What You Need to Know About Ape Hangers
by Tommy Mabson

 

The older I get the shorter my apes got, now I have drag bars on my bobber!

 

After riding a freinds heritage I bought some for my Fatboy. What a difference! A yeat later I went with 14s and simply love them. Dont think I will go higher.

 

All I need to know about ape hangers is,,,,, If a bike has them I don't ride it....

 

Whatever your opinion about apes,, they make an ape for it.

 

The hell? Yea, like I'm going to let someone ride my bike to 'see' if they can 'handle' and 'control' it.... nope...

 

I have 16's on my Springer and when I see the younger crowd looking at my bike and commenting about it I usually tell them this. " After 40 years of doing physical labor, the older I get, the more I want so sit upright." My back won't take the constant leaning over that the younger generation can and after I tell them what I quoted earlier, it usually gets a laugh out of them.

 

Depends on the bike.

For my stock '94 softail, I would not want them.
For my "vintage 48-esque build" I got beach bars.
For my "no-apologies chopper build" I will have them. 14's probably.

 

6. Can you hang apes off of your ape hangers?

You can but they probably are not very good at riding motorcycles and may affect your ability to handle the bike.

 

I'm not a fan of apes, but they do look good on some bikes, look horrible on others.
Heritage bars aren't exactly apes, but they are like 12". Didn't like them at all.
Switched to deluxe bars and the difference was dramatic. Much better control and handling. The deluxe bars make me feel more like I'm one with the bike.

To each his own though. Ride on apers.