Rylee wrote on 06/24/15 at 12:43:08:Something else to keep in mind that's not talked about often enough. Your risers/bars are held on by a bolt that passes thru rubber bushings fitted into the triple tree. The taller the risers/bars the more stress your putting on the rubber bushings. Over time these deteriorate and cause movement/slop in your bars. For me personally unless your going with a drag bar type or broom stick type (straight bar) that won't clear your tank try your best to get the rise required to clear out of the bars and not the riser. The closer the mount point of the bars are to the triple tree the less stress your putting on those bushings. You can also swap to urethane bushings that hold up better. To many times I've seen guys with 6+" risers and you can literally shift the bars around because it's over exerting force on the bushings.
I found this post very interesting. When I put the new Bonneville bars on my Savage they felt very comfy...even though they are about 2 1/2" lower at the elbow than the stock buckhorns. Since they dont DROOP like the buckhorns, my hands are actually higher than with the stock bars and tank clearance is about 2". They are also wider from tip to tip than the standard bars.
I was thinking about getting those 2 inches or so back by going with a set of aftermarket risers. I searched ebay, Amazon, JP Cycles, BikeBandit...and there are a couple that look real nice to me. The problem is, they wont work with the stock riser hardware (M10 IIRC) Most have 1/2"-13 threads in the bottom. There is also the issue of our bushing/dress cap that I havent seen on any other bike. I havent had it apart, but it seems there are rubber bushings inside the triple tree with a chrome "dress cap" on the top and bottom. I looked for these items EVERYWHERE because one of mine is pitted...and could not find them. Just yesterday I ordered a triple tree set off ebay from a garaged 2004 Savage and the bushings, bolts, risers AND dress caps come with. They are all in like-new condition...for a price of $29 shipped. I was happy as a clam to find it.
Ok...after all that, here is the question: When adding aftermarket risers, do I have to use the stock bushings and dress caps? If so, the caps would need to be bored out to 1/2". There IS another option I found.
EZ-Locl makes threaded inserts (industrial grade) that screw down into a 1/2"-12 or 1/2"-20 thread and the I.D. thread is metric M-10! They cost a few dollars for a bag of 4. This would allow me to use any Harley or other risers and still use my stock Savage mounting hardware.
Here are the risers I am looking at...3" straight.