I'll get to the "how I did it" in a minute, but you have to understand the "how I got there"... the journey is always better than the destination, which is why we love bikes anyway.
First 1,500 miles on the bike and I knew they had to go. Also, they just look incredibly wimpy on such a stout bike and since I wen tthe mileage to put the 2" Germany crash bars on it.. the 1" bars just couldn't stay.
My last ride, a 2003 Valkyrie, was designed to accept Harley stuff.. 3.5" riser mount separation. Any harley bar or riser fit, so life was easy and the instruments mounted to the front of the triple tree, so the bars had nothing to do with it, unlike the complicated Triumph. This is why the "Thunder Bars" 1.5" T-bar is the way it is, it does NOT remove the stock clamp and thus the instrument mount remains unchanged making life easy.
Now, if Thunderbars (not knocking them, lots of engineering went into it), put the same energy into designing a revised instrument mount as they did the hidden sideways mounts into the stock 1" riser, you could have the real thing.... and I wanted the real thing.
First step was to modify my top triple clamp. This was not the first time I have done this, so I knew where to turn: Leon Holmes (
billybiltit and
leonholmes@sbcglobal.net ). To do this, you have to weld the holes closed, then machine the new holes in the proper location and finish the surface.
The next problem is to figure out how to mount the gauges. I guess there are a lot of ways, but in my case I wanted them behind m T-bars under the top bar and over the tank. There isn't a lot of room and my T-bars are an 8" rise, still not enough room to be safe. So, I thought that if I created a 3/4" rise not only would that give me the gauge room I needed, but would give me a place to mount the gauge mount bracket I designed AND allow me to use the stock mount bolted to the cluster. Here is my drawing of the rise and mount. Note again, figuring out how to mount the cluster is the KEY to making this conversion work:
The straight section of the mount needs to be bent over to match the stock cluster depending on your bars as that is the way to adjust the cluster up and down and in and out. The risers could be made a million ways.
Here's my cluster mounted to the bent mount after several fittings. Eventually I finished the mount and painted it black so it would "disappear".
So, in the end here are some finish photos with my bars...
Oh, I had to grind the 1.5" bar right side down so the front brake master cylinder would fit over it and THAT meant re-chroming the bar.. a step I hadn't planned on.
Yes, this whole mess was not cheap, but can be done in stages.
T-bars $75 (a steal deal)
Bar re-chroming - $125 (crap....)
Triple clamp weld/machining $150
Bracket (machined by Leon, you could make it yourself, but I wanted it perfect) $75
Risers (have to be machined and have to be perfect) $120
I don't even want to add it up.... blech... anyway, Thunder bars are $370 plus shipping from NZ so let's say $450 and you get fake TT bars...good ones, but fake. Now if I ever get tired of these TT bars, I can put ANY harley setup on the bike.
Pics..