[BobA]

I got a pair of generic aluminum hand guards (just the bars) and the only way they will mount and clear the levers is to mount them the ends of the existing bar ends (rather than removing the bar ends and mounting them directly to the end of the actual bars).

Being new to the Wee I was surprised to find the bar end held in place only by a rubber expansion fitting. On my last bike the bar end bolts were screwed into captive nuts welded in the bars and secured (very well!) with red loctite. Getting them off involved drilling out the screw heads! Very much the opposite end of the spectrum from the Wee system.

Anyway, the rubber expansion fitting the Wee uses doesn't exactly secure the outboard end of the hand guards very well. Even with the screw tightened up all the way it's still easy to rotate the guards.

I'm just wondering if anyone has replaced the stock OEM rubber expansion fittings with metal expansion bolts. They make them for things like putting bolts in concrete. They should provide a very secure mounting for the end of the hand guards (might have to drill out the existing bar ends to accommodate the larger diameter bolt though).

Just wondering if anyone has done this, or if anyone can see a reason why not to do this? Are the bar end couplings deliberately made so that they pull out or the bolt bends if they hit the ground? Sacrificial items so that the bars themselved don't bend?

 

[mad dingo]

For what it is worth, getting a concrete expansion bolt big enough to fill a handlebar, you would need a 3/4" diameter bolt (maybe you can get a 5/8" to spread out enough, not sure). The shaft of those bolts is the same diameter as the hole. You can see where this can be a problem. Can't be sure it solves the problem, because now you are relying on metal to metal friction instead of rubber to metal.

 

[BobA]

It's not really a matter of metal to rubber friction. In fact that is pretty high. It's the elastic properties of the rubber. even if you glued the rubber to the metal, there would still be a lot of "give" in the system. Metal to metal on the other hand isn't going to have that problem and metal to metal friction is high at high loadings.

Guess I'll have to take a look at some expansion bolts. They could always be sleeved with some split tubing if they were to small to expand to the internal diameter of the bars.

A trip to Home Depot seems to be in my future!

I'm just wondering why Suzuki attached the bar ends using a rubber mounting bushing. I'd have though for vibration damping they would have wanted a tightly coupled system.