Removing & replacing bar ends

Removal

The first, and hardest, thing to do when putting on new bar ends is removing the old ones. This can either be nightmarishly difficult or a walk in the park. It may depend on which Loctite application guy was on shift when your bike was assembled.

Soaking the bar end in hot water has proven successful. Heat some water to boiling. Finding a container that you can get around the bar end should be the hardest part. The container has to be deep enough to stick the bar end into without having the water spill out. The heat works to loosen up the red Loctite. Try soaking for about ten minutes. When it's soaked properly the screw should come off easily.

Here are a few tips for screw extraction:

• Make sure the screwdriver you are using is as nearly new as possible. Look at the tip of it and make sure you can see NO rounding or notching of any kind. The less it bites, the more of your force is wasted trying to press it into the screw head in the first place.

• An impact driver takes the force of a hammer and turns it into rotary torque. This is a very useful tool, especially for older vehicles with stubborn fasteners. Can usually be used for screws or nuts/bolts.

• An alternate method to use with the impact driver if impacts alone aren't doing it: grab a big pair of Vice Grip or Channel Lock pliers and your impact driver. Your Phillips bit must be sharp, with no rounded edges. Insert the Phillips bit into the screw holding on the bar end weight, and use a mallet or hammer to tap it in very tightly. A Harbor Freight impact driver ($10 or so) was used very successfully by one member for this. Once the screwdriver bit is firmly inserted, grab it with the pliers and carefully apply unscrewing force, pushing inward on the screwdriver if necessary. With the added leverage of the pliers, very little strength is required to remove the screw, but beware of stripping out the head -- if there is any indication of the screwdriver slipping, STOP immediately and pursue impact or heat based alternatives.

• Most modern, quality cordless driver drills have multiple torque settings. Using a good bit, start at the lowest setting and let it ratchet for a second or so. Keep doing this on each successively higher setting. There are purpose-made cordless impact guns made by Makita and the like, too.

• In the absence of an impact driver, smack the butt end of your regular screwdriver with a hammer while turning. Put additional turning force into as you make the hit. DISCLAIMER: This is pretty dangerous, so use great caution about doing it. If done poorly or with too much force, you stand a chance of hurting yourself or punching the screwdriver tip through something, or breaking whatever you're working on.

• Get a #3 Phillips screwdriver bit that fits into your socket wrench. Holding the bars with one hand, use one hand to turn the ratchet and your stomach to put pressure on the ratchet. The Loctite on that screw makes it feel like you are destroying the screw when it starts to move. Make sure you keep lots of pressure on the screw until it is all the way out. If you ease up the pressure when it's partially out you may destroy the screw head.

• This will sometimes help crack the screw loose: Find a piece of rubber, like an old piece of heater hose or garden hose, and split it up the side. Put that over the bar end to protect it from scraching. Then clamp the bar end with a large pair of vise grips. Now turn the bar end and the screw at the same time.

• If you do strip a screw during this process, see this FAQ page.

• You can always drill the head off a stripped screw, slide the bar end weight off, and then you can clamp vice grips onto the shaft of the bolt. It's much easier than messing around with easyouts. If you snap an easyout you're in a world of hurt.

• When you replace your bar ends, use allen-head bolts, which are much easier to remove.

Finding new bar ends

All bar ends are not created equal. The bar ends on the EX250 are designed for solid bars. Many bikes have hollow bars that use an expanding rubber thingy to hold them on. ZX-10Rs and some others have completely weird bar ends that actually screw into the bar.

Our bars aren't solid, but they DO have a tapped end as though they WERE solid. Also, HD and knock-offs have 1" bars, whereas the rest of the world uses 7/8" bars. Most Kawasaki sport bike bar ends will fit. HOWEVER, the "lip" at the end of the bar end on our bikes seem to be unique to the EX250 and EX500. This means that if you use anything not designed for one of these two bikes that you will have a little gap between the grip and the bar end, unless you do a little bit of monkeying around to remove it (and it will never be perfect). See photo below:

The stock bar ends are steel and seem quite crash-resistant. Many aftermarket bar ends are aluminium and grind away during a crash. Grinding away means crash energy is being used up, and your bike still works fine without nice bar ends. That said, the stock bar ends are also quite long and help to preserve the tips of your levers. Take your pick, and try not to crash.

A couple things to think about:

• The purpose of the bar ends is to dampen the vibration of the handlebars. This is one place where weight is a good thing. Most of the aftermarket ends are made from aluminum, or even a kind of nylon-ish plastic. Those may not be heavy enough to do the job they are supposed to do as well as the OEM product. They do come in pretty colors, though. eBay is a good place to look. You might start with The Kawasaki Store. They do sell bar ends made specifically for the EX250/500, but they are the lighter aluminum type.

• The stock bar ends weigh five ounces.

• On the Concours there are a set of bar ends from MurphKits that are adjustable. They have an O ring that sits between the bar end weight itself and the bars. You vary the tightness of the center screw or bolt to change the RPM range that the bar ends become effective. These will most likely work on the 250, but contact them before you order.

• If you find bar vibration to be a problem, and you'd like a good-looking, heavyweight bar end, look at the ones from HVMP. They are milled from solid stainless steel, and come in 14 and 17 ounce models. Mounting hardware (stainless allen screws and lock washers) is included. They are $60 shipped, compared to about $40 from Ron Ayers for OEM and hardware.

Here is a 17 ounce HVMP mounted on an EX250: simple, precise, sublime

• Remember, when you replace your bar ends, use allen-head bolts, which are much easier to remove.