Clean look with drag bars

[xs650newb]

Hello everyone,
I put drag bars on my '81 Special and I am trying to remove as much crap as possible for a cafe racer look. I am going for really clean.

So far I have removed both LH and RH switches. I bought throttle grips from TCBros which do not require a housing for the throttle cable. I also removed the cluster gauge and ignition but that does not really pertain to my question.

I have two current issues.
1) Since I am using drag bars my throttle and clutch cable are way too long. Does anyone know of a short replacement? I read about possibly re-routing but I am scared of my throttle not returning one day.
2) My MC reservoir is huge, anyone know of a smaller one or other way to fix that situation.
3) Finally, the top of my triple tree looks like shit. I noticed that some people polish them up real nice and I am going to go that route. How do you prevent rust once you remove the paint?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[sreimer]

Most bike shops can make your cables whatever length you want

M/C I am using a trx 450 front master on mine and its a nice clean look and performs very well.

 

[Patches]

http://www.chopcult.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166

Early model xs650 resivor is smaller and cleaner looking. (round cap)

Top tree is aluminum, it won't rust.

Problems solved!

 

[5twins]

Whenever you install lower bars, cable re-routing is required. You can usually make the original cables work with proper re-routing. You're concerned about the throttle sticking? I would be more concerned with that happening if I didn't re-route and just crammed the controls on there. And yes, people just cram the shit on there, I see it all the time. Personally, I've mounted drag bars for someone using original cables and they worked fine just by re-routing.

 

[gggGary]

Polished Aluminum is easy to take care of if the bike lives inside, an occasional rub with your favorite metal polish is about it.

 

[ramairgtz]

You can run a banshee or other 13mm bore master cylinder for the front brake and it's alot smaller but you loose your mirror mount

 

[swbill]

^^^^ yep what he said. Banshee MC works great

 

[ramairgtz]

I have a banshee master cylinder I'm going to post up for sale in a little while if you are interested. $20 shipped

 

[uknowme2goog]

i went from min apes to drag bars..i just re-routed the cable and used up the extra 10 ".

there should be no problems wit extra...