1983 KZ 750 LTD Shaft Dr - Handlebar Replacement?

My recently acquired 1983 KZ 750 LTD Shaft Drive (F1) has what I believe are called "buckhorn" handlebars. These are the original handlebars.

They're in great shape and the only problem is that I don't find them particularly comfortable. The angle at which the grips come down and back is what hurts my wrists.

I'd like to find something a bit more comfortable while still maintaining the correct look for the bike and still retaining all the other original parts.

Can anyone recommend appropriate handlebars?

Did the KZ 750 come with other handlebars besides the buckhorn version?

Gary

different variants of the KZ had different handlebars. Z1 has a couple different styles that swap in relatively easy. The superbike bars seem to be popular, but you can look on their site and see the different styles, along with dimensions as to what kind of pullback, rise, etc that they have. I think most of the bars they have there except the clubmans would look at home on the LTD. I like the clubmans, but they're a bit aggresive and funky looking IMO for an LTD, and probably aren't very comfortable.

Del:

Thanks for the info.

I'll have to see if I can find the dimensions for the stock buckhorn bars and see how these others at Z1 compare.

I want to be able to retain the turn signals, gauges, controls, etc. so the bike is as original as possible.

Gary

The bars on these are just bolted on top of the tree, so they shouldn't affect your gauges, and the controls will come off and slide onto the new bars. You might have to drill a hole in the bars where you want to have the locator pin in the controls, but you should be able to retain it all. I'm not sure how the turn signals are mounted on the LTD, they're mounted to the forks on my Spectre.

Del:

The turn signals are clamped onto the upright portion of the handlebars on the buckhorn bars. I'm not sure if any of the wiring runs inside of the buckhorn bars as I haven't thoroughly investigated that. But it seems to me that it must as I don't remember any wiring running from the turn signals and into the cables or wiring harness.

Thanks again for the info.

Gary

Yea, you'll have to route the wires back through the new handlebars, it'll take a little work but shouldn't be terrible. Not sure what to do for the turn signals, might have to get creative. You can always check out the gallery to steal ideas from others if needed.

Del_Herring wrote: Yea, you'll have to route the wires back through the new handlebars, it'll take a little work but shouldn't be terrible. Not sure what to do for the turn signals, might have to get creative. You can always check out the gallery to steal ideas from others if needed.

Del:

I'm not sure what you mean about the turn signals and needing to get creative.

If the new bars have an appropriate rise to them and can be drilled for the turn signal wires, wouldn't it most likely be a simple matter of just transferring everything over to the new bars? Or am I missing something?

Gary

Yea, if you get bars that rise the same kinda way. I was thinking in terms of flatter bars where they might end up hanging off at weird angles. I go for flatter bars myself. I'm fairly tall, so with bars that rise up and pull back, I end up awkwardly positioned if I lean forward at all.

Del:

Got'cha. Now I know what you were saying.

I'll be trying to retain the original location/position of all lighting, controls, etc. I just want to change the angle of the hand grips. Those buckhorn bars just don't work with my wrists.

They were moved/tilted back when I bought the bike and with the angle of the hand grips it was akin to riding with my elbows against my torso and my wrists splayed out at a 45 degree angle.

I thought moving the bars back up into a more upright position might help and although it's gotten my elbows away from my torso, it hasn't changed the 45 degree angle of my wrists.

So now I just need to order a couple of sets from Z1 Enterprises and see which works best.

Gary

In my opinion, the bars that I put on my 650-CSR are a pretty good match if you want to keep the stock look (BMW Med tall street) - they are a vast improvement over the stock bars. I have since installed Euro bars.

I forget the diameter of our bars. But if you know that, you can probably go to a local motorcycle shop and check out a couple pairs of bars and see what you like. I believe they're a fairly standard size, so there are probably some decent options.

The Daytona Touring bars worked and looked great on my old KZ 750f. The turn signals mounted to the bars with no clearance problems.
Here they are from Z1... www.z1enterprises.com/ItemDetails.aspx?i...ring&item=EM23-12564