When I had the 18" apes on my sporty the mirrors stood up so high they look like antennae...lol, so I flipped them...could not see anything except my arms, lol...had to put them back.

After my shoulder got messed up and I had to go to 12" apes I tried flipping them again....still could not see anything.

Different strokes.

 

One of the few times what looks cool, actualy works better.

 

flipped my mirrors, i reel like it's harder to see stuff that's behind me, all I see is my knees, kinda gotta lean to either direction to see out of the respective mirror. Don't really care about it, pretty sure when they were above my handlebars all i saw was elbows anyways.

 

With my 16" apes I couldn't see anything but my arms with the mirrors on bottom. Tried them on top and they looked like Mickey Mouse Ears. Bought a Lick's Mirror mount and now have one mirror halfway up the left side of the bars and I can see fine. As a previous poster said, I always turn my head and check anyway. Can see it in my sig pic.

 

Seems to me that bar width has most to do with it. On all my Sportsters I've had narrow drag bars and not been able to see from the mirrors. On my Ultra and Fat Boy it has never been a problem I believe thanks to the wide touring or beach bars.