Tom's Honda VFR - HeliBars
Heli Bars are great. For me they are more comfortable and worth the price. Read on for evaluation details, and installation photos. (Click any image for a larger view.)Heli Bars are clip on handle bars that are taller (higher) and have more rear set than stock. You sit higher, and therefore have less weight on your hands. These things are expensive. They were so the improvement needs to be real in order to justify the cost. I had my VFR for a couple of months, and although it isn't too bad, the heels of my hands were sore riding around town. On the open road I think there are more frequent weight shifts (at least the kind of "open" roads I ride for pleasure) and it wasn't a problem.
I've been bicycling for years (since I was 5 years old). Racing bicycles and some mountain bikes are instruments of torture compared to a sport-touring motorcycle. Still, I wanted to be comfortable. Photos on the web were promising, but it was hard to tell just how much difference there is between HeliBars and the stock VFR handle bars.
In this top-down photo, you can see that the Heli Bars are rotated maybe 1/4 or 3/8 inch to the rear. The stock '95 VFR handlebar is at the bottom.
Here is a angled view. Not too interesting, but since there are almost no photos of Heli Bars on the Web, I wanted to cover every angle. Construction and finish of the HeliBar clip-ons is very nice.
A closer view from the top. Due to the angle of the photo, the stock bar (bottom) is more forward than it appears. In otherwords, the HeliBar is rotated rear-ward more than the stock bar. This brings your hands closer to your body, and helps make the ride a little more comfortable.
This is the view Heli Modified should have on their web site. The end of the bar is an inch or so taller. That's where your hand rests. The inner third of the bar is covered up with the hand grip switches. Note that both bars are flat on the bench. There is an aligning tab on the stock bar (in front), so I drilled a hole in the bench so both bars sit flat. The Heli Bars do not have the aligning tab.
Side angle. Note the height different at the end of the bar.
A little closer. The finish on the Heli Bars is nice. They did a good job with things like the threaded fitting in the end of the bar where the bar end weight screws in.
There isn't so much height difference at the inner end. The Heli Bar is in back of the stock bar.
Height difference at the outer end. Note the nice finish, and clean welds.
You can't tell much about the height difference, but you can see some other details.
I did the right side first. There are more detailed photos of the left. Here the stock bar is off, and the brake master cylinder, switches and hand grip are carefully laying on the faring.
Keep the master cylnider upright. Don't bend any wires or brake lines.
A close up of the master cylinder (MC). I left one retaining bolt in the clamp. When I slid the MS over the Heli Bar, I scratched the paint. Heli's instructions warn about this. A helper would have been a big plus.
Note the little aligning pin on the far right side, center, of the photo. There is a hole in the bottom of the bar for that pin. I couldn't get it aligned, so I pulled the bar back out, and drew a line all the way around the bar with a Sharpie marker. This probably meant that if I'd had to return the bars Heli would not have given a full refund.
The aligning pin is right at the opening to the hand grip. The handgrip opening has a shadow that looks like a fat crescent moon.
The aligning pin, and innards of the switch, etc. The pin is sticking up from a small block, near the lower part of the opening in the hand grip. This pin fits into a hole in the Helibar.