Greetings! I'm new to forum yet I've been using it a while for Hawk information leading to my purchase of a 98! Im 6" tall and weigh 230lbs
This is my first "lean forward" bike design but I do find the riding position comfortable. My wrists are sore consistantly from work so Im not blaming the Hawk for my problem. Its simply exposing a problem that already exists. My right hand fingers have gone numb on all my bikes.

After my first 60 mile ride I had considerable wrist pain. I've seen handlebar swaps and gel gloves to help. Im willing to try anything that doesnt require bike modification. There's no way in hell Im giving up on my hawk. It's just to awesome!

I noticed on the Heli-Bars site the VTR bars are under "Re-Design" and to call for details. Unfortunately they are closed today and I'm not a very patient person. Anyone know what the re-design entails or why they would do it?

 

The original Heli Bars hit the fairing and will turn on your high beam for you in the parking lot when fully turned.

That would be my guess for a reason to redesign.

There are bars from a few other bikes that fit too, but I expunged that info from my brain when I did my fork swap since it no longer applied to me. (TL Heli bars and a Ducati of some sort, 900ss I think but I could be wrong)

 

new bars out called swat bars (you can search for them) offer a variety of rises that should work. I think the best overall solution is a superbike bar set up ( you could search on this site for some inexpensive ways to do it). that allows use of tubular old-style handlebars and gets you the most rise and pullback and easy to swap. You probably will have to trim a bit of the fairing 'ears' that stick back toward you on the underside, but if you do it neatly its not noticeable and isnt' structural.

 

I don't recommend Swatts. I am using them myself, and the product is good.. But the people selling them are flaky at best.

I had to call 3 times and it took over 4 weeks after ordering before mine got shipped. Indierocker (mod here) was screwed out of the $$ for a set when they said they'd accept a return and received the parts back, but never refunded him the $$ so he didn't even have the ones that didn't work for him to sell. (etc etc)

 

Just so the opposite opinion is heard, I ordered Swatts and had no problems whatsoever with the people. The only downside for me was I had to reverse their riser brackets to make my F4i M/C work.

 

Makes sense and I will look into this.
I've read people using VFR bars and I've looked at the Convertibars site. Heli appears to have more history and be more reputable. Are VFR bars direct bolt on? I'm a bike ***** so eventually I'll buy a newer hawk or something else. I'm leary of "modding" anything to fit as the bike will lose resale greatly. I'll consider anything thats direct bolt up. Thanks for the help fellas. I just traveled to local honda dealer and got some gel grips rather cheaply ($10). The plan is to go through my brakes/lines and replace the bars before next season. This forum has been great help

 

Find the thread in here somewhere with the details, but yeah, the VFR bars from certain years is a direct bolt on...

For sake of comfort though I'd recommend removing the locating pin on the bars and the controls, so you can swivel them freely, making fine adjustments possible... They stay in place just fine with the right torque on the bolt, no need for the pin...

This a is a "mod" that mostly affects the VFR bars, but the mod to the stock VTR controls shouldn't really affect resale as nobody will even know the difference... Your wrists will though...

I'm using ConvertiBars myself as I swapped out my whole front end... They give you a completely adjustable setup... Lightyears beyond the Heli's... If you are going for any of them, do the ConvertiBars, you won't regret it...

 

well, the absolute cheapest is to ideally position your controls and train yourself to use different posture. You are plenty tall so shouldn't be the need to have much weight on your wrists.
For positioning controls, you can find info anywhere but as was said above, aim for a flat wrist while in the riding position (no bend from forearm to back of hand).
For training yourself, this really is subtle but very important. This post has a lot of info on the opening page about it. try it - it actually works, especially the part about bending at the waist and strenghting your abs and back.

http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthread...er=2766&page=1

 

I planned on getting the Russell SS line from Dennis Kirk. Will they be long enough to accomodate the convertibar?