestCoastHucker]

It's actually more backsweep, I just have the bars pretty forward. It suits my riding style

actually after examining the pics more, i can now see the backsweep. do they still have any noticeable backsweep with them rotated so far forward?

(edit: after looking back, i think you rotated them backward a little? any pics of the new bar position?)

 

[thom9719]

28" bars are wide enough. those are not practical for any trail riding.

Kyle,

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

I don't have any pics yet of the new position, and most of you I would guess probably prefer one more rotation back than the neutral position. The bend isn't bad, it just isn't suited that well to much forward rotation.

And I already have my hardtail for trail riding so the extra length isn't such a big deal. I still need to get out and ride it before I can say much about the bars. I'm still contemplating whether I want to leave them at 32 or drop them down a little, maybe 31 or 30.5. I'll have to ride it on just about all of the local terrain styles around here to get a good idea how I want them set up. I should be out at Ted Williams this weekend with CheetaProwlerDH to give them a thorough test.

 

[Nick]

your rotors are on backwards.

 

[FactoryCostcoDH]

The rotors are on just how the arrows show them to go. Yeah I know, Grimeca brakes are just weird like that

 

[tlproject7]

wait. is this not a joke? you really ride with those, am i missing the sarcasm?

 

[JRogers]

Damn. What's with all the haters.

6 weeks ago, everyone was asking who made the widest bars. This guy figures out how to get Rennie width bars without resorting to some scabbed on plugs in the end. Good on ya!

Sure there's a weight penalty, but it might be worth it.

Honestly. Chill out guys. I applaud for ingenuity/garage shop work. Seems like that thread had tons of people saying they HAD to have a 28"+ DH bar and now that someone does it it's fugly and useless.

 

[DHJUNKIE]

hmmmm whatever you like but around here that would be damn near impossible to ride in the woods..

 

[cheetaprowlerDH]

retarted

you need to piss off dude.
seems like youve got a lot of sh!t to talk and this isnt the place for it.

buildyourown, couldnt have said it better myself.

 

[cheetaprowlerDH]

hmmmm whatever you like but around here that would be damn near impossible to ride in the woods..

good for the bars, the closest woods riding is about 100 miles away in every direction... unfortunatley...

 

[seismic]

So everybody can go wood-riding with 28" bars but 30" is impossible ??

 

[altix]

So everybody can go wood-riding with 28" bars but 30" is impossible ??

good question, im getting mixed signals from reading all this as well

 

[giantrider89]

So.....how come people who want to have really wide bars don't just get some trials bars? don't they come at like 29" or something crazy like that? Are they weaker or something, or does all the anodizing look too gay? ROFL just kidding....

 

[ss805]

Ha ha...too funny. This guy spent some time and money to get some wider bars, shares his idea with us...and gets slammed for it! I know for a FACT that others out there have thought about doing the same thing, but probably were too scared to hear from all the haters. I say right on...score one for creativity!

 

[Lollapalooza]

We're all thinking it.... riding pics. We want them in the very near future.