Having recently purchased my benchtop milling maching and equipping it with a DRO, I was looking for a good first project. This one presented itself as neccessary when I got a new steering damper for my BMW F800GS. The dampers design replaced the original bar mounts with a piece that holds the damper. Unfortunatly, it placed the bars lower and further forward than I wnated them. I had installed bar risers before, but they would not work with the new damper. So I set out to solve this problem.
I came up with a design to add the riser blocks on top of the damper mount, then cap that with a new single piece top clamp. The design of the risers ended up being higher than I wanted due to the need to have one of the cap screws under the new par position, so I simply milled the damper mount down to account for that extra material. The end result has the bars a bit higher and further back than where I had them before which should make the bike more comfortable when standing upright on rough terrain and the new damper should ease the wobbles. Looking forward to spring and some testing.
Comparing the new bar mount to the original, note the mounting hole location imoves the bars forward.
New bar mount versus the original with risers.
7075 aluminum milled to base dimensions.
Riser blocks drilled and countersunk and tapped.
Top clamp drilled and milled to shape.
Bored for the bars.
Relief milled for clamping.
Comparing the factory and the factroy with risers to the new risers.
Edges radiuses to soften the look and eliminate sharp corners.
Test fitting on the bike.
The test fitting was perfect, no interferences at full rotation of the bars and the position seems right. I will take them off again to finish up with some buffing and finishing. haven't decided between paint, powdercoat or anodizing yet.
It was a good challenge for a first project as it involved many processes; precision drilling and hole placement, tapping, milling, lots of milling, boring and reaming and the edge radiusing. I guess all that time spent reading on this and other sites paid off.
I came up with a design to add the riser blocks on top of the damper mount, then cap that with a new single piece top clamp. The design of the risers ended up being higher than I wanted due to the need to have one of the cap screws under the new par position, so I simply milled the damper mount down to account for that extra material. The end result has the bars a bit higher and further back than where I had them before which should make the bike more comfortable when standing upright on rough terrain and the new damper should ease the wobbles. Looking forward to spring and some testing.
Comparing the new bar mount to the original, note the mounting hole location imoves the bars forward.
New bar mount versus the original with risers.
7075 aluminum milled to base dimensions.
Riser blocks drilled and countersunk and tapped.
Top clamp drilled and milled to shape.
Bored for the bars.
Relief milled for clamping.
Comparing the factory and the factroy with risers to the new risers.
Edges radiuses to soften the look and eliminate sharp corners.
Test fitting on the bike.
The test fitting was perfect, no interferences at full rotation of the bars and the position seems right. I will take them off again to finish up with some buffing and finishing. haven't decided between paint, powdercoat or anodizing yet.
It was a good challenge for a first project as it involved many processes; precision drilling and hole placement, tapping, milling, lots of milling, boring and reaming and the edge radiusing. I guess all that time spent reading on this and other sites paid off.
