Higher bars

[Vintage41]

I traded the stock bars for higher ones because my old hands and wrists did not agree with the clip-ons and I don't intend to use the bike at the track.
I simply bought the Duke upper triple clamp and bar mounts and swapped them onto the RC. The bars themselves are used BMW K75S bars.
The KTM clip-ons measured 22mm, so I stayed with the BMW bars to mate with he switches and controls. The only cheating necessary was a short
brake line extension from Speigler. I painted the Duke parts with John Deere "Blitz Black" rattle can which is near perfect satin black match for other black on the bike.
Additionally, I removed the lower fairing and added the Powersports comfort seat. The bar end mirrors are bicycle items for $ 15 each - work just fine.
The little bar on the rear bolts of the bar clamps is for my GPS mount.
If the clip-on bars are too low for you, I can highly recommend this swap for comfort.
See the pictures.

 

[psych0hans]

Great initiative! Looks brilliant

 

[Andy]

Out of interest does the Duke equipment just slot straight in like for like?

 

[Diploman]

Very interesting and astute Mod! If you wanted higher bars, it was intelligent to substitute the Duke upper triple clamp, which can accommodate standard street bike bars. The RC and the Duke are the same bike, with minor differences in format. The biggest difference is that the Duke is about 18 lbs. lighter, without the fairings. (KTM claimed dry weight: Duke 306 lbs; RC 324 lbs).

 

[Vintage41]

Hi Andy,
The answer is "almost".
The top triple clamp is direct bolt-on with the following caveats.
1. The RC ignition switch bolts right onto the Duke part, but is moved rightward a bit. Thus the fork lock pin does not line up with the lock hole in the steering head - so you can't use the fork lock anymore.
You can - but I have not yet - grind a small half-round notch in the right hand side of the steering lock plate and the lock pin would then engage over there and lock the fork to the right instead of left as before.
2. The clutch cable and wires have to be moved behind the top clamp to reach the new position of the clutch perch and switches.
3. The hydraulic line to the master cylinder moves to behind the top clamp but wont reach the master cylinder. I put in a short section of Speigler hose with a banjo on each end and connected the ends together
with a 8mm bolt. Rather than center drill the bolt and make 2 cross holes, I simply ground a flat spot on the side of the bolt where the 2 banjos would cover it, but not to the area where the nut would be.
Then I simply oriented the flat spot "up" and bolted the 2 banjos together with the usual copper washers and a little silicone sealer on the nut thread area - no leaks. I was careful not to let any fluid out of the
stock line and the bleeding took just a few pumps of the master cylinder to knock the air out of the Speigler line and the bolt connection - didn't even have to break open the bleed screw at the wheel end.
4. The Duke bar clamps are sized for the expanded 1" diameter center of the Duke bars so I put little half round aluminum shims in the clamps to get back down to the 22mm diameter of the BMW bars.
You could, of course, use the Duke bars straight up but they are wider and the cable wiring problem might require using Duke parts to get more length, I didn't like the width of the Duke bars, so went BMW.

The new riding position for me (5'9'' and 160lbs) leans me about 10 degrees forward, just enough to "ride" the air at 60-65mph with almost no pressure on my hands. That was my goal in the swap.

 

[Vintage41]

Second part of the reply to Andy,
Three more minor things.
I. It's probably obvious, but I cut the locating pins in the switches off with a Dremel. I like my levers down lower than most folks and the BMW bars had no holes anyway.
2. I heated the bars just above the weld area and "flattened" them about 1.5", the K bars have a little more back rake than I like.
3. The BMW bars are painted as stock, so I just sand blasted the heated area and repainted them. You can't tell anything was done there.