Has this ever happened to any of you guys?

I was on a ride with some guys going up the coast past Santa Barbara yesterday and I hit a pothole going 75 on the 101 on my nightster. My bars themselves didn't bend, but I guess they slipped within the clamp and came towards me a little. I noticed it once I got my footing back on my pegs after getting some air time, and I couldn't see out my mirrors. Scared the chit out of me!

So I had to ride back with them misaligned. Sucked.

 

Make sure the clamp is tight, you don't want those things flopping around while you're riding. Here in NY and NJ we have craters that you could literally lose a wheel and tire in, so I know what you're talking about. Never blown out a bike tire in one of them but a car tire can be just as bad.

 

wow looks like u got rsd mini bars, are they knurled? I've hit a couple of pot holes just as fast or maybe faster but nevr happened, got lucky i guess...be safe brother.

 

My boss was doing a little work on his '09 heritage and checked the 4 bolts on the top of the bar mount (I know that isn't the technical term) and as you sit on the bike the top right was only hand tight, the bottome left was not even hand tight, and the other two wern't torqued down much at all. He said this weekend he is going to go over every bolt on the bike. I guess someone was in a hurry when they slapped his together.

 

I had to replace the rubber isolation bushings on both of my bikes. I pushed down on one side evading and when I looked in my mirrors they were just off. I checked the bars and that's when I noticed the slack. Replaced with polyurethane ---- more vibration but also more rigid. Which is better than to much give.

 

I've heard that the clamps that tighten the handlebars are made to give a little bit in case a rider hits the handlebars in an accident.

I'm not saying that's what's wrong in your case.

I had a problem with my bike where the handlebars started to get loose because the striations on the clamp wore out for some reason. I don't want to think I pull on them that hard, but I do ride in Bay Area freeway traffic and my bike has almost 70,000 miles on it. It may be an extension of my pucker factor.

 

Ya, its happened to me a couple times. If I see the pothole in time I'll actually put a little forward pressure on the bars so the force of the hit doesnt pull em back.

 

Just glad all is OK.

 

Glad you're okay and that's all that happened. I hit a dip in the road once, a sort of collapsed wave...the bike bucked so bad it wrenched my back...was sore for days.

 

yup they're knurled. It was a big hit. I was holding on so tight that the force of me pushing back made the bars turn. Never happened to me before and it woke me right up.

Now I just gotta loosen the clamp up, readjust them and tighten them up as much as I can. Has anybody ever used any time of 'sticky' adheseive or anything of that sort to make the bars a little tackier just to give it that extra grip?