Newbie's Project Gone Awry! Handlebar change problems.

First-off, I'd like to apologize in advance, I am very new to working on my bike, and do not know much about it. I have a friend who usually helps out, but he is out of town for 3 weeks of prime riding season and I can't miss another beautiful day of riding like I did yesterday. I am a starving grad student with no money to spend on a real mechanic.

I have an 81 LTD 750 which had those horrible mini ape-hangers on it that I could not stand. A few weeks ago I posted a project forum to ask for advice on the change, and ended up getting a set of 7/8'' super-bike bars really cheap.

Yesterday I swapped the bars out, and it has become much more complicated than I expected, and I am looking for advice before ordering parts.

1. When I reassembled the bar, without turn signals, got it all ready to start up, and pulled the clutch in, the clutch cable snapped right where it connects to the clutch lever. Could the additional tension have been caused by the handlebar move? What is involved in replacing the clutch cable?

2. I have tried to reassemble the throttle and it will not seat correctly together around the bar, and there is a lot of tension on the throttle cable, which I just replaced 2 months ago.

3. I am looking for advice on new turn signals. Due to abnormally large master cylinder, the signals no longer fit on the bars like they did before, so I am thinking I will move them to the forks just below the headlight. Any recommendations on signals/stems that work for the forks and don't look out of place?

4. Due to the change of the layout of the bars, I can no longer see behind me with the original mirrors, I need something wider to see around myself. Any Ideas?

Thanks for the help guys! I appreciate it.

Well I can't help anywhere else but for turn signals I have ordered four sets of Cat eye turn signals. They work well and mount in the stock location. They stick out about an inch and a half.

1 the clutch cable is easy you have to remove the shift lever, then the four bolts that hold the sprocket cover on.
the clutch cable hooked to the actuator on the back of the cover just dont lose the ball bearing in the center. if you need pics i can get them tomorrow

2 the throttle probably has an alignment pin that the new bars arent drilled for. i just ground the pin out of my throttle assembly

I have an '81 KZ750 LTD that I had superbike bars on for years. They will fit and work great but I had to be creative on the routing of some of the components. The link below is to my project, but has pictures of my bike with the superbike bars. The clutch cable was routed over the speedometer and the brake hose over the tach. The turn signals were mounted on KZ1000 stems to homemade plates that attached to the headlight housing. Let me know if you have any questions.

My Bike

*Remember to click on the pictures to increase the size of the pictures*

Thanks Guys, I ordered a NOS clutch cable today. Hopefully I will be back on the road by this weekend.

You should have ordered a clutch cable for a Standard KZ750 (or '82 GPz750) which would have been shorter and fit better . Same with throttle and possibly upper brake hose .

Perhaps my next project will be to banish the long cables, but I want to have everything needed to take it back to stock in case I want to sell it, or I get nostalgic. I will remember to look for the standard or GPZ cables though, thanks.

The project is coming along nicely. I got my hands on some 77 KZ900 short stems which should screw right into the headlight, I think it ought to look pretty natural. I am picking up my clutch cable tomorrow, after taking it off, I realize it is really not very complicated to replace. Any suggestions on bar end mirrors, or wider mirrors that I can put on the bike?

Thanks,
Mike

You need to use standard cables for the clutch and throttle, but in the mean time you can route them up and over and all over the place. This will take the tension off of them. For the blinkers you can mount a bigger headlight and route the wires in it like a 900 or 1000 uses. Bar end mirrors will work. Just make sure you get the kind with the rubber mounting thinggy. The ones that use the metal expansion thinggy's will always come loose or fall out.

del

About halfway done...