Reducing my Bad Vibes

[SANGER_A2]

I switched from the stock bars with risers to Renthal high road bars. I love them, except for the vibes. They are far far better than the stock bars without barends, but still make my hands ache on the motorway. This engine is quite vibey anway and the bumps etc are still not wholly damped by the suspension. Later on I will be upgrading to progressive to help with this.

I decided there were three things I could do to help reduce the vvibes: heavier bar ends, filling the bars with something like the bar snake and rubber mounting instead of straight metal on metal. The first step was the heavier bar ends.

The Oberon barend I had on originally only weighed 100g:-


The stock barends are 300g:-


My solution was some heavier barends I had from my last bike that fix using a bolt. I had to bodge something to get it to fit into the rube of the Renthals though. An expansion bolt was the thing. The barends were originally chromed, so I sanded them off and started painting them black. My painting skills are awful and it took several layers and several goes sanding off and repainting after they got messed up. This is not the final paintjob below:-


With a rubber tube around the expansion bolt, it was a perfect fit and weighed 250g (nearly up to stock):-


I also had to find something to fill the bars with. Bar snake is too hard to get in the UK and although some people have tried silicone it's had mixed reviews and also is pretty permanent. Lead shot is another option, but that's also hard to find in the (non-gun-mad) UK. I decided on sand.

The first step to doing this is to remove the rubber stops Renthal install to stop moisture getting into the bars. I used a screw with some string tied around it. I screwed this into the caps and then pulled them out carefully using the string:-


With caps:-


Without caps:-


Here you can see the barends looking shiny:-


I even painted the bolts to attach the barends:-


Here you can see the expansion bolt close up. I used the M6 as the M8 was too large to fit into the bar:-

[SANGER_A2]

I ran the bolt through the expansion nut thingy with a large washer on the end and just tapped it into the bar with a hammer. I used paraffin to lubricate it as it dries out completely very quickly:-


I decided that instead of the bar being mounted metal against metal on the yoke, I would use some tubing in between. I used some plastic airline tubing and cut it lengthwise:-


Here is the sand I poured into the bars once I had one of the barends attached. I removed the throttle and front brake cyclinder and held the bar verticle. I just used a funnel to pour in the sand slowly and kept shaking and banging the bar with a rubber mallet. I managed to get 200g in there. I may check in a few months time and see if it compressed at all with the engine vibes so I can add more:-


I was planning on using these around the bolts that are used to attach the top clamp to the yoke, but discovered that once the tubing was round the bars, they weren't needed:-


Here you can see the tubing wrapped round the bars. I taped it with sellotape as a temporary measure. It will come off on it's own eventually probably:-


UPDATE: Do NOT do the rubber mounted handlebar option shown above!!! It sucks when actually riding the bike. You get very poor handling and response. I did a mini tour this week and took the handlebars off at the campsite and threw away the tubing wrapped round the handlebars. It just gave me no confidence at all in the steering!

And then with it all clamped down. You can see that the yoke and top clamp don't meet:-


Here's a nice illustration of how it all fits:-


And the final product. The barends are torqued down pretty good and look nice. I'll repaint them later on as I'm still not happy. I'm taking the bike touring next week so I couldn't repaint again. They're not too bad:-


A closeup. The barends are in damn tight. The only was I was able to get them out once I'd loosened the bolt was with a slide hammer. Such a useful tool to have around:-


Here is a comparison of the stock versus new barends:-


First impressions are very good. I've ridden at high revs, but not above 50 and the vibrations are much reduced. I'm on holiday at the moment and I'm not doing my usual 10 miles at 80mph on the motorway. That will be the real test. I'll post about that later probably.

[johnn]

Nicely done, and thank you for the excellent step-by-step photos! Now, if I could just apply the same principles to get rid of the "buzz butt" I get at about 60 mph, I'd be all set! Seriously, great job and thanks for sharing the details!

John
Indiana
Usa

[afpreppie04]

Very nice writeup, I've been wondering how to get heavier barends as well, all I have right now are generic ones and they weigh about 1/3 what the stock ones did. One question though...what is the difference between sharp sand and dull?

[Erci]

Great job, mate! Question for you.. where did you get that nice cross-brace you've got mounted on the inside of your windscreen?

For anyone else interested in mounting heavier bar ends on aftermarket aluminum bars, just get OEM Suzuki bar ends. They are relatively heavy and sit flush with the bar. They can be mounted using wall anchor bolt (as SANGER_A2 has done) or you can go with this: http://www.fz6-forum.com/forum/how-t...andlebars.html (How To: Mount Bar End Weights on aftermarket aluminum handlebars)

[FuriousGeorge]

I didn't notice that cross brace the first time I looked at the pictures. That looks slick for mounting a GPS or radar detector.

The FZ6 doesn't seem to vibe that much to me. Maybe it's because I haven't been on any really long rides yet. It's so much better than my last bike that I don't have any complaints. I don't have any experience with them, but these things sound like they should help a lot for people that are having problems. Don't know if they have anything that will fit the stock bars, but I think they have a model that will work with those Renthals.

http://www.vibranator.com/

[SANGER_A2]

Originally Posted by FuriousGeorge

I didn't notice that cross brace the first time I looked at the pictures. That looks slick for mounting a GPS or radar detector.

The FZ6 doesn't seem to vibe that much to me. Maybe it's because I haven't been on any really long rides yet. It's so much better than my last bike that I don't have any complaints. I don't have any experience with them, but these things sound like they should help a lot for people that are having problems. Don't know if they have anything that will fit the stock bars, but I think they have a model that will work with those Renthals.

http://www.vibranator.com/

I'd love to try it, but it's quite expensive and also I don't live in the US.

[SANGER_A2]

Originally Posted by John-K9jgs

Nicely done, and thank you for the excellent step-by-step photos! Now, if I could just apply the same principles to get rid of the "buzz butt" I get at about 60 mph, I'd be all set! Seriously, great job and thanks for sharing the details!

John
Indiana
Usa

Get a nice beefy gel pad in there. I have one that covers the whole seat now. Didn't take any pics though. I bought a gel numnah designed to go underneath the saddles of horses that was about 1.5cm thick and about 80cm by 30cm, then I cut it in half, stuck it together, shoved it under the seat cover, cut it to shape and then stapled the cover back on. It helps. The seat still sucks though. I miss my GPZ500S seat, now THAT was comfy. Nice soft foam.

[SANGER_A2]

UPDATE: Do NOT do the rubber mounted handlebar option!!! It sucks when actually riding the bike. You get very poor handling and response. I did a mini tour this week and took the handlebars off at the campsite and threw away the tubing wrapped round the handlebars. It just gave me no confidence at all in the steering!

[buckeyethunder]

Sanger,
What is part number on renthal high road bars?
thx in advance