Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Hi Andrew

I've got 20mm handle bar raisers and they work perfect for me. Much less strain on my wrists and back. My F650GS had the standard setup and I felt that there was a lot of strain on my wrists that caused your hands and fingersto go numb after extented periods of standing.

You are more than welcome to take my bike for a spin to see how my setup works for you before you spend the money on buying handle bar raisers.

Everybody have their own opinion regarding this matter and the setup of their bikes. My advice will be to play around and see which setup works best for you. 

But i am not sure I want to ride a BMW with chinese pirate parts in it. I keep telling you to fit genuine parts and you won't have so many break downs.

Ek sal moet vinnig besluit want Wild at heart maak more middag toe en maak eers Woendag weer oop. daar sal dan nie genoeg tyd wees nie darna om handlebar raisers te fit nie.

Aunty Charles sorry for the kombuis taal.

Net jammer ek is 'n kortgat en kan nie betroubare advies hieroor gee nie.  All I can say is that the Dakar riders stand a lot, and their advice is to not mess with the geometry of the bike.  However, you are tall and are not riding the Dakar, so you need to do what works for you.

I started with all the adjustments, but as I learned more and gained experience, have gone back little by little to a standard setup.  Even my levers are level.  But as I said, ek is maar net 'n kortgat (en 'n engelsmannetjie, maar dis 'n ander saak)...

Andrew perhaps you should take my bike for a ride. I'm 1.81m tall and had 30mm raisers fitted. I also tilted the bars very slightly forward and it has made a big difference for me.

The way I see it is if they didn't want you to fit raisers on the F800GS then they shouldn't be making them. I know you're on the other side of the world to me but shout when you are ready.

How did you find that handling after fitting the raisers? 

Andrew - I am 1.80m tall and also ride an 800 GS - I have 30mm handlebar raisers (from W@H)  - which were very kindly fitted for me by Auto Atlantic and they make an incredibly positive difference to the off-road ride, especially when standing for extended periods on technical stuff and fairy dust sprinklings of sand......

I do, however think the best advice which you've gotten is to first go on the ride and experience it without changing much - You can then decide for yourself if there's anything you need to change.....

Also - should you wish, you'd be very welcome to take my 800 for a ride too and see how it feels with the handlebar raisers........

The handling doesn't feel any different to me. It's just more comfortable now in the standing position. Remember you only need to stand when it's necessary to do so otherwise you're just expending unnecessary energy. Forgot to mention but I also had different springs fitted in the front forks which helps a lot.

Do what makes you comfortable. You've ridden it without raisers, get them and try it with them, if you really don't like them, you'll unload them in a couple of days.

But if you, like me, are uncomfortable with the standard bars, you will most probably love the raisers, I have 30mm fitted to my 800, cannot imagine trying to ride without them.

Even on my WR. It was riding Trevor's WR250 that convinced me I needed one pronto. when I got mine I was diaapointed as it didn't feel the same, until I realised he hasd raisers fitted. Now, it fits me like a glove.

Affect the handeling, absolute trollip.

The Flying Brick store is open on Friday, until 3pm, and then again on Saturday 08:30 till 12:30, then again on Monday, and yes, we sell handlebar raisers AND rotational (ROX-style) handlebar raisers...

Cheers

chris

Andrew, as already said on this forum.

Follow the advice of getting kilometers under the belt first.

You have a new bike, get yourselfaround 10 000 km under your belt so you can really get usedto the bike as it is.

Give yourself more experience n the one bucket first, you need experience while there is still luck in the other bucket.

When you do ride a similar bike with raisers, yoiu can then really make the judgement call.

I had this discussion with Jan Staal who has put a lot of thought and study to the subject.  I didn't fully agree with him, but since doing some fairly technical riding in Lesotho I've removed my handlebar raisers and understand what he was talking about.

If you are tall it makes sense to use raisers so that you are in a position that gives you more control, however unless you are really crouched over with bum in the air and struggling to raise your head so you can see straight ahead, it is probably better to leave the bike in it's standard configuration and just roll the bars to the most comfortable position for the riding you do most.

Remember that for technical riding you need to be standing and loose, but unless you're in sand you want some weight over the front wheel.  I found that with raisers I was pushed back and the front wheel wasn't as firmly planted as it could have been and tended to slip; so removing the raisers was a big plus for me in those situations.

Riding in Namibia with hundreds of Km of sandy road and wanting to stand for a more comfortable ride, however ... the straightup position with risers was better and as there weren't that many turns I didn't need weight on the front.

Moral of the story, you have to find out for yourself and your style of riding and your body type ... if you're tall you may well want to try them but in any case, think about the type of riding they do most and set the bike up for that.

My thinking is that the bike comes in one size to suit an "average" height rider, so if you're not of average height, you need to change the bike accordingly.  I'm 1.9m, and handlebar raisers allow me to stand much more comfortably.

That makes good sense to me.

My point is, we all are very easily seduced by peer pressure and by the bling merchants.

We spend a lot of money on soemtheing before we know if we need it.

It's a "I want it" more than a requirement.

So I advocate going on group rides, looking at bikes and talking about the stuff.

After 6 years of adventure riding, I now have more or less ended up with just the stuff that works and I've cast aside quite a lot of lekker stuff that I now find does not work for me.

It may work for others, but it did not work for me.

For me it must be rugged, useful and worth its weight on the bike.

But I could kick myself for  being seduced into buying a load of stauff thta in the end does not add value so I give it away or sell it.

The other issue is. ride your bike as you bought it for quite a while to get a frame of reference.

Thne on rides, swap out bikes for a few kilos.

Thtaw ay you can benchamrk against your known frame of reference and you'll end up making wiser calls going forward.

Often when I walk around bikes, I cannot help but smiel to myself when i see how some riders are really fair game for the sanke oil salesman and have put half their bikes book value into bling thta they will never get a benefit from.

Some riders just are prfoof that there's a sucker born everyday,

others are genuinely taken in by a referred bit of advice which is actually not for them in the end.

So before you buy new, ask for it by name on the forum and you'll likey get a bargain.

But beware of adding stuff to your bike before you are sure you need it.

Bling adds no vlaue to the resale price of a used bike.

no one wants to pay a cent more for your bike because you added bling.

You remove all bling and sell that separately

resisted posting until now.

I'm 1.95 tall and have 50mm Rox risers on my GSA. I've also got lowered Fastway footpegs.

I agree with Stephen - I cycled for about 12 years. A bicycle is practically infinitely configurable and therefore can be setup for an optimal riding position. Optimal varies from person to person. Some want to extract the best mechanical power possible, others want comfort and some cyclists want something in-between.

A motorcycle unforunately does not offer as many possibilities to be setup ergonomically. However, handlebar risers can (and do) make a substantial difference in how comfortable a rider is on the bike. Comfort translates into less rider fatique and therefore better safety.

How much hadlebar risers change the geometry of the bike and therefore influence it's handling is debatable. Consider the difference on a standard R1200GS - suspension set to "one helmet" and tire pressure 2.5/2.0 versus the same machine set to "high mountain" and 1.7/1.7 tire pressure. Have you changed the geometry and the handling. Yes and yes. We all do this (or similar) and have learnt to adjust to the different setups we use on and off-road.

Risers are no different. The bike may behave slightly differently to a stock bike (for example my turning cirlce is larger because the bars now stop against the screen) but the rider soon adjusts.

The Rox risers have the advantage over normal block risers that tend to bring the bars closer - not only do they raise the bars but also allow fore/aft adjustment. This enables you to maintain the correct distance between torso and the handlebars.

Always remember that these adjustments are a compomise between a textbook seated and standing riding position.

PS you could also consider getting lowered footpegs to improve your standing position.