One of the sure ways of making a bike owner cry is to damage a piece of custom bike history. Yes, we have an example. One of the shops we frequent is Four Aces Cycle Supply in beautiful Pacomia, California, who presented us with a customer's set of Flanders' risers, one of which had a funny "tilt." The Flanders risers came with a note containing the question: "Can you fix and replate?" "No problem," was Wes White's (Four Aces owner) reply.
The risers are cast brass and can be "tilted" back using a hydraulic press. When using the press, caution is the name of the game-press a little and check, press a little more, and check again. The entire process of disassembly and pressing the riser straight took a little over an hour. Now, the risers are off to the chrome platers.
(1.) The set of Flanders risers. Notice the slight tilt to the riser on the right.
(2.) The first thing to do is strip off the handlebar-clamping portion of the riser and check the orientation of the tilt. The riser, in our hands, was bent along its vertical line, so when we began pushing it back, we had to ensure it was pushed back along the same line.
(3.) The Flanders risers were for one-inch bars so the first thing was to find a oneinch diameter bar to insert through the lower clamp. We then placed the riser on the hydraulic press and slid a couple of shims under either side of the bar to level the riser on the press plates. A v-block was placed on the shank of the riser and located under the ram of the press, and then pushed down on the block a little at a time until the shank was once again straight.
(4.) Job completed. Both risers are as straight as they were when new. The key to a good job is push a little and check the riser. A piece of custom motorcycle history was saved.