Motor Cycle Links

Renthal Aluminum Handlebars

Manufacturer: Renthal
Ease of Installation: ****
Functionality: *****
Styling: ****
Pricing: On the street prices range from $60 to~$80 depending on model

"Why spend $70, $60, or even $50 on a pair of handlebars?" That’s what I always thought. Just for a little history, I used to bend my handlebars on every trip. If I were lucky, I would crash an equal number of times on each side, keeping my bars somewhat symmetrical. Of course this rarely happened. While I was used to the bend of my bars not resembling, even remotely, the direction of my front wheel, this caused huge problems for anyone else who was fortunate enough to ride my bike.

Normally, I’d search and search until I found the cheapest (under $20) steel bars I could. This went on for many years. Finally, sometime around 1994, I managed to get a pair of Renthal bars at wholesale cost. I haven’t used anything else since. In fact, I still have the same set of bars that I originally bought. Based on the number of crashes I’ve participated in, these bars have paid for themselves many times over. Actually, with three different bikes, I’ve never had to replace a set of these bars.

Renthal provides quality handlebars in a large selection styles and colors. Being somewhat tall, I prefer the "CR High-Bend" bars for my "woods" bike and "XR Desert-Bend" bars on my XR600. The Desert-Bend is somewhat wider and gives me the feeling of more stability at higher speeds. Of course this could be entirely mental on my part, but what do I care, it works!