RC51 ROAD COMFORT RC-BARS - INSTALLATION GUIDE

Thank you for your purchase of RC-Bars. The higher and slightly wider positioning will enable you to take your RC51 on longer rides.  They also have the following advantages over Heli-Bars for the RC51 that were discontinued years ago:

PLEASE READ THIS CAUTION PARAGRAPH - IT IS IMPORTANT: 
I cannot assume liability for injury or loss of property from your installation or use of RC-Bars. You are responsible for ensuring that your motorcycle is safe to operate each time before you ride it. After installation of RC-Bars it is your responsibility to make sure they are installed properly and safe to ride with. RC-Bars were not designed for "stunt" riding and any such use is at your own risk. It is extremely important that you properly torque the pinch bolts to 96 in-lbs. Over-tightening can possibly result in hardware failure and under-tightening can possibly result in loose handlebars. Use of Torque-Seal or dabs of paint on the pinch bolts after installation is a good way to ensure they have not loosened over time. Otherwise you should periodically check security of the pinch bolts. Using Loc-Tite is not recommended because a tiny amount of anti-sieze has been applied to the pinch bolt threads to prevent corrosion. You must ensure that unrestricted lock-to-lock steering is available without interference from any cable, hoses, bodywork or the fuel tank. If RC-Bars are subjected to abnormally high forces such as a tip-over, crash or collision, it is your responsibility to inspect and determine any damage to them and make a decision if they are still safe to use. If the bars are bent, have any cracks, tears or deep gouges in the metal, you should consider them unsafe and not use them further. If you use the handlebars as a tie-down point keep in mind that it is possible the bars may rotate on the fork tubes if subjected to abnormally high forces. Thus it would always be prudent to use secondary tie-downs on other parts of the motorcycle. Check alignment of the RC-Bars afterwards and reposition them if needed. When you first ride with RC-Bars, keep in mind that at full lock steering, your inside thumb will not have as much clearance between the grip and the fuel tank as it did before. To avoid low speed crashes when doing u-turns or maneuvering in parking lots, you should anticipate this. Sit on the bike with your normal riding gloves on and explore the maximum steering limits back and forth with your hands on the bars until you develop a method of holding the inside bar that allows full lock steering in both directions. If your bars are positioned correctly, sliding your inside hand outboard on the grip, or moving your thumb from under the grip to on top of the grip is usually all that is needed. By practicing in advance you can hopefully avoid the pain of your thumb acting as the steering lock. If you disagree with anything in this paragraph, do not install the RC-Bars and instead return them to me for full refund. 

RETURN POLICY:
If you install RC-Bars and discover you are dissatisfied after riding with them, you can return them to me within 30 days, and I will refund your $220, assuming they are only scratched from installation/use, not damaged otherwise. You pay for return shipping though. I specifically know that each set of bars has been inspected thoroughly thru the manufacturing process and each bar has been fit tested on my personal bike. Provided they are not damaged during shipment to you, there is zero chance of you receiving a defective part. If you experience shipping damage contact me and I'll do a full refund.

INSTALLATION OF RC-BARS

Installation Goal:

Tools Required :

Installation Steps:

1) Put the bike up on the rear wheel stand.

2) Remove the windshield, mirrors and fairing stay from the upper fairing to give yourself more room to work around the handlebars. 

3) Put a towel or some sort of protection over the gas tank just in case you drop the torque wrench or the socket falls off. Turn the front wheel all the way to the left steering lock and use the 41mm or 1-5/8"  socket to loosen the steering stem nut.  

4) Straighten the front wheel and put the front end up on the steering stem stand to take weight off the forks.

 

5) Put towels down on the flat fairing surface below the clutch and front brake levers to keep the fairing from getting scratched.

6) Modify the angle of the front brake hose fitting at the master cylinder. It needs to be more parallel with the fork leg. If done carefully, it can be done without fluid leaking or having to bleed the brake afterwards. Follow this procedure:

 

  

 

7) Modify the angle of the clutch hose fitting at the master cylinder. It needs to be more parallel with the fork leg too. Again, If done carefully, it can be done without fluid leaking or having to bleed the clutch afterwards. Follow the same procedure as you did for the brake fitting except do not remove the tang. We're rotating the fitting the other direction away from the tang so it's not in the way.

8) Prepare the left handlebar for removal:

9) Prepare the right handlebar for removal: 

10) Put a towel over the instrument panel to protect it. Same thing for the gas tank. Loosen the fork pinch bolts on the top triple clamp, and remove the steering stem nut. Put some upward pressure by hand on one side of the top triple clamp then use a rubber or plastic hammer to gently tap upward from below on the other side to remove it. Let the triple clamp rotate forward and rest on the towel on the instrument panel. The ignition lock will keep you from taking it totally off the bike. 

Do not use a rear wheel stand as the only method of holding the bike while removing the steering stem, it puts excessive load on the forks and bottom triple clamp. As mentioned before, use of a steering stem stand or anything similar is best. Don't put blocks under the oil filter either!

11) Loosen the clamp bolts and remove the left and right handlebars. To remove the right bar, you'll have to slide the throttle inwards towards the fork to find a spot that allows you to remove the bar off the fork leg, then slide the throttle assembly off the bar. Remove the circlips off both fork legs too, they are not used with the new RC-Bars.

12) Remove the internal dampers from the bars. Put each handle bar into a vise to hold it securely. Screw the bar weight end back on to use as a handle to pull the inner weight out. Use needle nosed pliers to push in the tangs in the holes at the end of the bar and you apply pulling pressure on the end weight. This allows the inner weight to slide out the of the bar. Expect to have to pull pretty hard, wiggle it around etc, because the rubber part of the damper is probably stuck to the inner bar, plus the tangs don't like to slide out of the tube either.

13) Install the left RC-Bar onto the fork leg and slide it down far enough to get the trip clamp back on. Note that when installed correctly, the handlebar tube will be at the top of the sleeve that slides over the fork leg. If not, you have the wrong one on and need to swap it. 

 

Before installing the right bar, clean out the throttle tube if needed and put the throttle tube/cable assembly on first, then slide it up the bar as needed to allow you to slip the sleeve onto the fork leg.

   

 14) Reinstall the top triple clamp:

15) Position and snug the RC-Bars:

 

Optionally - you can tram the bars using a flexible steel rule or something similar. First put a tiny mark on the center aft of the gas cap ring with a sharpie pen. Tram the front wheel to a position of exact straightness by measuring the distance from each fork cap to the index mark. Adjust the wheel position until you get the measurements exactly equal. Pick a reference mark on the ends of the bars, for example the closest edge of the screw in the middle of the damper weight, and compare measurements to the index mark. Assuming the measurements are not equal, adjust one of the bars a little. Assume you knocked the wheel out of center doing this, and re-tram the front wheel straight again before re-measuring the bars. Repeat as needed until you get them equal to your satisfaction. 

When I did this I found that using the templates I had placed the bars within 0.05 inch of each other, certainly well within reasonable tolerance.

             

16) Install the dampers into the bars - Screw the weights on to the dampers, they don't have to be tight. Align the tangs of the with the two holes in the end of the bars. Push them in until they are stopped at the end of the bar by the raised edge of the tang piece. You'll have to slide the throttle up the bar a little to see the holes in the end, but afterwards you can tighten the weight. Take off the weight on the left side after installing the damper, because you still need to put the grip back on.

  

17) Install the the throttle housing, aligning the pin into the hole in the bar. Both screws are equal length. Tighten them up. Install the kill switch aligning the pin in the bottom half into the hole in the bar. The longer screw goes in the aft hole. Tighten it up. Depending on your screwdriver collection you might find it easier to install the kill switch first that way you can push the throttle cables out of the way so you can tighten that front kill switch screw. Since the throttle is in a different location than it used to be, loosen the two locknuts and readjust the the two throttle cable "sweeps" that enter the throttle housing. The angles won't change much, but they will each find a new neutral "happy" position, then tighten the lock nuts again.

18) Remove the little aluminum bracket holding the front brake master reservoir. CAREFULLY bend it as shown in the picture. Print out the picture and set the bracket on the picture as you go along to help you get the angles right. Try not to bend it too far, because it may break if you try to bend it back and forth too much. 

  

19) Install the modified bracket on the master cylinder, then install the front brake lever assembly on the bar in your favorite location, but don't tighten it up all the way yet. You may decide to move it once you get the clutch lever in position and start testing steering lock. Keep in mind that some locations may require a little more bending/modification to the reservoir bracket.  Caution: To avoid scratching the finish, loosen the brake/clutch controls adequately before rotating or sliding them on the bars!

 

20) Install the left grip and bar end weight. Overhang the grip so it looks similar to the throttle side, with the same amount of bar weight sticking out.

21) Install the Hi/Lo Beam/Turn Signal housing, aligning its pin into the hole in the bar. The screws are equal length.

22) Install the clutch perch/lever assembly. Because of differences in design from the front brake perch, the clutch bar clamp will most likely end up as close to the fork tube as you can put it.

23) Sit on the bike and adjust the position of the brake and clutch controls, then tighten them up.

24) Remove all the towels etc so you can observe the moving cables and hoses as you steer left to right and right to left, full lock.  If you've got the bars where they should be and all the adjustments talked about above done, you should not have any cable or hose problems, and nothing hits the fairing or gas tank although they get close. Use the template again and verify that the bars are equal angles. Sit on the bike and see if the bars look and feel to be at the same angle. See pictures below for clearances at full lock:

 

 

25) Tighten the bars to 96 in-lbs: Use the small torque wrench with a 5mm allen wrench socket as follows:

  

26) Install your fairing stay, windshield and mirrors then take it out for a test ride!

Have fun and ride safe!