Has anyone tried the Dragon Custom handlebar riser kit?

[winginman]

I would like to move my bars back an inch or two to make my riding position more upright.  On longer trips my back will began to hurt a bit from leaning forward a bit.  (Short arms...)  I sent them an email and they said the kit would fit the stock bars.  I would like to use the stock bars, plastic, etc and just move them back.  Wondering if any of you had tried this type of mod.  Before I spend $125 I would like to find out if there are any problems anyone has run into or if anyone had found an alternative.  If you have not seen it here is a link to the kit.
http://shop.dragoncustom.com/product.sc?productId=11&categoryId=10

[zombie]

This allows you to mount our custom pull back bars to give your scooter a real custom look. Replaces the stock bar setup with the ugly plastic covers. Sounds to me like stock parts are replaced

[winginman]

Yeah, that's what it sounds like so I sent an email and got a reply that it would fit the stock bars.  Don't want to change bars just move them back a bit.  Thought someone else may have tried it.   I kinda like the stock ugly plastic on the bars...

[Bryan]

Hi Jim, I was reading your comments and wondering about the need to bring the bars back a bit. I am 5' 6" and find the reach quiet comfortable, then again I don't really ride the longer trips, the most I have done in one run is 150km out and 150km back. Only stopped for fuel, never even got off the scoot. My back felt fine it was more the numb bum that got to me it also seems to numb the family jewels a bit too. Havn't been riding the scooter for over a week now, mainly due to rain, then when the weather was ok I had to use the van because I had to transport some equipment and things for work. I have my own small workshop at home and I work for a electronics design and development company so I'm often making up jigs or machining parts for design prototypes which need to be transported between home and work. Managed to get out on Sunday and take a breakfast run on my BMW K1200RS with some buddies, had real bad luck, was moving back when the right foot slipped on the sand and fell over on the right side, in the parking lot in front of the place and all the buddies. I'm very dissapointed and have damaged the bike quiet badly not to mention my pride. It's tuff having short legs. Can't even get the feet down nicely on the scooter, have to sort of roll myself forward onto the tip of the seat to get the feet down when stopping. Take care.

[winginman]

Bryan, I am 5'8" and have the same problem with short legs.  The K1200RS is tall.  I have a custom seat on my GL1800 and with the bars set back a bit I am riding in an upright position quite comfy.  With the X500 unless I scoot up on the seat I have to lean slightly forward.  After a couple hours of riding I feel it in my back and would like to be able to sit upright.  When I go on long rides (More than 200 miles in a day) I take the Wing.  There are times when the scooter group goes on all day rides and I want to take the X500 and be comfy. 

I am on the balls of my feet when stopped on both the X500 and the Wing.  Know what you mean when you fall over because you can't get a good grip with your foot.  I was backing out of the drive and have a slight dip.  Put my food down and there was "air".  Nothing to do but hit the ground.  I jumped up and set the scoot up and thought no one saw me.  Couple of days later a neighbor walked up and said "Did that hurt the other day when you fell over on the scooter?".  Geez you just can't get away with anything. 

You should try to make some blocks that would move the bars back and put them on ebay.  I would try myself but have no tools for that kind of work.

On another note, that K1200GS is the perfect bike for carrying a cameraman for the Ironman race.  If they have one in your area you may want to volunteer, it is an awsome day of fun on a bike.

[Bryan]

Hi Jim, I hate to think what damage would be caused if I dropped the scooter, lots of paintwork damage I would think. I had quiet a shock yesterday when I took the BMW to the paintshop for a quote. The cost of the repairs and repaint of the fairings are not that bad but the BM agent wants a fortune for the foot brake pedal which is bent a bit. The price of the pedal is equivalent to two months groceries for the whole family, shocking. So I'll strip the pedal off this weekend and see if I can apply a little heat and bend it back into shape and respray it silver again. I initially though it was aluminium which is powder coated then when I looked again yesterday I thought it may be steel thats powder coated. It's not like the pedal takes a lot of strain, the BM has the electric servo's that power the brakes, sounds a bit like the dentist drill when you apply brakes. Then it also has the linked system where the front brake lever applies front and back brakes together while the pedal applies only back brakes. Should see right away when I get it off.  I had a wing way back in my younger days when they were still 1000cc. Used to do some serious distances on that bike and it was a real pleasure to travel on. Worked about 780km from where the girlfriend lived so at least once a month would make a visit, sometimes twice a month. Leave Friday after work ride right through the night. Just stop for fuel, coffee and off again. Then leave Sunday midday to go back arrive around midnight get a few hours rest and back to work. Trouble again was the short legs and high seat. Had to slip one cheek off the seat and get ready to get that foot down when stopping and heaven help if it tipped the wrong way, lucky those days we had heavy crash bars on the bikes, it was law here. Often I would stop alongside the sidewalk and get a foot onto the step up. The distances I travelled after that lady, I had to be crazy. Take care.

[winginman]

Bryan, What year is the K1200GS?  Got a friend that works at a shop that specializes in BMW motorcycles let's see what one costs here. 

Wife and I rode up to see my sister this weekend.  Her husband just got his first motorcycle and we rode 350 miles with them this weekend.  It was a little cool but at least it was dry.  Stayed on the back roads till we got within 30 miles of home and jumped on the expressway.  Wife does not really like to ride the expressway on her Scarabeo.  It is more susceptible to the wind than the X500.  But, yesterday there was no wind to speak of and we ran 65 MPH with ease.  As long as I stop frequently and stretch my back does pretty well when riding the X500, however it takes a long time to get anywhere.  But then most of the time that's not a problem since we are going for the ride not the destination. 

[Bryan]

Hi Jim, That is some serious riding you guys have done. (About 560km) I would love to get away and ride, just not sure if I would use the X500, probable use the BMW. It's also great that your wife rides as well. I would love it if the wife could ride. I have even offered to buy or hire a small 125 scooter for her to learn on, and would send her to a riding acadamy for training. Unfortunately, the mother in law is so dead against her riding and just about has a heart attack when the subject comes up so I have just come to accept it. The old lady doesn't stress that much when the wife gets onto the back of the BMW with me but no-way on her own. By the way the BMW is a K1200RS not a GS and it's a 2003 model. I'll try to attach a photo. A quick question, what does your X500 book say about maximum weight. Mine says 150kg including rider, passenger and luggage. Its a problem because the wife and I are both heavy and exceed that weight. Must say I was surprised and expected it to easily carry the two of us because I see lots of little 125cc running around two up. Take care. Bryan.

[winginman]

Bryan, Nice Beemer, but holy crap you don't want to break any parts.  That pedal is $150.88 USD.  And I thought $70 for a strip of plastic for my Wing was bad.  One good reason I hope they don't bring out the Kymco 700 as a BMW.  If so I won't be able to afford one.  I can deal with my local Kymco dealer, but the local BMW dealer is not as easy to work with.  They also handle Vespa and Aprilia scooters as well as BMW and are expensive on everything.  So far the Kymco has been bulletproof and runs like a top.  I am getting close to the 2nd oil change and will do that myself.  I switched recently to using 87 Octane gas and have seen no difference in performance or MPG.  When I change the oil I will take a look at the plug and see what it is like.  BTW it has started that growl when I first take off cold in the mornings.    Goes away within a couple of blocks.  Must be a common thing with the drive system. 

[Bryan]

Hi Jim, Yep, those BMW guys know how to charge. The R1600 they wanted for the brake lever is high, to get a feeling for the value here in my neck of the woods a burger,chips and coke would cost about R30. I have straightened the pedal, it's steel that was powder coated, so I cleaned it on the wire brush, heated it up and straightened it up. Bought a can of "Hammerite" silver spray and sprayed it. It looked fine but it takes too long for the paint to harden. I had to refit it because I have to ride the bike and take it in for the fairing repairs, that messed up the paint. It got quiet smeered so I'll just have to wait till the job is finished and take it off again and repaint it. Guess I was too rushed and should have given the paint a few days to harden properly. I think the prices are so high for most things coming from europe, I know a lady here locally who won a vespa scooter in some compertion (a pink one) and she doesn't ride and has been trying to sell it for months. New they are about R55000 she wants R45000, the catch here is we can buy a brand new Kymco Super 8 for R14000 so for that price you could buy three kymco's and still have change to keep you in burgers for a few months. My X500 (with Carb) was only R37500 while the Honda Silverwing is R80000. Go figure. About that growl, what the heck is that? To me almost sounds like a vibration, like a loose panel or plate somewhere or maybe even a bearing rumble and it's quiet loud. Make me feel that everyone is looking at me with this noise, it sure worries me. Take care.

[winginman]

Interesting...  My Kymco 500Ri was $5999 or R44872.  The burger, chips and coke are about the same here.  The brake pedal from BMW would have been R1122 but add shipping and sales tax no telling what it would be.  A Vespa 250GT runs $7200 here or R54856.  The Honda Silverwing is way overpriced, which is why I am hoping Kymco brings in the 700.

The growl I am talking about is not very loud.  If it was I would be taking the thing apart to look.  Our Scarabeo makes a loud noise when taking off when the clutch and belt get hot such as running a long time two up in heavy traffic on a hot day.  Rest of the time it's quiet.  I just rolled over 3000 miles when I noticed the growl taking off when cold.   Seen enough people who say it just does that to not really worry about it unless it gets really pronounced.  Guess I will ride and see what happens.  Although I am still considering the Dr Pulley sliders and new clutch springs.

[Bryan]

Hi Jim, This one of mine makes the noise when cold as well as when hot, doesn't seem to make a difference. So I'm just going to ride it and when it's due for the next service I'll discuss it with them. The thing is the dealer guys are not familiar with the X500, I think he told me he was only aware of two, other than mine, that had been sold in Durban one was the same as mine and the other one was the fuel injection and that guy has since moved to CapeTown. So how do you explain to someone about the noise you are worried about when they are not familiar with the machine. I know when I was having that problem with the acceleration they were consulting with the agent in Cape Town (that's about 1600 km from Durban) apparantly they have sold about 18 down there that that agent looks after so he has a lot more experience. Here, we have to take the scooter to the agent for any work during the gaurantee period or else the gaurantee is forfeited. We have been having constant rain for days now, at this moment there is a huge storm going down, so I have not been riding other than taking in the beemer in on Friday afternoon and leaving it at the painters for repairs and then I got soaked on the way afterall. You say that the scarabeo runs two up, do you also run the X500 two up? My book says max 150 kg and I'm 97 kg alone so the wife can't ride with cause she is more than 53kg. I really thought this scooter would cope with the two of us quiet easily and I never did my homework properly. There is one dude I often see on a 150cc leaving the supermarket with his wife on the back and she also has a shopping bag on each arm. They both look at least as heavy as we are so I'm thinking if that little scoot can cope why can't my X500. Tke care.

[winginman]

Bryan, two up no problem.  I weigh in at 220 lb (100 kg) and wife is about 170 lb (77 kg) and the X500 does not have any problem.  When we did the Ironman I carried a video cameraman who weighed more than I do and all his gear.  The camera alone was about 30 lb (13 kg) and then there was the transmitter and battery pack we stuffed in the trunk box.  To make things worse we were riding very slow to video the runners (sometimes walking) and doing a lot of stop and go.  I was concerned I may overheat the clutch, but the X500 functioned beautifully.  We have rode on the expressway at 75 MPH (120 KPH) with no fuss or signs of strain on the X500.  I think the load limits are below the actual because of the lawyers not the engineers. 

While riding yesterday my speedometer started fluctuating and finally quit altogether.  When you hit a bump it works for a few seconds.  Something has shook loose.  I checked the wires as far as I could reach but could not see or reach the back of the dash.  Guess I will let my dealer take it apart and see what came loose.  Funny, the Scarabeo speedometer quit at just about the same miles and it ended up being a defective dash unit that had to be replaced under warranty. I know my dealer is pretty backed up in the service dept, but will give them a call and see when they can look at it.  Meantime I stuck my GPS on it so I could tell how fast I am going.   

BTW the Aprilia Scarabeo is also a fine scooter and will cruise at 80 MPH two up.  However it's a bit windy for the passenger.  That's how I ended up with the X500.  Wife told me to get my own scooter and stop taking off on hers... 

[Bryan]

Hi Jim, It's time you stuck in a photo or two, I'd like to see the X500 and the Scarabeo. We see very few big scooters around here, Ive seen a Burgman or two, and the Silverwing in the showroom and I've only seen one other X500 parked in Pinetown, the same colour as mine. There are quite a lot of small scooters around, mostly the cheaper chinese makes and hardly any europe makes, maybe an occasional old vespa. I think it's all about price. They recently launched the Aprilia RS4 here and its R270,000 while the R1, GSXR1000, ZX1000 and the Fireblade are all around R100,000 less. The BMWK1300GT with all the bells and whistles is around R190,000. So I don't think we'll ever see a Scarabeo around here soon. I'm going to try out the X500 two up soon and see how it copes. It won't be for any longer trips anyway, just for a bit of fun riding around here locally, if we plan any longer runs it will be on the beemer. It would be interesting to know how accurate the speedo is on the scooter. I suppose the guys have checked this already and the info should be here somewhere. Mine shows 160km/h quite easily out on the freeway and I have even seen it touch on 180km/h, now that's not my normal style but then I couldn't let the Harley get the better of me could I. Take care. Bryan.

[winginman]

Here is a shot of the X500 and one with Jo and her Scarabeo.