I know this is an annoying newbie question especially for a first post so sorry in advance, but I've been doing a lot of research this afternoon and I cant figure out what type of replacement bars to get for my 2012 KLX250S. I'm a new rider, only about 500 miles and I lost traction big time on a concrete river crossing that was covered in very slippery algae slime. The bike swapped ends on me and I was laying in the slimy stagnant water before I knew what happened. The 25 mile ride home through the twisties with bent bars was awesome . The bike was undamaged except for the bars and the clutch leaver.

Anyway I'm 5'11", mostly torso with shortish arms and legs. The stock bars and riding position felt pretty good to me but I had nothing to compare it to because I'm a noob. Does anyone have suggestions for higher quality bars that have a pretty much stock feel, and not something that will break the bank?

This simulator from zeta seems helpful. ZETA HANDLE BEND SIMULATOR

 

pro taper kx highs are what i'm running don't have to bend to stand and ride imho taller the better and when you get new bars get their throttle tube it feels amazing

 

I changed to the Pro Taper CR High Bend, someone on ADVRider(maybe a member here too?) in the long term klx250 review post mentioned they were able to use them with stock length cables. I put the bar on so I could add Barkbusters to save my levers, which they did multiple times yesterday!
The bars were a little hard to get on - I had to sand down the clutch side so the clutch lever would slide on - it has a rough finish to hold the grips in place better. I also decided to remove the plastic plug in the controls, instead of drilling the bars (you'll see what I mean when you take yours off). This let the control pods slide, so I put some gaff tape around the bars first, to stop that. You also will have to get as much length from the cables (and get a little from the harness) as you can, unless you cut the bars down to stock width, as they are a bit wider.

 

I put on charmical bend / pro tapers with 2 inch rox risers (stock cables), highly recomended for off road use.

 

My race bike is an RM 125, so I buy MSR steel bars in RM bend and use them on all my bikes. $20/pair and they work fine. Unless you're using ($$) fastflexx bars, everything will bend so I use the cheapies and they're fine.

 

Thanks zomby woof! MSR was the suggestion I was looking for.

P.S. FZ rules ;-)

 

By any chance, did you crash on one our "slicker than snot on a brass doorknob" concrete/natural rock water crpossingsa here in TX? They are extremely dangerous.

 

Charlie, welcome to the forums!

 

Hey Toyotabuilder, I checked out my buddy's XR650 with kx highs on it and they seem good to me. I'm thinking maybe I will go that route. Which throttle tube did you go with? Pro tapper doesn't have a part listed for the klx250.

 

Same idea but in southern california. We have these raised poured concrete water crossings and they are definitely slicker than snot when the water level goes down in the summer.