Choosing The Best Handlebars for Your Dirt Bike or ATV

hello everyone I am chase at Rocky Mountain atv/mc and this is our handlebars 101 all right in this video today we are talking all about handlebars no handlebars are probably one of the more common upgrades that riders like to make the machines and the good news is that here at Rocky Mountain we have a very large selection for you to choose from the difficult part is there's a lot of things you need to consider when you are choosing your next set you have different sizes different materials different bend to consider and so that's what we're gonna do today we're going to educate you all about the basics of handlebars to give you the information that you need so that you can buy with confidence alright so the first category that we're going to cover is going to be materials now with handlebars you've got two main materials you're gonna have steel and you're going to have aluminum so nowadays just about all your stock race and off-road bikes are gonna have aluminum handlebars they're gonna give the most performance they're stronger they're lightweight and they don't Bend nearly as easy as steel and that's what you can see just about all riders putting on their off-road performance machines now steel handlebars we do have a couple options available but they are limited and honestly the only real benefit to a steel handlebar is going to be cost you are going to notice also with a lot of styles of aluminum handlebars they are going to have a shot peened or an anodized finish to them that's going to help us strength and durability alright so the next category we're gonna cover is going to be size II now depending on what came stock on your machine you're gonna have to mate size you're gonna have seven eighths of an inch which is this red pair here and on my right you're gonna have one on one eighths of an inch now sometimes these are called oversized bars fat bars or even big bars so just keep that in mind now the seven eighths handle bar it's going to be seven eighths of an inch all the way across with an oversized bar that's one on one eight it will start at one on one eights in the center but you will see that as you work your way out to the end it will actually taper down to a seven eight so that's gonna make sure that your controls and your grips are gonna fit just fine now a very common upgrade that riders like to make is going from a seven eighths to a one on-one eight and the reason that writers do that is that the oversized handle bars are going to be stronger and much more resistant to fatigue but one thing you need to keep in mind if you if you are going to make that upgrade and you currently have a 7/8 handle bar with seven eighths clamps okay you are going to need an oversize handle bar clamp to accommodate the one on one eight inch handle bar now lucky for you guys on our website we have a lot of different options to choose from for oversize handle bar clamps but in some situations there are some machines where the lower handle bar clamps are actually built into the upper triple clamp now if you're in that situation you can look at our tusk a universal big bar clamps and those will actually convert your stock clamps into a one on one eights and allow you to run an oversize handle bar so the last thing that I want to cover when it comes to sizing is when you use a parts finder on our homepage so when you enter the make the model in the year of your bike your ATV as you scroll down and you get to the handlebars page it's only going to show the stock sized handlebars that came on your machine so if your biker e8 to be came with a 7/8 inch handlebar that's what you're going to see however we do have some kits available that come with our tusk universal big bar clamps and our oversized clamps along with some of our more popular one on one ached handlebars in different bands so if you want to get everything you need to upgrade to a one-on-one its handlebar that's a very easy way to do it but keep in mind if you want to see all the oversize handlebars that we do offer it's very simple to do that you can just look at our handlebars page alright so next up let's talk about handlebar bends now every manufacturer is gonna offer their handlebars in different bends now this is where it gets a little bit dicing a little bit difficult of knowing what Ben is gonna be best for you but the bend of your handlebar is gonna have three different measurements the first one is wick now width is pretty straight forward it's gonna be from bar into bar in that's gonna be in a straight line okay you're not gonna follow the shape of the handlebar and usually you're gonna be right around 800 millimeters or 32 inches but in many cases you can alter and narrow down your handlebars if you want to the second measurement is height now the way that they measure height with handlebars is they will measure from the center of your body of the bottom of the handlebar so right here now imagine if you were to draw a line from the center straight out and measure up to the middle of the end of the handlebar that's gonna be your height measurement so Center the bottom to the center of the top at the very end and your third measurement is gonna be your sweep or sometimes called pull back and that measurement is from the center of the bottom your handlebar and how far it bends back towards the rider now you got to keep in mind that handlebar companies they'll actually give their bends names for the handlebars you might see see our band or Ricky Carmichael pin or Windham in so it's important though that you don't just pick a handlebar based off your favorite rider you want to look at the different Bend measurements of that now the way you can see those is on the product page if you go to the sizing chart it will show all the different Ben's for that specific handlebar or you can use another great tool that we have which is our handlebars info page and on there we share some really good information about handlebars in general we also list the different brands that we have in the bends that are offered and also keep in mind that we're always updating that page so if you see something on there that's missing we'll let us know and we will get it updated so let's say that you have a handlebar and you really like the shape and you like the bend of it but you don't know the name of the handlebar and you also don't know what your bend measurements are well there's a simple way that you can find out now it's not going to be perfect but will give you a very good starting point now I'm going to show you how to do that so what you're going to need to do is take your handlebars out of your handlebar clamps and you're going to need a tape measure so the first measure we're going to find is going to be your height now to find the heights very simple you want to have the handlebars on the table or on any flat surface you want them as straight up as down as possible you're going to notice with these chubb bars and most of the handlebars out there you're going to have these sent on the bottom here so you want to have that zero is straight up and down as possible so once you have that done you're gonna measure out here at the end of the handlebar from the table to the bottom of the end okay you're not gonna measure to the center but you're gonna go from the table to the bottom of the handlebar so that's gonna be your height measurement next let's find your sweep or your pullback so for this it's real simple you're just going to place the bars facing forward on the table and again you're going to come out to the end and you're going to measure from the table to the bottom of the end not the middle but table to the bottom of the end and that's gonna be your sweep or your pullback measurement and lastly with width well this is pretty straightforward we've already talked about it it's just gonna be from bar in to bar and just remember it's not gonna follow the shape of the bar is gonna go straight across so that's really easy that's how you can find the bend of your handlebars or at least get very very close so when you are looking at handlebars you can say you know what that one is very close to what I have now that's the Ben I'm gonna go with so simple to deal but you guys got to remember that when it comes to handlebar bends it's all about rider preference most riders will find the handlebar bent if they'd really like and they will stick to that but if you're not quite sure and you want to experiment maybe with some different handlebars there are some things that you can't consider for instance your riding style or moving the terrain you're gonna be riding for example a lot of off-road and motocross riders they like a little bit straighter handlebar so a little less pullback or sweep and that just helps them stay a little bit farther forward over the bike I know woods and trail riders will actually cut down and narrow their handlebars just a little bit but you got to remember it's all about rider preference find a Bend that you like and just try and stick to that specific thing [Music] all right so the last category that we're gonna cover is going to be cross bar versus no cross bar now all your 7/8 handlebars they're gonna have a cross bar for added strength but when you get to your one-on-one eights you're going to notice that there's some that have a cross bar and some that do not so the difference is gonna be rigidity and how stiff the handle bar is for riders that like a little bit stiffer feel you would want to go with the cross bar well for riders not like a little bit more flex and want to help absorb a little bit more vibration well you would go to a non cross bar design but also keep in mind that there are a lot of handlebars that we offer here at Rocky Mountain that actually designed to help reduce vibration in rider fatigue so make sure to check those out as well and also when it comes down to cross bar versus non a lot of times it's just what the rider thinks looks best some riders like the look of the cross bar pad some riders like the look of it without and hey great nothing wrong with that but that's the last category is cross bar versus no cross bar all right guys so there it is that is our handlebars 101 so thanks for watching this video if you have any questions you can comment below give us a call or chat live online we will get your questions answered and to pick up your next set of bars it's real simple you can click on the link or head over to Rocky Mountain atv/mc calm remember check out the handle bar information page where we talk about everything we discussed today we also show you the different manufacturers and the different bends that are available orders over $75 ship free if you guys like this video and you want to see more like it well click and subscribe I'm Chancellor rocky mountain I'm gonna see on the trails [Music] you

Channel: Rocky Mountain ATV MC

Views: 219,676

Rating: 4.8862815 out of 5

Keywords: Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, rmatv, rmatvmc, atv/mc, atvmc, motocross, rockymountain, dirt bike, motorcycle, parts, accessories, rocky, mountain, handlebars 101, best handlebars, best dirt bike handlebars for trail riding, best dirt bike handlebars for tall riders, motocross handlebars, bends, handlebar sweep, bars, bar bends, aluminum vs steel, aluminum handlebars, handlebar info, information, review, how to choose the best handlebars, atv handlebars, protaper, flexx, tusk, renthal

Id: FmFj5CLJqg8

Length: 8min 44sec (524 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 04 2018