Handlebar covers ("pads")

[Joe Garfield]

I care too much about appearance and want to put on a set of (Rox) handlebar risers. I'd like to keep the handlebar 'pad' that surrounds the bottom of the ignition/pilot box, but the one on the '82 1100g bolts to the side of the handlebar mount and I'm likely going to run out of space to make it all work.

To make some room on the sides for the handlebar riser I'd like to use something like the cover (#2) on the 850L which appears to use some kind of bracket (#3).

Does that thing just clamp around the handlebar? Are there other options?

Here's a pic of a bike with the Rox risers. There may not be enough room to spread them out far enough to work with the stock '82 pad.

 

[ddaniels]

I had a set of the ROX risers on my FZ1 and they are great. It doesn't look to me like you will have a problem if you mount the riser part on the outside like shown in the picture above. Just thinking out loud.

 

[Joe Garfield]

Yeah they look pretty awesome - it's nice you can trade 'up' for 'back' as I don't necessarily need the bars up higher.

The way the handlebar pad is made, there's a thin bracket molded in the sides that bolts to the outside of the handlebar mount. That bracket is surrounded by some fairly thick material, so the pad is about 1/4" wider on each side than the handlebar mounts (1/2" total). So the risers would have to be shifted outward to clear the pad, but the riser 'stems' (that get bolted to the bike) won't be long enough - I just got an email from a rep saying they're ~15/16" long, but I'd need about 1-1/4" to make it work. Here's a pic of what I'm talking about - I just highlighted the corners but the width is pretty much the same the whole length of the side.

 

[edgeofvamp]

If you can, the 83 GS1100 used the bracketed from below style pad too.
I would have sent you mine, but the PO of my bike destroyed the "pad" in a poor attempt to put some weird switch in it-so it was all mangled and i chucked it.

 

[Dogma]

You've already looked into different handlebars? That should be cheaper and and you can keep the stock pad.

IIRC, you had something like superbike bars on, which are pretty low. Daytona bars might get the fit you want without the complication. Handlebars are one of the few things that Bike Bandit does at a reasonable cost, and they deliver pretty quickly. I have a couple sets of medium high bars here you might try. For free. Get 'em out of here. The last time I used one was just to mount a spare master cylinder to drive out a stubborn caliper piston.