• Home
  • About HeliBars
  • HeliBars Website
  • Facebook
  • Videos

HeliBars Blog

~ It's all about the comfort!

HeliBars Blog

Category Archives: Helibars – Other Handlebars

New Arrival!!!

26 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by cindyeddy in BMW, comfortable handlebars, Goldwing, Harley Davidson, Helibars - Other Handlebars, HeliBars FAQs, Honda, Horizon, Kawasaki, Other Engineering Projects

≈ Leave a comment

We are happy to announce that we have acquired new (for us) equipment which will allow us to expand our product line.
Introducing the SOCO 5-axis CNC Production Tubing Bender with enough tooling to be really creative! We will be introducing vintage style bent handlebars with our own HeliBar ergonomic touch. The first to be introduced will be for the BMW K1600B Bagger…coming soon!

43.804798 -70.801173

Going to Laconia Bike Week?

01 Monday May 2017

Posted by cindyeddy in BMW, Events and Rallies, F6B, FJR1300, GL1800, Goldwing, Harley Davidson, HeliBar Open House, Helibars - Other Handlebars, Honda, Horizon, Kawasaki, Laconia Bike Week, Laconia Motorcycle Week, Motorcycle Expo 2017, Motus, Uncategorized, Yamaha

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

BMw, Comfort, Cornish, handlebars, Harley Davidson, helibars, honda, Kawasaki, Laconia Harley Davidson, moto guzzi, motorcycle, Motus, performance, Suzuki, triumph, Victory

Welcome to HeliBars

Whether you call it Bike Week, Laconia Motorcycle Week or Motorcycle Expo 2017, it happens in a gorgeous area we’re pleased to call home.  If your plans include heading to New Hampshire for some amazing riding, do yourself a favor and check out Cornish, Maine in the foothills of the White Mountains. Cornish is located 50 miles east of Meredith NH (home of Laconia Harley Davidson), and 2 hours north of Boston. And what better excuse for a ride than a visit to our Open House, June 9 through 17th!

We want to show you where HeliBars are made, give you a shop tour, offer raffle prizes and introduce you to the wonders of riding in this beautiful area. We’ll be offering daily specials, free installations of our products (some restrictions apply) and some special surprises! If that’s not enough, we’ll be serving free lunch everyday! Join us for camaraderie, motorcycling, tire kicking and fun.

HeliBars was started out of a passion to produce motorcycle handlebars that provide the highest degree of both performance and comfort.  With an obsession to extract the most enjoyment possible while riding, we believe you should finish your ride because you’re satisfied, not because you’re in pain!

Now Available: HeliBars for 2015 S1000RR

10 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by helibarsblog in BMW, Helibars - Other Handlebars

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

BMw, Clip-ons, Comfort, Control

IMG_0030

HeliBars is pleased to announce it’s latest offering:  HeliBars for the 2015 S1000RR.  It took some time to locate a motorcycle for R&D, however, Jaoa of Massachusetts was generous enough to take a drive to Maine and help us with our project.

 TS05099_web-1-2__06503_zoom

HeliBars TracStar™ replacement one piece aluminum bars for the BMW S1000RR.

  • All original cables and hydraulic lines are retained and bar end weights are accepted
  • Exceptional build quality backed by a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee
  • 1.7″ (42.5mm) taller**
  • 0.8″ (20mm) rearward**
  • 1″ (25mm) wider**

**Please note that these are the true measurements taken at the wrist position, not at the fixing point or fork or triple clamp, the shape and angles of the HeliBars product give the final result required and indicated in the product description.

In stock now and ready to ship!

HeliBar installations at Wing Ding 37 next Weekend!

28 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by cindyeddy in Events and Rallies, F6B, GL1800, Goldwing, Helibars - Other Handlebars, Honda, Horizon, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

F6B, GL1800, Goldwing, GWRRA, Wing Ding, Wing Ding 37

Press Release:

CORNISH, ME. (August 18, 2015) — HeliBars®, America’s leader in replacement motorcycle handlebars and riser systems for more than 25 years, is pleased to announce that on-site installation of its patented, adjustable handlebars for Honda Gold Wings and F6Bs will be just $100 during Wing Ding 37 in Huntsville, Alabama, September 3 – 6.

Eurowing USA,  a Factory Certified HeliBars Installer, will be providing half-price labor with the purchase of Heli’s new Horizon Luxury Sport Touring handlebar kits.

These groundbreaking bars pivot wrist angle positions over a 36-degree range, are up to 2-1/2 inches taller than stock, have 7 inches of forward/backward movement and are up to 4 inches closer to riders, striking the perfect balance between greatly enhanced comfort and more nimble handling.

Times
Customized ergonomic tailoring and installations will take place at booths 631-635 and 730-734. Hours are 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 3 through Saturday the 5th, and from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Appointments
Product availability and service time will be limited, so installation appointments are recommended. Eurowing will also special-order Heli products for other bikes that can be mounted at the Wing Ding. To secure a spot, call 786-452-0641 or email Info@Eurowing.com. Ride-ins are welcome, but will be not guaranteed a spot.

HeliBars: Standard Equipment on New Motus Motorcycles

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by goddessoftheoffice in Helibars - Other Handlebars, Other Engineering Projects, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

adjustable handlebars, adjustable motorcycle handlebars, helibars, horizon, Motus

Handlebar movement2HeliBars has been working diligently with Motus Motorcycles since March of 2012 to complete the handlebar portion of the new MST & MST-R motorcycles.  We are so pleased to be the chosen manufacturer for this ground breaking motorcycle.

Check out the press release here:

https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/helibars-standard-equipment-motus-mst-mstr-motorcycles/

Group ride2

Performance Shouldn’t Be Painful: It should be fun!

14 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by helibarsblog in Helibars - Other Handlebars, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

adjustable motorcycle handlebars, Comfort, Control, Motorcycle Handlebars, performance

For years we have used the above tag line “Peformance Shouldn’t Be Painful” and we really do mean it.  Sport bikes, sport touring bikes, cruisers shouldn’t be painful they should make you want to take to the open road not just for a 10 minute jaunt but a cruise towards the Horizon.  That is why we produce HeliBars, and have been for 26 years.  What we address are the same things that are outlined in the article below.  Enjoy the read:

Handlebars – Body Position

They’re Not Just for Steering!
From the May, 2008 issue of Motorcycle Cruiser
By John Vaughan-Chaldy

Most of us recognize the importance of at least a perfunctory visual check of our machines before we set out for a scoot, but what many riders forget is that it’s just as important to check your body position, too.  Out on a one-lane country road 30 minuted into your ride is not the ideal time to be wondering, “Uh, why are my hands tingling? Why are my shoulders tight?  And damn it, why does my neck ache?”

But that’s often how it goes with riders.  Many of us simply don’t acknowledge the obvious things-such as the body-to-motorcycle relationship-until it’s too late.

In a nutshell, my doc said every part of the body affects the other parts:  Fingers affect the wrist, which affects the elbow, which affects the shoulders and so on.  Just think of those “Dry Bones” lyrics and you’ll get the point:  “With the finger bone connected to the hand bone, the hand bone connected to the arm bone…”

That first line is one all riders should memorize:  A motorcyclist’s main connection points to his bike are his fingers.  And it’s no wonder that when most of us ride, those points are usually being tweaked in some very malevolent ways.  The doctor mentioned the following parts as being especially vulnerable:

Wrists:  They’re often turned to odd angles so the fingers can grip the bar.  This puts pressure on the median nerve in the wrist/forearm (carpal tunnel), causing numbness and fatigue.

Elbows:  These are usually extended up and away from the rider’s torso and rotated out from the bike, which places stress on the ulnar nerve, or “funny bone”

Shoulders:  They’re being constantly flexed and rotated from holding the elbows up, which often exacerbates tendonitis in the rotator cuffs, causing aches and fatigue.  Most riders also reach forward to grip the handlebars, rolling the shoulders.  This adds flex to the trapenzius muscle, placing strain on the base of the neck and between the shoulder blades.

Trapezius and Neck:  Rotating the shoulders means the large group of neck muscles that control spine position flexing.  Constantly working these muscles creates discomfort in the neck and alters the upper spine’s alignment.  This realignment can also affect the lumbar area of the spine, resulting in lower back pain.

It seems if you experience two or more of those symptoms (like tingling and/or aches) then your position of control is incorrect.  The POC is where the contact point of your body meets the control point of your bike, i.e., where your hands grip the handlebar.  So after I broke down all the fancy medical phrases into layman’s terms, I was left with these crucial bits of advice:

  1. My wrists shouldn’t twist and should stay as straight as possible in relation to the forearm.
  2. Elbows should point down as much as possible and hang rather than be held up.
  3. Shoulders need to be relaxed and dropped rather than suspended or flexed when riding.
  4. My reach should be reduced so I don’t roll or lift my shoulders to grab the handlebar.
  5. I should steer with my arms, not my neck, shoulders or back.

The most effective way to correct all my body’s tweaked biomechanics was through the handlebar.

HeliBars Review: TrackDayMag.com

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by helibarsblog in BMW, Helibars - Other Handlebars, HeliBars FAQs, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

BMw, helibars, Motorcycle Handlebars, performance, S1000RR, track performance, TracStar

Heli-Bars on a Track Bike?

postdateiconThursday, 30 May 2013 20:58 | postauthoriconWritten by Morris “Mo” Maduro | Print

We see if comfortable equals fast

What are they?

Heli-Bars is a well known company which specializes in producing motorcycle handlebars that are more comfortable than stock.  Their emphasis has been primarily on making machines more suitable for long distance riding but now they also feature a line called TracStar, which is aimed at the sportbike crowd.  The big question when testing a product like this is obvious.  Does improving street comfort come at the expense of racetrack efficiency?

Heli_bar_instructionsInstallation

The installation of these bars was very straightforward. In fact, this is listed as a direct stock replacement, which means that no other parts should be necessary to do the install.  We found this to be absolutely true.  A glossy color spread of instructions is included.  There are very accurate photos of each step of the process, along with supporting text.  There were no surprises and the entire job from parking to riding the bike took less than ninety minutes.  We recommend following their instructions to the letter, including the one about placing/stuffing a rag around the work area.  Besides protecting from scratches, this step may help you to avoid having to remove body work to retrieve a screw if you happen to drop one at the wrong spot.  Our installation time does not include a trip to the hardware store, where we bought a 36 mm socket for the triple clamp bolt and a small #8 Torx bit that was thin enough along its stem to fit into a severely recessed hole.

What they do

The normal way of making a sportbike more comfortable involves bar risers, which are essentially lifting blocks for the handlebars.  This has always seemed contradictory, since a lot of engineering gets violated when you move the handlebars to a different location.  The Heli Bars kit for the BMW S1000RR attacks the problem a different way, by setting the downward slope of the clip-ons at a shallower angle.  These bars made the position feel closer to that of a sport touring riding position while maintaining the look and feel of a sport bike.  In fact, experienced riders would not immediately recognize that these are aftermarket bars, especially since the mounting points and manufacturing style are identical to the OEM pieces.  Compared to the very steep angle of the stock bars, the modified slope of the Heli-Bars results in a bar end that is a full two inches higher than stock.  That two inches is enough to make a significant difference.  The results are a more upright riding position and a more natural position of the hand and forearm.

Street testing

To test the bike with the new bars, we conducted before and after riding sessions over the same one hour loop, Heli_bar_vs_stockwhich included surface streets, highway miles and twisties.  The first thing noticed was increased confidence when maneuvering on surface streets around congested traffic.  This was the result of both the added leverage and the slightly more upright position.  The second  obvious improvement was that the bars promoted a proper riding position, putting the forearms closer to parallel with the ground and the elbows at about the same height as the hands.  Once into the curves, flicking the bike into a corner was definitely easier and the bars engendered more confidence going around blind turns.  The result was that Heli-Bars encouraged a faster pace through curves, high speed sweepers and switchback on-ramps.  As you would expect, highway comfort was vastly improved. S1000RR riders regularly complain that their hands and wrists get numb within about 20 minutes of riding.  (Which incidentally, is the length of an average trackday session.)  We too had experienced this with the stock pieces but that numbness did not occur when riding with the Heli-Bars.  The noticed improvement in street comfort alone would have been enough to justify switching to these bars but we still had a track test to perform.

Track Testing

Autobahn Country Club, in Joliet, Illinois, was where we conducted the track portion of this review.  The Full Course at this facility has 23 turns so there was plenty of opportunity to experience the bars in a variety of different cornering situations.  We’d ridden here a few months previously with the stock bars, which provided a frame of reference for comparison.  On the track we noticed that it felt much more natural to drape our outside Heli_bar_vs_stock_2arm over the gas tank. It was also easier to experiment with different entry points, as the added leverage of the Heli-Bars provided extra confidence when flicking the bike into turns.  Switchback transitions were also made with less effort. The pavement was wet for a few of these sessions, giving us the opportunity to see how the bars performed in catching a slide. Even at this extreme, the Heli-Bars were very predictable and showed no tendency to make us overcorrect.  In fact, there was nowhere on the track that we found ourselves wishing we had the original-equipment bars.

For both road and track use, these Heli-Bars proved their worth.  In every environment, the big BMW was a more comfortable and better behaved motorcycle.  This $319.00 improvement quite literally transformed the bike’s ergonomics, making it much nicer to live with no matter what environment it was used in or how aggressively it was ridden.  Here at TrackdayMag.com, we’re used to sacrificing comfort to get better performance.  In this case, much to our surprise, it was upping our comfort level that increased performance!

HeliBars = Life Saver

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by helibarsblog in Helibars - Other Handlebars, Kawasaki, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

adjustable handlebars, adjustable motorcycle handlebars, Concours 14, Kawasaki, Mesa Police Department, Motorcycle Handlebars

Here at HeliBars we often hear moving tales of how our product has “saved” the day by allowing riders to ride longer.  To be more passionate about their sport.  To feel the wind whipping by them as they hit the open road.  Some as they enter their golden years of 70, 80 and beyond.  Others as they hit the open road for the first time.  It’s heart warming to hear their stories.

This story brought our hearts to our throats and tears to our eyes and we want to share it with you.  Please allow us to introduce to you Officer Jamie Bernau of the Mesa Police Department Traffic Unit.  Below is an email we received from Officer Bernau on April 8th:

“I just wanted to give you an update. Some good news, some bad. The bars I had on my police motorcycle did an excellent job. The other two officers that are testing them praise them as well. I love the bars and I have on my own personal motorcycle.
Unfortunately, back on Feb. 16th, I was involved in a serious on-duty collision with a motor vehicle. The other driver was being inattentive and pulled into the roadway, directly in front of my path. I struck the vehicle head on and was launched from my motorcycle 49 feet. I lost consciousness and tumbled an additional 59 feet on the ground. I sustained an “open book” pelvic fracture, broken right foot, right hand, and some road rash to my face, legs, and hands. I underwent surgery and was in the hospital for two weeks. I’m currently bound to a wheel chair and will have a long recovery.
The investigators on scene noticed the HeliBars rotated to the front and collapsed. They also believed the bars helped me catapult from the motorcycle. My motorcycle was engulfed in flames from the impact.
Currently, Probity Cycle is in the process of building a replacement PD bike. It will be a few months until I can get back on the bike, but I would like to have the same handle bars available when I’m back on duty.
Sincerely,
Officer Jamie Bernau
Mesa Police Department
Traffic Unit”
Officer Bernau -1hospital photo 2 photo 3 photo 4

HeliBars at Corbin Comfort Corner 2012

06 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by helibarsblog in Events and Rallies, Harley Davidson, Helibars - Other Handlebars, HeliBars History, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

adjustable motorcycle handlebars, helibars, Motorcycle Handlebars, Sturgis rally

Check out this video link:

HeliBars at Corbin Comfort Corner 2012

HeliBars: What’s the Difference?

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by goddessoftheoffice in Helibars - Other Handlebars, HeliBars FAQs, HeliBars History

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

BMw, Ducati, helibars, honda, Risers, Suzuki, triumph, yamaha

“Rise”?  “Pullback”?  “Rear Offset Location”?  It’s all Greek to me!  What do you mean it’s only 1 1/2″ taller?  Are you sure that’s going to make a difference?

These are all questions I hear daily.  Case in point.  I received an email this week telling me that our advertising was wrong.  The bars were not 1 5/8″ taller.  So we did a little photography for proof that we were indeed 1 5/8″ taller.

Stock bar for Hayabusa on Bottom, HeliBars for Hayabusa on top.

Here’s the facts:   Our product specs are measured at the end of the bar, where you place your hands.  We take measurements from the stock location to the new HeliBars location.  This tells you exactly where your hands will be and really this is the information people want.

Let’s talk “pull back” and “rear offset location”.   Basically, we move you up and back into your seat more.  So “pull back” or “rear offset location” means moving your hands closer to your torso.

A great resource for finding out how that “minor” 1 1/2″ adjustment is really going to affect your riding position is Cycle-Ergo.com.  There you can pick your motorcycle, your height, inseam and then vehicle customization.  Some people are strictly visual people and this site is a fantastic resource to help give you that visual.

The bottom line.  Our products work.  We have been producing HeliBars for 25 years and we offer a 30 day money back guarantee.  What’s our return rate you ask?  Less than 2%.  Almost unheard of.  People just love our bars!

← Older posts

Recent Posts

  • New Arrival!!!
  • Going to Laconia Bike Week?
  • On the LOOKOUT: Need Bikes for R&D!
  • NEW: HeliBars for BMW R1200RT Liquid Cooled
  • HeliBars’ Harry Top 10 Countdown: Must haves for your Motorcycle enjoyment! Day 10

Archives

  • February 2019
  • May 2017
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • May 2015
  • September 2014
  • June 2014
  • December 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • May 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011

Categories

  • BMW
  • comfortable handlebars
  • Disabled Riders
  • Events and Rallies
  • F6B
  • FJR1300
  • GL1800
  • Goldwing
  • Harley Davidson
  • HeliBar Open House
  • Helibars – Other Handlebars
  • HeliBars 25th Anniversary
  • HeliBars FAQs
  • HeliBars History
  • Honda
  • Horizon
  • Kawasaki
  • Laconia Bike Week
  • Laconia Motorcycle Week
  • Motorcycle Expo 2017
  • Motus
  • Other Engineering Projects
  • R1200RT
  • Uncategorized
  • Yamaha

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow HeliBars and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • HeliBars Blog
    • Join 264 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • HeliBars Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...