All this is probably not new news for most of you but maybe something to think about for others, so here it is. I never really noticed any play in my handle bars before, but last week while stopped at a light I noticed my handle bars had a lot of play. I could actually move them up and down a few inches without much effort. When I got home I put the muscle to a wrench and cranked the nuts down as much as I could, which actually wasn’t much. The bars still moved, they even became “****-eyed” while pushing and pulling on them. Being a very quick witted kind of guy (meaning slower than most) I figured it was the bushings. The next day I popped them out and replaced them with a $40 polyurethane set from the dealer; WOW what a difference, sold as a rock now. The dealer said that even the new bikes on the floor will have some play in them, and the rubber bushings are crap, which I now believe. Now here is where I really expose my donkiness. I thought I’d try messing with the bars and readjusting them a bit; since I owned the bike (3 yrs) I wanted to put some new bars on, but never got around to it. On tight turns my knees got in the way, but I just lived with it learning to **** my knees out a bit on those turns. Will I moved the bars up a few inches, which changed the angle of the pullback to more of 45 degree instead of a 55-65 degree. Again WOW what a difference, I not only get more knee room on the tight turns, the bar position is more like mini apes and totally changed the ride position. If only I had done this a LONG time ago. Moral to the story, check your handle bar bushings and mess around with the adjustment before you go out and buy a new pair.

 

what is the p/n of the bushing?

Frank

 

that's a good write up on the bushings chiefparry. now i got something else that i gotta check on my streetglide.

 

As effective as better bushings are, replacing the two-piece handlebar clamps with the newer one-piece is equally great.

 

People never really take the time to set their bike up after purchasing it.
They just ride.

Take a weekend to personalize your bike.
By that I mean, adjusting floorboards for comfort, handlebars..the whole she-bang.

 

Poly bushings are a huge upgrade compared to stock. I just put a set in my 09 Street Glide when I went to black bars and will be putting a set on my 00 FXD when I install my 16" apes. No play in the SG bars at this time, but since I was going to be swapping out the bars and front end I decided to make a premptive strike.

 

Gonna shift my bars up an inch or 2. Nice post as I was just wondering how to do this and looked it up here.

 

Any info on part numbers?

 

56298-03 probably