Handlebars Built In The Garage
On this part of THE build I wanted to make my own handlebars. It all started one day when I went through a parts catalog to see if I could find a set of tall Z-bars like the set that was on my old man's Panhead. I found a set of 10-inch Zs but they still were not tall enough for me. I had a set of 21-inch rolled bars on my old bike already, so I couldn't go shorter
I called my dad to ask if he knew the maker of the tall bars he had back in the day. Pops told me that he had to make them; everyone was scared to run anything too tall due to the threat of getting a ticket or because they were afraid they would be too hard to ride. So here I was in the same predicament. I needed a custom height, so I made a set of tall 21-inch Z-bars and as soon as the bars were on my bike, all my road dogs wanted a set. The cool thing is that even though all of us have different sizes, we all have had a lot of practice making our own bars, so I knew it would be easy to bang out a set for this build. I called Big James and got him over to my house to give me a hand and to use his welder (I don't have a welder at this time, but I'm saving my money for one).
I decided that these Zs needed to look a bit different than the last set we did. We planned to keep them high, but I wanted to pull the inside closer and lower my handgrip height by changing the top angle to point downward. The bars will still be tall but at the same time keep my hands about 6 inches above my shoulders. After all, we have to deal with the law (California law).