Well, Well, Well,

I made a visit to the local dealer today and inquired about handle bar installation. I want to install Wild1 10" apes on the RD King.
Dealer says:
"$200 for the bars"
"$160 For cable extensions/or extended cables"
"and since they're designed for internal wiring, 6-8 hrs labor" which comes out to $576 in labor. They managed to live up to my expectations with an estimate of right around a grand to have "them do this"

Have any of you folks installed these bars yourself? I'm looking to save some jack, and will attempt this myself. Looking for some/any advice for the do it yourselfer.

Thanks
Jimbo

 

Do it yourself. I have an 05 RKC. I installed Wild1 518's last year. I changed all of the cables to braided as well. Its a pretty big job and took me about three days working a few hours a day. Using the HD service manual, the job went smoothly and turned out beautifully. By the way, I possess barely average mechanical ability, so if I can do it, a twelve year-old girl can probably do it.

Rick

 

Do it yourself. If you can solder and bleed brakes, you can do it. Get a nice soldering iron, some shrink tubing, and a wiring extension kit. Since you dont have radio controls, there are less wires than my RG. Good luck, let me know if I can answer any questions. ZOOK

 

ZOOK,

where is the best place to get the extensions for the cables? The Dealer, or somewhere else?

Thanks
Jimbo

 

You can do it yourself, but it will take you arouind 6 hours if you are routing your wires throught the bars.

 

Here's a source for cables -- I got my Wild 1 518s there:

http://www.hdbikeparts.com/

 

Do it yourself, you can do it. I did mine!

 

Putting on new bars is fairly easy. I did it on my softail standard a couple years ago. I just went to an auto parts store and got the right gage electrical wire, some shrink tube (in a couple different sizes as I didn't know exactly what I would need), and a soldering iron. If you use them in the right place, some of those little crimp connectors (not sure what they're called exactly) work really well also. They have their own shrink tube around the metal part you crimp the wires into. No soldering involved with them, but they take up more space than soldering does (don't put them inside the bars). It was pretty cheap. I didn't change the cables, so can't comment on that. Dealer labor costs are outrageous. If you really don't want to do it yourself try an independent motorcycle place. You might also check around online for good prices on the handlebars and other things you will need. You can probably get them at a better price than the dealer offers and save on sales tax. Sometimes with a larger $ purchase online they don't charge shipping either.

 

Jimbo, I got the kit from the stealer. I cant remeber who it was made by, but your local stealer should have a smilar one for your bike. If you buy one for an FLHT, you should have more than enough wire. The kits are cheap, only 10-15 bucks. ZOOK

 

Th dealers makes it so affordable!! Don't they???