Riser stiffening washers

Picture courtesy of SS Custom Cycle

Just a heads up. It seems that SS custom cycle has these for sale now so you don't need to have ones made when installing taller bars or risers. SS Custom Cycle website

If you don't know what these are for click & read below

> http://black-bolt.blogspot.fi/2015/11/pullback-riser-installation-on-yamaha.html

> http://black-bolt.blogspot.fi/2015/12/yamaha-bolt-riser-bushings-washers.html

Yamaha Bolt riser bushings / washers - the final solution

The custom made washers (4) have finally been installed and the handlebars now have virtually no play at all. The effects on vibrations is a big question at this point as test riding is not possible due to the sub zero temperatures.

Below you can see the amount of play before the installation

Top down view on how the bars are now

UPDATE [16.8.2016]

Picture courtesy of SS Custom Cycle

Just a heads up. It seems that SS custom cycle has these for sale now so you don't need to have ones made when installing taller bars or risers. SS Custom Cycle website

Pullback riser installation on Yamaha Bolt

5.5" pullback risers on Yamaha Bolt

Easy peasy, right? That's what I thought, but turns out that's hardly the case. For a proper rise and pullback you need more than 2" of rise and for that to be possible you need to

1. change all cables for longer ones (clutch, throttle, brake)
2. reroute the electrical wires going to the bars

Tank must come off for the cable swap

For the cable swap you need to first empty the front brake system of fluids, remove the tank and then of course you will need to refill and bleed the brake system, remove old and nstall the new cables. I bought the Yamaha factory extended cables mainly because I could get them much faster compared to ordering them overseas.

The Yamaha factory extended cables aren't really that much longer. They will not work for proper apes.

Now for the risers themselves, you need to figure out what models and lengths will work because the speedo will get in the way if your new risers are the wrong length or shape. For example, I don't think pullback risers shorter that 4.5" will clear the speedo.

5.5" risers leave plenty of room between the speedo and bars

Once you score the risers you need to also remember to order top clamp bolts and the actual riser bolts as the metric top clamp bolts will most likely not fit and risers tend to come sans the actual riser bolts.

- I bought my risers and top clamps at J&P cycles. (had to order them separately also)
- The risers bolts were ordered from SS Custom Cycles along with some other stuff
- The top clamp bolts were chopped down to 7/8" from 1" bolts as UNC bolts seem to rarer than diamonds in here.

The actual installation, while slow, went relative smoothly thanks to the instructional video by Chaparral Motorsports.


Results
I'm very happy with the new ergonomics, but I have a few worries too. The bars now have much more leverage which in turn means that there is a lot more play/movement in them because of the rubber mounts in the top triple tree.

Yamaha provides metal "stiffening washers" with their mini apes ( see above video at 10:21) , but since I kept the original bars I will have to find some on my own. I'm hoping the http://www.yamahastarbolt.com/ forums will come through and someone will post the measurements of the washers so I can either buy them or have them made.

My own measurements would suggest that the washers should be around
outer diameter 35 mm
inner diameter 20 mm
Thickness ~ 2 mm

Judging from the installation video the metal washer is a slightly loose fit.


EDIT
Score!
Apparently the Yamaha Mini ape replacement washers are:
outer diameter 1.375" = 35 mm
inner diameter 0.84" = 21 mm
Thickness ~ 2,5 mm
>> See here (Reply #48) 

The closest I could find is DIN 433 M20 washer which is:
outer diameter 34 mm
inner diameter 21 mm
Thickness 3 mm

It might work...

The top clamps also tighten "all the way" meaning that there is no gap left on any side. This means that if the bars start to move there is no room for tightening them. The bars feel solid for now, but I'm left with an uneasy feeling.

The top clamp looks clean this way, but may not be tight enough

The Yamaha extended cables work pretty well with the 5.5" rise, but I don't see that there is room to go much higher. Rerouting the cables will likely help, but my cables are now running the "OEM route".

Mustang solo seat for Yamaha xv950 / Star Bolt

Mustang solo seat and Yamaha OEM  seat size comparison

 I tried on the Mustang seat while I was installing the forwards. What should have been a 2 minute job turned into a half an hour wrestle with seat. The seat just refused to set so that I could attach the mounting screw. The instructions said that if this happens I should loosen the rear fender struts. That helped nothing. Others have reported the same problem and while i suspect it will go away after some use it sure is annoying!

Can't say anything about the comfort yet, but it should be  comfortable.

Mustang seat is somewhat higher than the stock one

Mustang seat is also quite a bit wider

Forward controls for Yamaha Bolt by SS Custom Cycle

Overlay image of the SS custom Cycle forward controls and the Stock controls

I got the SS Custom Cycle forwards mounted yesterday. The kit itself is of reasonably good quality. Personally I would have preferred the relocation bars to be made out of steel instead of aluminium, but the parts are plenty strong as they are now. I have to say though, that the mounting instructions leave a lot of room for improvement, Tiny B&W pictures and the instructions don't really help with the tricky parts such as how to actually deal with the extension rods for the shifter and rear brake for example.

As for the peg location, I don't think I could make it work with anything much farther than the 4.5" that the SS kit provides. The protruding engine on the left side combined with the extended feet position would cause the heat guard to rub against my leg. The 4.5" extension does seem to make the rather big airbox much more comfortable as my leg now hits it in a different angle which doesn't feel uncomfortable anymore.

UPDATE 15.4. 

After some riding I'm happy to say that I'm able to rest my ankles on the pegs quite comfortably. This was something that I wanted to achieve with the forwards, it's a usefull option to have on longer stints. It's not a comfy option with sneakers, but with proper riding boots, there is no discomfort.

Extended factory cables for Yamaha Bolt

Yamaha Bolt extended factory cables

The cables arrived today. I'm still missing bolts for the risers, but now that I have the cables I can at least get started on the handlebar ergos project.

5.5. inch pull back risers for Yamaha Bolt

The 5.5 inch Milwaukee Twins pullback risers for Yamaha Bolt (maybe...)

The risers arrived (from J&P Cycles). No clue yet if I can get them to fit, but judging from everything I've Googled, it should be doable. I'll need to change the cables first AND source the bolts for the top clamps. The product info doesn't state what kind of bolts I need nor does it say anything on the package. Getting UNC bolts here in soviet Europe is not so easy. Most hardware stores don't stock UNC bolts to an extent that you could just march in a see what fits.

EDIT: apparently I need four 5/16"-18 x 7/8" bolts

SIDE NOTE
Inerestingly it seems that the Yamaha factory Apes or Tall Handlebars - 1TP-F61B0-V0-00 as they are officially called come with hard washers that replace the rubbers insert inside the triple tree. This is apparently to reduce the amount of play on the tall bars that by nature will have more leverage than the stock ones.

I found this out by watching the excellent Chaparral Motorsports handlebar installation video.

Jump to around 11:12 for the part showing the washers.

I've posted on the http://www.yamahastarbolt.com/ forums in hopes of getting good close up pictures of the washers and maybe even measurements. I don't want to buy the bars just to get a pair of washers. 

Screen grabs

Yamaha Bolt riser rubber washers still in place

The new "hard washer"

PLEASE, go visit http://www.chaparral-racing.com/ they deserve some business for doing such good videos

Yamaha Bolt ergonomics

Yamaha Bolt stock riding position

While the Bolt is cruiser type bike, the riding position is not very relaxed for a guy my size (5'8). Ideally I would like my feet to be further forward and the bars to be a little higher. The standard factory setup is very similar to a Sportster Iron, but I wan't happy with that either when I test rode one. The Sportster 72 on the other hand felt rather comfy so I'm making changes to get the Bolt riding position closer to that.

About forward controls

The Sporster standard forwards are 6" forward from the factory mids. This is pretty ideal for me, but for the Bolt 6" forwards are not an option (at least to my knowledge). The factory forwards will move the pegs 2.5", The SS forwards 4.5" and The Low & Mean forwards a full 9" which I think is too much for me. The actual distance might just work, but the bolts engine is sticking out from the left side in such a way that I think it will press against my inner thigh. If the 9" forwards were to work they would have to be set up significantly wider than the standard pegs. I believe that they actually are too, but I  don't know by how much which prevents from making a DIY mock up for testing.

The engine is not centered on the Bolt.

Harley Sportster stock riding position

With the planned changes (5.5" pull back risers, Mustang seat and SS Custom Cycle 4.5" forward controls the forward lean will be reduced to near zero and the knee angle improved a bit. These estimations are based on the on the excellent cycle-ergo site's "calculator".

I estimated that the 5.5" pull back risers will produce roughly 4" rise and 1.5" pull back due to the mounting angle. I also estimated that the Mustang seat will raise me about 1".

Bolt modified riding postition