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FT bars how to with pics

16154 Views 24 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Yellow Icon
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Hello everyone.

Installed my FT bars today, so wanted to post up a quick and dirty how to...

The install is pretty straight forward, the biggest thing to watch out for is scratching your tank.

First, you should verify that you got all 3 pieces necessary to make this swap.
Handlebars, lower clamp and top clamp. Mine came with 4 new bolts, but you could re use the old ones I suppose.

***NOTICE IF LIABILITY***
Before you perform ANY work, ask yourself if you are confident in performing this task?
If at ANY point, you feel like you are in over your head, STOP!
You are taking your life into your own hands if something was to come loose at the most inconvenient time.
You are, thereby, assuming ALL risk and respnsible for ANY consequences.

You will need: 8mm socket, 15mm wrench, 3,4,5,6 and 8mm allens.

I started off by pulling everything off my bars.
Mirrors, levers, left and right button clusters, and throttle tube so my bars looked like this:

Then I removed the 4 allen bolts holding the top clamp in place.

This exposes the 8mm allenheads that hold the lower clamp in place.
You can loosen them but leave them in for now.
You will need the 15mm wrench to hold on to the nuts on the bottom.

When you crack them loose, look behind the instrument cluster, and loosen the 3 4mm allenhead bolts.
You can get to 2 of them pretty easy, but the 3rd one you can just crack loose and leave it in there.

Now you can fully remove the 2 bolts that hold the lower clamp to the upper triple clamp.
Be careful, there are 2 washers under the nuts and also 2 washers under the clamp.
With the bolts out, you can move the lower mount somthat you can get the last screw out of the instrument cluster.
The bottom plastic pease can come out.

Before you can remove the instrument cluster, you need to un-do the plug in the back



This is pretty easy, just takes a little bit of patience.
You need to push in the tab while you rotate the lever.
This can be done with bare hands.

Now you can remove the cluster and pull out the lower clamp.

Youmwill notice there are 3 rubber mounts that mount the instrument cluster to the lower clamp.
They need to come out.
First, pull out the metal inserts, then squeeze the rubber mounts and slide them inward.




At this point, you are half done, time to start putting everything back in reverse order.

Re install the rubber mounts, then slide the metal inserts in.

Get the new lower clamp, feed the instrument cluster through, plug cluster back in.
Install the cluster screws along with the black plastic piece.
Dont worry about tightening all the way.

Install lower clamp, remember the washers under the clamp and under the nuts.

Tighten the 3 bolts for the instrument cluster.

Install your new handlebars and top clamp.
Fit the bolts snug, not too tight.
You want to get the handlebars pretty close to center and close to the final position.
Its not a good idea to move the handlebars too much when the bolts are tight because you will scratch the black anodizing.
Once the bars are where you like it, tighten down the 4 bolts that hold the top clamp.
The gap on the front and back of the clamp should be the same.

Install the electronic button clusters.
Make sure you line up the hole in the handlebars and the locating pin on the plastic mount!
On the clutch side, its pretty self explanitory.
On the gas side there are 2 holes and the buttons need the inner hole.
The outside hole is for the throttle tube.....which you can install now.

Lastly, the clutch and brake levers and you should be done.

Your final project should look like this:
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What's the two sizes used down at the clamp? (the reason you need to change the clamp for the bars)

Mostly I'm curious because I'd rather just not buy the other clamps and pick out some aftermarket bars the same diameter as the silver ones.

Also, what do the holes in the bars do? Keep the levers or mirrors from rotating?
What's the two sizes used down at the clamp? (the reason you need to change the clamp for the bars)

Mostly I'm curious because I'd rather just not buy the other clamps and pick out some aftermarket bars the same diameter as the silver ones.

Also, what do the holes in the bars do? Keep the levers or mirrors from rotating?
Im not exactly sure what sizes you are referring to, but it would be easy enough to measure with calipers.

The holes keep the (everything EXCEPT mirrors and levers) from turning.
Why do you have to take of the instrument cluster? Does it have a clearance issue with the lower bar. I may be doing this soon when my bar comes in. If its in for first service I will just have them do it. Doesn't look too difficult thanks for the pics and instructions
Why do you have to take of the instrument cluster? Does it have a clearance issue with the lower bar. I may be doing this soon when my bar comes in. If its in for first service I will just have them do it. Doesn't look too difficult thanks for the pics and instructions
You have to take off the cluster because its mounted to the lower clamp.
You get a new lower clamp with the new handlebars.
FT bars are roughly 6mm fatter in diameter at the clamps, so you have to change the clamps to suit. So you have to move the instrument cluster from the old clamps to the new.
FT bars are roughly 6mm fatter in diameter at the clamps, so you have to change the clamps to suit. So you have to move the instrument cluster from the old clamps to the new.
Yes, exactly.

The bottom half of the clamp acts as a mount for the instrument cluster.
After a couple of rides, I have to say, I like the riding position better!

More sport bike like, less cruiser style.

Also, them being fat in the middle means there are many other bars as an option and the only thing I have to do is swap the bars.

D
As a manufacturer it's such a weird decision for Ducati to make the speedo mount part of the clamp and then to offer multiple sizes of the clamp itself. Weird! Also weird that the Full Throttle model is a street bike with taper bars and they use the 'skinny' parts on the Urban Enduro.

The point of pro taper type bars is that they are less likely to bend when you drop the bike in the woods (since dropping it on the street usually results in an insurance check anyway.)

How much did it cost to get the kit to switch out the bars that includes those two clamp pieces?
I ordered the bar. They said it came with longer bolts I asked about clamps. Do you have order these separate? Cause now I will have to wait even longer if I have to order more parts.
The holes keep the (everything EXCEPT mirrors and levers) from turning.
And they are a pain in the backside. I have FT bars on my new Classic and I wanted to rotate them back a smidgin for a more comfortable feel on my wrists. Then I found that the holes and their corresponding pins prevents the controls and switch gear from being moved to a matching position. :mad:
I'll be removing the pins. I had to do the same on my MTS1200.
I ordered the bar. They said it came with longer bolts I asked about clamps. Do you have order these separate? Cause now I will have to wait even longer if I have to order more parts.
Mine had everything as a package.
And they are a pain in the backside. I have FT bars on my new Classic and I wanted to rotate them back a smidgin for a more comfortable feel on my wrists. Then I found that the holes and their corresponding pins prevents the controls and switch gear from being moved to a matching position. :mad:
I'll be removing the pins. I had to do the same on my MTS1200.
I agree!

Ducati should have specd all bars to be the taper type, even on the Icon.

The thing to watch out for is to verify that there is enough tension on the plastic halves.
Its gonna be very close.
I think with the bolts all the way tight, they are only snug and not completely tight??

D
Good to hear DK. Because I asked two dealers and both no idea nor is it stated on the Ducati website. The Land of no Clear information. :)
Were you able to reuse the rubber grips or did you have to buy new ones?!
Were you able to reuse the rubber grips or did you have to buy new ones?!

Good question!

I put a new one for the left side, but the throttle grip stays with the tube, so no reason to remove it.

D
D K thank you so much for this write up and pics! I bought the bars yesterday at my local dealer and just finished installing it today - I'd probably struggled a lot without your post!

Took me about an hour all up, pretty straight forward - the only tricky part was unplugging the speedo as I didn't know how to do it at first - then super easy! the only annoying part was accessing the third screw on that speedo.

Oh and I managed to reuse my grips - just sprayed wd40 under the left grip and it came right off, then washed it and dried it and reinstalled with soapie water - already formed up!

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Many thanks @D K @Feli . This is very helpful.

I'd ordered a Rizoma universal tapered handlebar and now going by your posts it seems I will have to order some bottom clamps too. :(

I couldn't find the clamps anywhere online. Any help pointing me in the right direction will be appreciated.
Dumb question time: Did you guys unhook your battery before unplugging the speedo? I bought these bars from Pure-Ducati in Florida because I realized the whole kit with the new aluminum steering neck comes with it for 129 dollars.

I probably won't run them right away, but I'm just curious if you need to unplug the battery. My guess is no, but I wanted to check before releasing any magic smoke from the instrument panel.
AFAIK, before any battery juice gets to the speedo, it has to contend with the 12V switch inside the ignition key.

From the pics, it appears that the ignition key is in OFF position, so IMO, no need to manually disconnect the battery. Even if the ignition switch was on, all that connector would impose on the power lines in the disconnected state would be an open circuit - no harm done really, as long as the disconnection was done with the ignition in OFF position.

But lets hear from our friends here too.
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