If you are medicare aged, you might find a good bit of the RYCA seating and riding ergonomics to be beyond what your old body can take without telling you all about it in somewhat stronger terms .....

We have 20 somethings that report their fresh young bodies can't take much over an hour or so before their young bodies begin talking to them, especially the wrists.

My bike is NOT a RYCA, but certainly inspired by them.
I didn't want clip-on's either, in part because they are TOO far forward and down, and in part because of the cost. I bought a practically new stock bar from a newer Triumph Bonneville that I think will work perfectly for me (If I ever get the danged thing finished!) They were about $30-$35 I think...

It's low, but not quite as low, and sitting on the bike now, I really like the feel of it ergonomically. I'm not expecting supreme comfort from this bike; that's not the point, but I want several hours of pain free riding for sure. I'd like to be able to go all day on the thing, and with these I think I can; we shall see. They are somewhat wide; probably about the same as the clip-on's, but I like that personally. It feels more stable to me on the road.

OH, and I meant to add that with the Savage, you CAN'T just raise the fork tubes. They are not clamped into the upper triple tree like a lot of other bikes; the top fork nut screws down into the triple tree, holding the whole thing together... That's why the RYCA guys had to go to all the trouble of doing the 2" lowering mod to the forks. I doubt they would have done all that if they could have just slid the tubes up. I know I wouldn't have!!  

This guy used different bars.
http://vimeo.com/28729478

This guy also had different bars on for comfort. I think he was an older gent,
http://www.tailfinconsulting.com/ryca/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/P1010013.jpg

http://www.tailfinconsulting.com/ryca/?p=370

http://www.tailfinconsulting.com/ryca/RycaFirstRide.wmv

Thanks for all the input guys, I appreciate it.  Now, I'm wondering about doing the fork spacer mod, but using the stock front springs.  I've ridden sport bikes with low bars since 1987, so the set up as envisioned by RYCA will work for the short rides that are likely - but I'm always fiddling in my mind!

I'm also starting to fiddle with mounting a Suzuki "train light" (1982-83 8" GS1100E) for a headlight.  If nothing else, this ought to kill a lot of bugs while riding!  

Terry

Cavi Mike wrote on 09/19/12 at 16:53:18:


Thanks Mike! Clearance to MY tank is awesome; but it's 1969 T350 tank, so it's MUCH narrower than the stock tank. These bars are nice and wide though; I'm pretty sure that if the clip-on's work with the RYCA tank; these bars should certainly clear...