Handlebars, Risers & Grips

People come here for one of two jobs. Rebuilding a Harley-Davidson cockpit means a new bar, risers to hold it and grips to finish it, and all of that is imperial: 1 inch or 7/8 inch. Lifting the bars on a BMW, Triumph, Yamaha or Ducati usually means keeping the standard bar and raising its clamps, and all of that is metric: 22, 28 or 32 mm. They barely overlap. The one place they meet is 7/8 inch and 22 mm, which are the same diameter. Worth knowing before you measure.

Bars, risers, grips and heated grips are for sale here, with free UK delivery available. Only 64 of the 170 products show a was-price: the 63 SW-Motech risers and mounts, listed at 10% off RRP, and the KTM heated grip kit. The Biltwell bars, risers, grips and throttle parts carry none, and neither do the two Oxford grips; those are priced against the UK distributor's list. Harley-Davidson's own grips, handlebars and risers are a separate estate with pages of their own, starting at Harley-Davidson handlebars.

Measure the bar before you order anything

84 of the 104 Biltwell products are built around a 1 inch bar or riser. Twenty are cut for 7/8 inch, and 15 of those twenty are grip colourways, so there is very little choice in 7/8 inch bars. Biltwell publish no list of which Harley-Davidsons left the factory on which diameter, and nothing else here supplies one. Measure at the clamp. Or read the Fitment section on the product itself: a line such as 82-24 H-D, excluding 88-11 Springers, with 1 inch inside-diameter risers names the years a part actually fits, and that is written on each product, not here.

Risers, bar backs and the cable question

54 of the 63 SW-Motech products are bar risers or bar backs. The other nine are cockpit mounting parts: ball kits and clamps, a socket arm, a phone or camera mount and a switch. A Bar Riser lifts the bar, nothing else. A Bar Back lifts it and steps it towards the rider by a fixed amount. A Vario Bar Back does both and adjusts steplessly through its range. Two of the risers are cut for a Harley-Davidson, both for the Pan America. BMW is the largest named group at 18, Triumph has four, and Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati have one each. The other 26 are Universal, Multi-Fit or carry no marque in the listing.

The check that matters before ordering a riser is what the cables and hoses will do. SW-Motech state on their own pages that the length of the Bowden cables and brake lines must be verified individually on the universal-diameter risers, while both Pan America risers state that no cable extension is needed. There is one more line on their Vario Bar Back page: SW-Motech state it is not approved for use on public roads in Germany and ask buyers to check the rules in their own country. That is German type approval, in SW-Motech's own words, and it is said about that part only.

The grip that arrives without a throttle sleeve

The 35 TPV Grips listings are one rubber grip in five tread patterns, two diameters and a spread of colours. The supplier's note on 20 of the 35 says the throttle sleeve is not included. The other 15 say nothing about it. The only sleeve on this page is the 1 inch Whiskey Throttle Sleeve. There is no 7/8 inch sleeve here at all, so on 7/8 inch you reuse the tube on the bike or find one elsewhere.

The Alumicore Grips are the ones to watch. Biltwell build two versions for two different Harley-Davidson bar-end specifications and tell buyers in plain terms to read the fitment before ordering; our own listing carries an exclusion list running from several current Softails through the 2021 to 2025 Pan America and Sportster models. The replacement sleeves here fit Alumicore grips and nothing else.

Murdock risers come in two ranges with different clamps

The Murdock Risers take a 1 inch bar on 3-1/2 inch centres, with 1/2-13 threaded holes that accept stock riser bolts, and a top clamp that takes the stock Harley-Davidson speedo and tacho brackets. The O/S (Over Sized) Murdock is a different part and not a larger version of the same one: it clamps a 1-1/8 inch bar on 5/16-18 hardware. Order across the two and you get a riser that will not clamp your bar or will not take the bolts in your hand. Pullback versions of either bring the bar 2 inches closer to the rider.

Heated grips are a third job again

Three products here are heated. Oxford's two HotGrips listings are two different mechanisms, not the same design at two prices: the Premium line runs a separate controller with a battery-saving mode, and Oxford say its switch technology removes the need to buy and fit relays, while the Pro line puts a control unit inside each grip with its own button. The KTM kit is the one to read twice. It fits KTM's own naked and adventure models and no Harley-Davidson, and KTM's dealer documentation states the grips "may need to be activated by a KTM dealer diagnostic tool", with the dealer charge for that not included in the price of the grips.

Two UK magazine tests of Oxford heated grips, one from 2021 and one from 2023, both say the same thing: fitting takes an afternoon and there is wiring involved. Neither test is of these exact grips, so take it as the general picture. On the Biltwell side only the Whiskey Throttle Assembly carries a fitting caution of its own. Biltwell advise it be installed by a qualified mechanic. The footpegs are on their own page.