So in looking at the handlebars on my son's bike (04 cr125) they looked tweaked. On closer inspection it is the top clamp which has twisted/bent and so when I crank it down it twists the bars slightly. My question is has anyone else bent this? Do you think I would have any luck bending it back in a vise? Are there suggsestions for aftermarket clamps which bolt directly up? The ones which I have seen are two part clamps rather than the one solid unit which spans the gap between the bolts-I think they would work... I would rather make the old one work but if its weakened I don't want to take a chance with it. Any advice would be great.
I bent mine on my WR 250. I put new bolts in. One was bent a little and the other was bent the other way. You couldn't hardly tell it till you rolled them on a flat surface. Then I took the Aluminum top piece, put it in a vice protected against vise bits (Marks) and bent it back slowly. I figured I had nothing to loose except buy a new piece.
my 07 TC250 felt like it had bent bars from a few wrecks... turned out to be the stock bar mounts + rubber bushings. every time i would tighten the mount to the top clamp, the bars would twist just a bit. i ended up snagging a set of BRP's nylon bar mount bushings, problem solved! not sure if your sons CR is the same setup but here's a link to the BRP bushings: http://www.brpmoto.com/products?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.pbv.tpl&product_id=2118&category_id=1506
thank you, I actually have the BRP bushings in because I thought that was the problem initially and I think to a certain extent it was. I don't know why I didn't notice the bent clamp, but I didn't until now. I will try to bend tonight.
