or the most part we don’t think much about handlebars on stock bikes. You just kind of accept how the bike was built and do your best to get comfortable on it. Thankfully, over 55 years ago, Earl Flanders didn’t think that way.
     An avid motorcycle racer, he spent countless hours making new handlebar designs that he felt were the cornerstone of his racing success. By making his bike fit him–perfectly–he felt he had the control and the edge that his competitors were lacking.
     Soon enough word got out that Flanders could bend a nice set of bars and racers from all over the place were lining up at the “shop” he had set up in his garage. Every design you can conceive, and a few that you just wouldn’t even want to think about, were created in that small garage workshop. Flanders soon started keeping record of what he made and built up an inventory of designs. He could bang out a set of bars that he had made previously much faster and for less money. Business was great and he decided to jump into the motorcycle business full time.
     His bends started getting part numbers and before you knew it he was supplying handlebars to many more riders than racers. With a complete line of handlebars for almost every bike around, he started to sell to dealers in his area and ultimately across the country. Flanders quickly became the name in handlebars.
     Today, John Flanders knows that handlebars are just as important as they were back when Earl was racing, but its much easier to come by a set that makes your bike look great and feel much more comfortable. A look inside the Drag Specialties catalog will show you over 250 handlebar bends, and now it will show you big, fat handlebars from Flanders. 1 1/4-inch fat bars–they look tremendously bigger than stock.
     Changing a handlebar can dramatically alter a motorcycle. If you are even slightly hunched over reaching for the bars, your upper back can start to scream in pain on a long day in the saddle. Being crowded is just as bad–you can’t relax and enjoy the ride. Taller, wider, shorter, narrower and anything else you can think of best describes the Flanders line. Whatever way you need to change your posture on a bike is available–readily.
     Changing over to new 1 1/4-inch Flanders bars is going to require you to change a few components along the way. Right from the start, you will need new handlebar clamps because Flanders makes their bars 1 1/4-inch all the way across–from grip to grip these fat bars maintain their girth. Also, always remember that if you change handlebar height, width or shape, you may need new cables and wiring harness modifications. Thankfully, Drag has a complete line of high quality cables–clutch, throttle and return–that will make swapping over a breeze. Drag also has many wiring harness extension kits to allow you to add tall apes to your stock wiring harness with no stress at all.
     So what makes Flanders bars so special? Well it starts with over 50 years of bending experience. Couple that with construction from cold-drawn, seamless steel tubing and you have a start on high quality. Add mandrel-bent accuracy and you have the handlebars that everyone wants. Flanders doesn’t chrome or powdercoat their handlebars until the very last machine operations are done–assuring an excellent finish with almost no chance of an imperfection coming up. And, finally, they are all made in the U.S.A.
     With a multitude of new bends for Drag Specialties to sell, there is a set of Flanders 1 1/4-inch bars waiting to make your next ride more comfortable–or make you look cooler taking a ride. Be sure to check out the new Flanders 1 1/4-inch bars–they could be the best modification to your bike you ever make.