Fitting Jota Bars

The last upgrade for the bros this summer is to change out the original Ace bars for a pair of Jota bars. They both offer a very low and cafe racer riding position however the Jota bars are fully adjustable in two axis of movement so they can be tailored to fit a bike and a rider more harmoniously than the ace bars. Added to this I have decided to swap out the original mirrors for a small bar end mirror. This is just to lower the over look of the bike. And whilst im taking the grips off I will be replacing them with a new pair of renthal motocross grips.

 Grips look tired from a distance. Also note the big ugly 12V pick up (cigarette lighter basically).

The original mirrors are fairly cumbersome and dont suit the cafe racer look at all. There is a reason behind this. The bike was recently toured to the south of France, I added these mirrors, a spare clutch cable, handlebar risers and a 12V pickup so that a sat nav could be powered off of the bike. These were fairly essential pieces of kit for the tour however they are no longer needed. Time to start taking off everything that is not needed.

Removing all of the ancillaries from the bars takes a bit of time, it is also worth noting that the throttle cables need to come off so the seat and tank need to come off. I needed to take this off to take off the 12V pick up off. It was earthed through the subframe and connected to the solenoidfor the positive side. There is a fuse in the circuit to prevent and damage to equipment should the current spike.

Good practice for the re-fitting of the bars is to fit all of the cables and levers before bolting them down to the top yoke. also when clamping them down there is normally an indent or mark of the clamps, these marks should always face forward and the tightening order is always the front bolt followed by the rear bolt.

Last thing to fit is a new pair of renthal grips, I have a small confession to make, when drilling the 5mm hole for the throttle assembly to fit into the bars I drilled the hole too far up the bars. There is a small gap between the end of the throttle and the end of the bars. I could chop them down or just live with it.

 I am happy with the look of the new bars, I will adjust them after a good ride. I think I will make them more narrow but this could introduce fouling of the switchgear and the tank which is a nuisance.

The overall stance of the bike is much cleaner, lower and purposeful. Im looking forward to many more miles on it. I have recently bought another late model Bros and will be starting work on that in the next week. I am thinking of going down the super twin track day bike route for that. I have recently acquired some racing heads and pod filters so it seems a waste to not use them.