Was about to install some D-Flex handlebar protection (bark busters)

Cut the ends of the oem grips off, and noticed that the stock bars have weights inside that are tack welded.

Outside of replacing the entire handlebar, has anyone got any suggestions on how to remove ? My good friend suggested perhaps tapping that existing hole so i could use the existing bolt that comes with the d-flex and bolt it right into the existing weight.. But i'm having a problem tapping that hole.. Drilled it to a larger hole, problem is i dont have metric drill bits, and my tap is metric ! Could be part of the problem.. dunno, eitherway i'm struggling to tap that hole, with my tap set.

Here's a pic.

 

personally id just replace the bars cause the first good drop the bars are good bend

 

I knocked them out (broke the welds), other people have cut the ends of the bars off, or you could get the right tap.

 

How easy / hard was it ? I'm assuming you had to remove the bars and put them in a vice and used a heavy duty rock chisel or something similar ?

Wondering for the sake of $30 if i should go down at route, or just order some new handlebars.

 

Well to be honest I ended up with a set of Renthals anyway. But getting back to what you asked it was a ***** of a job and if I was doing it again I'd either buy the new bars or get it tapped.

 

I tapped two of the stock bars no problem. Get the proper tap and find the drill size that goes with it, I looked up the drill size and found the closest one I had[1 size over]. Drilled and tapped away.

You might go to your local bearing shop and see if they have a Equivalents chart[very handy to have], the one I go to gives them away.