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Tinkering with my Ninja 300: Installed handlebar risers

29th January 2024, 16:28 by Ananth Iyer

The only modification required on the bike was to reroute the clutch cable.

BHPian Paavan_Shetty recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The Journey continues....

As stated in the earlier post that I was working on Handlebar Risers, here are some pics of the final product and it been installed on the bike.

The designed and manufacturer Handlebar Risers with the said extrusion on top to lock the clip-on's.

Riser as installed on the bike.

The only modification required on the bike was to reroute the clutch cable.

Some of the highlights being:

1. Billet aluminium machined weighing at 365grams for both sides along with the zinc coated fasteners (for better life).

2. Raises Handlebar Height by 16mm.

3. Perfectly engineered with suspension fork tube mimicking extrusion which locks the clip-ons for that added safety during minor falls thus protecting the triple clamp bolting threads.

The reason behind the 16mm odd ball number is the design constraint involved. During the proto testing understood that I can't raise the handlebar height beyond 15mm (used 3 5mm required profile laser cut plates staked one above the other to find the same), as the brake hose and clutch cable slackness allow only that much of rise, while being in the safe operating condition. During final designing had to increase the base height by 1 mill to accommodate the fork tube length (in the bore of the riser) that protrudes over the triple clamp surface.

The results of the raised handlebar were quite satisfactory with it providing the required comfort for the palms, hands and shoulders which were a bit compromised with the 170mm GC linkages installed on the bike for those long trips with a pillion. The risers were put to thorough test in a trip I took to Valparai with my pillion. The bike was fully loaded with saddlebags, tank bag and two riders; with a run up and down the beautiful Valparai ghat and scenic sections ensuring the risers saw max operating loads (only worse than those being the one's which would come when the bike tips over/crashes!)

A pic during the Valparai trip.

During the Valparai trip my single sided rear tyre hugger (ordered from amazon long back) gave up due to the intense vibrations while going over some of the long stretches of bad patches of road (the design of the hugger was nothing to speak of at the first place). I definitely didn't want to purchase another one as I knew it's design related limitations and was scouting for a better one. Finally after searching for long identified the one's of Yamaha (I wanted an OEM designed hugger as the design would be durable and aesthetically pleasing too, to start with) FZ-25 to be a perfect fit for my bike considering the mounting location feasibility on the Ninja 300. Immediately ordered one from Yamaha Service Center for 1.1K and designed and manufactured below shown mounting brackets for the same.

Self designed and manufactured chain adjustment indicator cum hugger mount bracket (removed the stock chain adjustment indicator bracket and replaced those with these!).

The result!

Looks like a stock part; isn't it?

Now no worries of the pillion complaining of the rear tyre splash or any durability concerns for the coming years!

The bike has thus far completed 15K kms and I did the third service immediately after coming from the Valaparai trip. No issues were reported. Had changed tyres (second set of Apollo Alpha H1’s) and front brake pads (second set of Vesrah Ceramic Brake Pads) just before the trip to ensure maximum handling confidence in one of the best motoring roads in India. Will have to change the chain sprocket set in next service though.

Prior to the handlebar risers, had purchased a universal exhaust slider from Amazon and Frame Sliders from Retro Cross (via Riders Junction).

Found design flaws in both of them. The exhaust slider was majorly flawed by design due to threads given on the plastic part (Delrin material) and no provision on it for tightening (just hand tighten it and leave it)! The plastic threads gave up in just a week's time of usage, as the pillion foot touches and rolls over the sliders frequently.

The exhaust slider (flawed design!) purchased from amazon.

The frame slider design error is even more serious in my opinion. The Delrin Bush holding aluminium cylindrical part didn’t have any anti-rotation feature on it. So when one tightens the Bush beyond a limit, the aluminium cylindrical part rotates along with the offset plate thus rotating the slider from it’s intended position! This will be definitely a concern (shouldn’t be an issue in static falling condition) in a situation where the bike falls over in running condition. A simple anti-rotation locking feature was missed in the design, thus increasing my stress even after spending 10K on these. Will rectify this in near future.