Hello all, sorry for beating a dead horse as far as apes are concerned but I have a few questions. I am 5'9 with a 30 inch inseam and ride a 14 fatboy. I have a Corbin Young Guns seat coming as well as 14 inch 1.5 Carlini Gangsters with the piston risers on their way. I live in a rural community and the majority of my riding is highway/interstate and the bike needs to be comfortable over the long haul. I have a few trips planned that include 500 mile days and hope apes are comfortable. I purchased the Carlini bars because the original fatboy buckhorn bars are not comfortable due to the wrist angle, and my need to lean into them, but I have never ridden with apes. I am asking if others have similar set ups and are able to do some longer hauls with the apes. I nervous and hope I didn't go to tall for putting miles on, any advise is more than welcome.

 

i personally don't like riding long distance with my apes. but for me my entire bike is built to be a bar hopper. lots will say it is not a big deal. my thing is i have to be able to move around and my apes are too tall for me to move around on long highway trips.

 

Pretty tiring, without a fairing, because of vastly increased wind resistance.

My most comfortable freeway bike has the lowest bars I can fit without them hitting the tank, and a little forward lean to balance wind pressure.

 

I just got done swapping out my 14" Carlini Gangsters for Carlini Clean Sweeps. I have done 300+ mile days on my NT with the apes and was completely comfortable. I recently changed out because I was getting a wobble around 85mph and above. I don't routinely drive that fast, but the fact that I couldn't and should be able to bothered me.


If this wasn't my only bike, and if I didn't enjoy going out riding from dusk until dawn, I would have kept the apes. They looked sexy as hell and I enjoyed the riding position. The new bars solved my wobble issue and I have to say, it feels like a brand new bike.

 

I'm the same height and inseam and would not go higher than 12" or whatever ends up at armpit height. On my 011 Fatboy I tried Harleys Stalker(at least that's what I remember it called) which is a 9" rise drag bar almost and thought it felt so comfortable when I first put it on. My neck was killing me after a 3k trip because it required me to have my head reared back to see the road. I had 13" apes on my Wide Glide and why I thought I needed to change after 140k of comfort is beyond me. I'm in the process of converting Biltwel 12 apes with a 34" spread bar end to bar end spread to internal throttle and wires which will go on Pearl(my white Fatboy). Keeping the end spread to around 34"s will cut down the sail effect and using a 1 1/2 riser will keep the height to shoulder level. You get the bars higher than your shoulders, in my case anyway, my hands tended to fall asleep. And you want to keep a bit of forward lean in your adjustment. Sitting upright is hard on your spine in the bumps while the forward lean will help your spine absorb bumps and offset headwinds drag. Enough.

 

While I don't have the same apes as you do I do have 16" chubbies and I've ridden my bike to Sturgis and back, putting on a little over 3000 miles in 3 weeks. Everybody is different in what they feel is comfy for them. To me, it's all about conditioning and I like to ride. When I got back from Sturgis, I could have turned around and done the same trip all over again. Like I said, to me, it's all about conditioning. As a side note, when I got out of Oregon, I usually maintained about 80mph on my Springer and I don't have a windshield but I do have a back rest and that helped.

 

I'm exact same size as you - 5-9 with 30 inch inseam - and I live way out in the sticks, too so most of my drives are pretty good hauls.

l have Wild 1s 12.5 apes on my 2012 Fatboy. I love them, they are extremely comfortable, MUCH better than stock. A lot of my drives are all day and/or 2-3 days. I sort of wish I'd gone 16.

You'll be fine with those 14s, guaranteed. You'll love 'em.

 

Thanks for the reply Warp, I do have a windshield for the cold/windy days but I may need to keep it on for the longer rides as well from what your saying, and it makes perfect sense.

 

Well I guess we'll see how this goes, I also like the ability to adjust in order to stay comfortable. I picked up the seat and bars hoping to maybe help get into a comfortable position but I'll give it a shot and see, it's only money right!

 

Thanks for the reply, what is it with the bars that causes the wobble at high speed. I've had a lot of fun in my days and that doesn't sound like fun at all! Was it a difficult switch going back to the lower bars?