Original Bars for XS650B

[DaveO]

My bike has straight bars at the minute but I wanted to see if I can now live with the wide originals. I think they look cool.

But when I got them down I found that both bar ends were plugged with what looks like weld. I wanted to swap out the straight bars and keep the screw in bar ends that I have (or be able to go to bar end type mirrors later.)

It looks like something that would be done to prevent the bars vibrating but is it the original or has someone done this later? (No evidence of bluing of the chrome.) I thought of getting someone to drill it out but not even sure if this can be done.

Dave

 

[fredintoon]

Hi Dave,
never mind looking cool, they gotta feel comfortable.
Some early bars were plugged & slugged as a not particularly effective anti-vibration measure and some were reenforced & drilled for internal wiring.
Shove a ~1/4" drill through the ends to see how thick they are and then decide.
FWIW, I pushed a 12 bore shotshell wad into each end of my bars as far as it would go and poured the ends full of a lead shot & RTV compound slurry to cut down on the shakes.
The mix can be drilled out with a wood bit deep enough to fit bar ends.

 

[DaveO]

Thanks Fredintoon

I had a feeling that I'd read something about it being an original "feature" (probably on this forum) but after extensive searching couldn't find it.

Dave

 

[crazyorigin]

I have some stock bars that are the pulled back style off an 80 Special I would sell cheap if your interested. They are chrome and in pretty good shape.

 

[DaveO]

Cheers Crazyorigin but I'm OK. I was more curious how the plugs got there.

If I swap I'll either use them without bar ends or see if I can get someone to pillar drill them or buy a set of these from Yambits.

I'm not decided on the swap yet. The current drag bars are comfortable.

Dave

 

[crazyorigin]

If the bars you have are only welded around the very end you can probably just cut the welded area with a grinder or chop saw and take the plug right out. Just cut the weld and the rest should slide out unless they plug welded them in too, which I doubt they secured them that we'll it would be way overkill. Your bars would only just get a tiny bit shorter, likely wouldn't even notice it.

 

[DaveO]

Thanks Crazyorigin that sounds like great advice.

Dave