I spent a lot of time researching bars and I think I finally have "won".

I did my first real long road trip on my Ultra Limited in early April and I noticed that my wrists were getting sore by the 4th day (did about 500 mi. that day). The stock bars started to seem really low to me, and the wrist angle was way too sharp for me. I decided that I wanted something with less wrist angle, and ideally a little higher up.

On this same road trip we hit a pretty nasty 30 minute rain storm. My buddy and I were wearing the exact same supposedly waterproof HD heated gloves. His hands were outside of his windshield and mine were behind my fairing. His gloves were soaked all the way through, and mine were bone dry. I live in the Pacific NW and ride in a lot of crappy weather. Anyway, after that I decided I definitely didn't want my hands in the wind/weather if I could help it.

My other issue is that I have the HD GPS with the dash mount and I really like it were it is. Almost every bar that I looked at that would bring my hands up would have come right in front of the GPS (I probably would have gone with 10" MBBs if not for that).

Lastly, I was dumping a bunch of cash on speakers, so getting the hand controls out from in front of the speakers would be a plus.

I ended up getting the Santee 11" Dresser Apes (I know, they're not really apes, but that's what Santee calls them). The height is absolutely perfect for me. The wrist angle is great (a little less than the stock bars, but with the new bars being so much wider it works perfect for me). It's as high and wide as you could possibly be and still be out of the wind (I've road tested for a few days, including some 80 mph cruising). They are really wide at the uprights, so they clear all the gauges, and more importantly, they clear the GPS. They are almost completely above the speakers.

They're beefier than stock at 1 1/4" and the seem to be really well built. I got mine in black and the gloss finish is excellent. And they're only around $100. Anyway, I couldn't be happier.



Check out this album for more pics:

Santee bars and Arc/Focal stereo

 

It looks like your hands would be "in the wind". You're saying they are protected, and don't get wet? (nice bike!)

 

Looks great, bee thinking about doing the same but need to ride the bike more to realy know, I will find out in June. Nice tunes and SWEET RIDE!!!!

 

i too just put the same bars on my 05 flht and my hands are inches above the bat wing. you must have the bars pulled way back or something, for them to be out of the wind. i have the bars parralel with the inner fairing (maybe 1.5" away from the fairing). i thought these bars would be perfect for me as the stockers were a bit lower than my desired position. i road up to keene nh yesterday for the swap meet and to work today, each trip was less than 100 miles each way and i was feeling pain in my shoulders. i feel like the bars are too tall and too close to me. again i cant go too much further forward with them. they are a nice quality bar that looks great on my bike but looks isnt my motivation. im going to try a set of bars that harley advertises as stock bars on the 08 and newer cvo electras. they look somewhere between stock and the santee 11" bars.

just so i dont come off wrong, i love apes my old bike had a set of 16" with 5" pull back risers. there were great. i dislike this set.

 

this is the part number for the black and chrome bars just so there isnt any confustion
693678, 693679there is also another posting on here that shows an electra with them on it that have it pulled back some and it looks like its on the very top of the bat wing.

 

Rockerbob, those look sweet. I've been thinkn about getting 10" bars for mine... Did you have to change your cables out for longer or did stock still work?

 

That's strange. I will say that the bars look like they're maybe 1.5" to 2" above the fairing, but when you get down at bar level and look at the contour relative to the fairing, they are really just right at the top, maybe 1/2" above. Here is a pic taken from the front with the camera lens level with the top of the fairing:



That's probably the most "true" pic up there in terms of height. I have mine mounted about like you said (pretty close to parallel with the inner fairing). I'm wondering if you got the wrong size or they were mismarked or something? Maybe there is something different about the fit on your 05? Hard to believe the same bars could have such different results.

I'm 6' 1" and ride a custom seat that puts me 1.5" back from stock, and the reach is just right for me.

I was pretty skeptical after seeing these bars on the demo bike, and then on my bike, but I think they are. When I mentioned my concern to the parts guy he assured me that even though the top of your hands are slightly above the fairing, that they're still inside the wind envelope and would be protected. I've taken several rides now, including some 75-80 mph slab, wearing lightweight gloves, and I really don't feel any wind at all on my hands. I haven't ridden in the rain yet, so not totally sure about that.

Yeah, I used a 76 3/4" clutch cable and a 40" upper brake line (I have ABS, so that's just the brake line from the lever to the main ABS unit). The dealer does these bars quite a bit, so they knew what was needed. I think I've seen threads here were people used stock cables with some modified routing. The bars are about 3.5" taller than stock and maybe 4" or 5" wider, so it's not a huge stretch.

 

Hmm. Same part number I got. That's kinda blowing my mind.

 

i'm about 99% sold on these....seems lik the right height and the price is tough to beat...

RockerBob...how is the black finish compared to the Vivid black? you have the vivid black inner right?

and second...it's tough to see in the pictures(the balck blends together) but does it look like there is any room to mod the bars to take some width out of the center, pulling th uprights closer together..threfore making the overall width a little narrower?

 

The gloss black is a very good match to the Vivid Black inner fairing.

I think you're right. The bottom bend starts pretty much right where it comes out of the fairing, so I don't think there's a way to make them narrower.