JUST my own experience...ive had a beach bar,,, comfy.didnt like the look,, currently running Carlini evil apes at 12" are very comfy.... i do have a set of gloss black Harley Road King cvo bars im going to sell if interested here is a pic with them on the bike...

 

Thanks for the offer INJEKTER. No gloss black on my bike so I'll have to pass. Will have to go chrome

 

Stock FLHRS bars from the factory, not really beach bars.
I got rid of them pronto, the wrist angle is horrible, felt like I was
behind a wheelbarrow!
Replaced them with the Wild Ones 10" mini apes, MUCH better now.

 

crabio, that is not an easy question to answer. There is a post on this subject if someone can post a reference for it here. Paraphrased, it gets in to the ergonomics, leverage with regard to balance and slow speed handling and how the higher bars and narrower distance between the grips degrade the handling and balance.

 

Doesn't matter what you call them need to go by the measurements.
I had the heritage bars on my 05 RK custom, went back to beach bars and love them.
If you got to heritage bars you wont need to change the stock cables on that 05 RKC.

 

If you can't lane split because your bars are too wide, you may have beach bars.

If you mimic a sail when riding because your arms are spread so wide, you may have beach bars.

If you are doing a tight turn where you lock the yoke and have to lean forward to keep contact with both grips, you may have beach bars.

Just channeling J. Foxworthy here

 

If you don't like the old heritage bars, you may like the RK High / Pullback bars, pn 56180-08. They are halfway between what you have and heritage bars. I like them on on my Road King

 

Tiki Bar maybe ??

 

Mine are 10.5" Mini Apes from Wild1. Love them. They were as high as I could go without new brake lines or cables. I did have to extend the electric wires a bit though. That was easy.

So have been able to put 12" apes on with no cable or brake line changes. No way I could have.

 

The science may be valid, but I object to this on one ergonomic point. I found low speed maneuvering with beach bars to be problematic. It's hard to do tight turns when the handle bar is hitting you in the thigh. For that reason, for me, ANY higher bar would be an improvement in handling vs. beach bars.