Heli Tour Performance® HR Triple Clamp™

[FJRocket]

Finally got around to installing the Heli Tour Performance® HR Triple Clamp™. Took about 2 hours. Had to cut the wire guides with a dremel, had to get under the tank (for about the 100th time). Still, it was easy peasy. I loosened the nuts and bolts, then put the bike on the centerstand. Wrapped the bars and grips with bungied towels. Hung the bars off to the side, loosened the pinch bolts, uncapped the steering stem and pulled off the triple clamp.

Drilling the safety bolts was easy. I wrapped the oem triple clamp with packing tape and used a hand drill. Started with a #30 and stepped up as recommended in a previous thread. Finally, the heads popped off. No worries. Easy. Simple. Not scary. You can do it.

Reassembly was pretty straight forward. Nothing exciting there, but I haven't gotten around to zipping back the mess of cables, cords, hoses and wires yet.

One thing that worried me was my RoadyXT and Escort Detector home made mount (on the hydraulic rez). I was worried about hitting the tank going lock to lock. NO PROBLEMO! There's plenty of room! :yahoo:

Threw the seat and smuggler back on, for that finished look. Dropped the bike off the center stand.... OH YEAH BABY, the position of these bars feel GREAT! I have a Corbin saddle on my AE, the one that is very low (and thin ), so that gets me down in the bike a bit. And I didn't install the additional Heli risers that are available for this set up. And MAN, it just seems while sitting on the bike that THIS bike was made CUSTOM for ME!! Well, OK, it sort of was. But none the less, WOW what a difference!

OK, I'm 5' 6" with 28 inseam (on a good day). Wide shoulders (sorta) and short arms (to match my legs). So I don't have a lot of reach. I had another previously discontinued set of risers on the bike, and they were quite nice. In fact, I thought those were great. No problems with mine.

Soon as it dries up, I'll go out for a test ride. But I can tell you now that I really don't seem to have to lean forward and reach for these bars now. And that's fantastic to me. And the front end turns easier because of the change in leverage (perhaps perceived). What a difference. It just feels like a "can't miss" improvement.

Now I gotta figure out what extra farkles to hang on the 2 Ram balls (that I don't have yet) that you can put on the triple clamp.

Man, this is a SCHAWEET piece of hardware!!!! :yahoo:

CONS: Minor... so far. You cannot rotate the tank up with the rear bolt in place. The front of the tank just barely hits the controls on the bars. I suppose if you force the tank back, you can rotate it up. In a nutshell, you'd better plan on taking the bolt out and reaching under there to disconnect the fuel pump wires and then just remove the tank completely. Heck you gotta pretty much remove the tank to remove the heatshield to do a TBS and such, anyway. Not a big deal, but realize the tank WILL hit the controls on the bars if rotated on the rear bolt.

Ok, there is another downside to this setup. Tank Bags. Uh Huh. Kinda puts a bind on that concept. With the bars coming back and turning in farther, you can't have a tank bag that is very wide, or very far forward (if you plan or worry about going lock to lock, that is). Bummer. But I put my Yamaha tank bag on there, and if I pull it back close to me, it seems to get fairly out of the way. And how often do you go lock to lock, anyway?

See how far back my bag has to go in order to MOSTLY clear the bars at full lock. Not a big deal for me. If I get in a parking lot pickle, I can just lift the bag and pull it back to my belly to get the bike turned lock to lock if I need to.

Also, if you have anything mounted aft on your bars (like my RoadyXT), it may have to be removed to lift the tank when doing service. If you are careful, you're probably going to want to pull the tank off carefully anyway. I can work the tank around my Roady mount, but I do remove the cradle. I may reconfigure my Roady/Escort mount later, but you still have to watch out for the tank hitting the bars when/if you rotate it up.

Man, those Heli guys got every little bit of aft movement they could out of this setup. The AE shift mechanism on the left bar comes within about 1/4 inch of the tank with the bars to the left lock.

EDIT: The HTC doesn't come with anything to fill the holes on the base where you can install two Ram ball mounts. So far, I don't intend to use those holes, and there's no specs on them. I finally figured out that the Ram ball threads will take a 9/16 x 3/4 bolt. Heli says that the threads are actually 3/8 inch diameter with 16 tpi. I emailed with them suggesting they make caps or bolts to close the Ram ball holes available for the future. They are considering it.

 

[Warchild]

Edit: Pics are obviously uploaded now.... looking good, Matt!

Wow, like you say, these Heli Bars really do push the available tank clearance on full locked turns, don't they......

 

[shokdimn]

Hi FJRocket,

Was looking forward to reading about your Heli install. Glad it seems to have worked out so well for you. I’ve been thinking been thinking about adding Heli’s triple clamp with risers but I wanted to wait and see what some of the other aftermarket folks came up with. Anyway, was just wondering if cutting “the wire guides with a dremel” would be necessary if I replaced the ignition switch with a new one rather than using the original switch?

Thanks,

shokdimn :bike:

 

[FJRocket]

Hi FJRocket,
Was looking forward to reading about your Heli install. Glad it seems to have worked out so well for you. I've been thinking been thinking about adding Heli's triple clamp with risers but I wanted to wait and see what some of the other aftermarket folks came up with. Anyway, was just wondering if cutting "the wire guides with a dremel" would be necessary if I replaced the ignition switch with a new one rather than using the original switch?

Thanks,

shokdimn :bike:

The wire guides go completely around the hydraulic lines, throttle cables and wires. All that stuff is inside the welded loops of the guide. You would have to disassemble ALL those hoses and cables at their source to get them off. I just took a dremel to the wire at the very base near where it's welded on the outside of both sides. I'll probably never put it back on, but I suppose it could be re-welded the way I have cut it. Or just smooth the cuts and put it back on as is. It is pretty pliable material, and you could "fold in" the cut ends and hide them, and the piece would still guide everything. No worries.

 

[petey]

Man, those Heli guys got every little bit of aft movement they could out of this setup. The AE shift mechanism on the left bar comes within about 1/4 inch of the tank with the bars to the left lock.

Matt, nice write-up and good job on the install.

Say, wouldn't installing the Heli risers fix some of downsides/clearence problems? <_<

 

[shokdimn]

Thanks FJRocket, just went out and took a look at the wire guides after reading your reply. I see what you mean. I didn’t realize both ends of the guide were welded. Using a mirror, flashlight, & "good readers" :glasses: I could then see that the outer loop was also welded. I should have went out and looked carefully before I asked. My mistake. In any case, I appreciate the reply.

 

[Wolfhound]

That was the first mod I did after purchase. Top notch stuff & was well worth it for me .

 

[FJRocket]

Thanks FJRocket, just went out and took a look at the wire guides after reading your reply. I see what you mean. I didn't realize both ends of the guide were welded. Using a mirror, flashlight, & "good readers" :glasses: I could then see that the outer loop was also welded. I should have went out and looked carefully before I asked. My mistake. In any case, I appreciate the reply.

No mistake at all. I thought the same thing. Some of the wires/cables/hoses just unclip out of there, but cutting each side near the base is the way to go, 'cause there's lots trapped inside the loops.

(FJRocket @ Jan 7 2007, 06:04 PM) Man, those Heli guys got every little bit of aft movement they could out of this setup. The AE shift mechanism on the left bar comes within about 1/4 inch of the tank with the bars to the left lock.

Matt, nice write-up and good job on the install.

Say, wouldn't installing the Heli risers fix some of downsides/clearence problems?

Petey, the risers would bring the bars up, and yes, that would make it easier for the pivoting tank to clear the bars. And the risers might help some shoulder position, too. Not going to help the tank bag problem, though. I reserve the right to buy the risers at a future date. But I think I'm going to work with the Heli as is for a while. Seems like someone stated that with the bars back (and down) using the Heli, and NOT installing the risers, their hands were more out of the slipstream. I'm eager to test that theory and see if there's any improvement in that category, too.

I gotta get out and ride that thing in the AM. Sure feels good sitting in the saddle with my hands on the grips. Me LIKEE!!!

 

[kjc625]

I had installed the triple clamp and the riser from my local yami dealer today. I am 5'6" and 28 inseem. with the riser, I have less pain in the elbows and the lower back.

I also was able to turn the handle bar much easier than before the mod. In addition, I was able to do the slow riding in tight cone pattern much better than stock setup.

It was worth to spend $400.00 for the upgrade. This was the best farkle so far.

 

[E1Allen]

I had it installed on my bike when I got it. , dunno what the difference would have been.