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For those of you looking to upgrade to taller bars, Burly Brand has a set of Narrow Apes to give you the much-needed attitude you seek, with the ease of installing them in your home garage with its Cable/Line Install kit.
The Narrow Apes ($122) are great for complementing the Sportster's narrow glide frontend and Burly offers the bars-bent from 1-inch diameter tubing-in 12-, 14-, and 16-inch applications. The bars come in black or chrome and have been dimpled and drilled to run your wires internally. Aside from different bar heights, all bars measure 32 1/2 inches wide with a center width of 5 inches, and 7 inches of pullback.
To take the guesswork out of what size lines/cables are needed for the taller bar transformation, Burly offers a Cable/Line kit ($199) specific for each bar height. The kit includes extended throttle and clutch cables, extended brake line (all in satin black), and wiring harness extensions for your turn signals and hand controls. The kit includes thorough instructions, but you should have a factory service manual on hand for reference.
We knew a Nightster owner by the name of Harley (go figure) who was in need of taller bars to better fit his 6-foot, 1-inch, frame. Harley did the install in his garage as we snapped some pics of the process.
01.
Harley removed the Nightster's...
01.
Harley removed the Nightster's Maxi-Fuse from underneath the battery side cover and propped up the tank in order to remove/install the wiring components and throttle/idle cables. He also removed the air cleaner assembly.
02.
Harley chose the 14-inch...
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Harley chose the 14-inch Narrow Apes in black and the appropriate Cable/Line kit for the install, which included new clutch and throttle cables, brake line, color-coded wiring extenstions, heat shrink tubing, and instructions. To match the bars, Harley ordered a new set of Harley-Davidson Nostalgic Collection Hand Grips ($59.95) that fit '96-lat-er XL, XR, Dyna, Softail, VRSC, and '96-07 Touring models.
03.
Next, he loosened the...
03.
Next, he loosened the switch housing and removed the stock throttle/idle cables from the handlebar grip and the induction module.