[James]

Hi all,

I’m new to this site, even though I’ve owned my ’97 XV1100 for 16 of its 20 years, so shame on me for not coming here sooner really!

Anyway! I have a question regarding possibly chopping/bobbing my faithful old XV :

I’ve been thinking of fitting a chopper fork kit and new handlebars as well as bobbing the rear, but what is the gauge of the XV’s handlebars? Is it 22mm? Reason being, If I want to swap out the forks and get some new ones fitted from : http://www.chopper-kit-usa.com/ and then stick some risers and new handlebars on these forks, do I have to stick with the XV’s gauge tubing if I want to swap out the bars for some Z Bars/Ape Hangers from these guys : http://steelthorn.eu/ They say they make bars for XV’s but don’t say what the gauge to select is.

I’m finding the gauge thing a bit confusing, as I won’t want to order the fork parts from the U.S. and suddenly find myself with a load of mismatched stuff that I can’t have fitted. My fear is that if it was possible to fit 1″ gauge bars (even if I wanted to!), then none of the XV’s switch gear would fit back on the bars…
I think the Harley standard gauge is 1″ and the XV’s is 7/8″ or 22mm metric, but I’m not certain.

Also, what do you do about cabling for apehangers? Would all the original XV wiring for the switchgear need to be replaced with longer wires to allow for the extra height of the bars, and does all the wiring have to be externally routed?

Has anyone else on here chopped/bobbed their XV or used these companies, as I’d love to know how all the parts can match up right for an XV?

Hope I’ve made some sense and haven’t caused too much confusion!

Thanks for any help.

[Wyatt]

So, in terms of bar thickness. its 22mm or 7/8″ so be wary of any US imported stuff as its designed to fit 1″ bars unless they otherwise state (made this mistake a few times)
Now switching everything over to a 1″ bar can be done, but you’ll need to get the risers bars and a whole new handle bar controls set up to match, which can be expensive.

As for getting apes you will need to extend the cables. clutch brake and throttle can be run externally of the bar and some poeple will run the electrical wires inside of the bar itself to tidy it up. some bars come with the holes predrilled for this purpose.

Hope that helped

[James]

Hi Wyatt,
Well I went ahead and recently took delivery of a pair of custom apes from Steel Thorn in Poland.
They can make you anything to your specs and the chrome finishing is excellent. They made mine 1″ overall but tapering down to 7/8″ 22mm to accommodate the XV’s controls and grips.
Now all I have to do is have them fitted….