Featured Thruxton Apex Clip-on Bar Riser Install Success

Good news, everyone! The Triumph Thruxton 1200 R bar risers can be swapped out MUCH more easily than is depicted in the manual, and also more easily than is shown in the videos and other information that I could find on the subject. Don't get me wrong; those sources provided helpful information. In particular, thanks to "Bolt Hole Biker" for the hint at 9:35 in his YouTube video, “How to change clip-ons on Triumph Thruxton R.” But as it turns out, he did it the hard way.

I’m preparing a short video of my own to explain and provide a few tips. In sum, you DON’T need to do any of the following things that the manual and/or other sources might lead you to believe: remove the seat; remove the fuel tank, detach the instruments or the headlight, loosen the lower yoke/triple clamp, drop the forks down in the lower yoke/triple clamp; OR remove the ABS sensor! None of that is necessary! You DO, however, need to remove the fairing, if you have one, as well as the two-piece plastic cable shroud that secures the cables up against the headlight frame. (And good luck getting that shroud back on in OEM fashion.) Generally, this is a pretty easy install despite a few little wrinkles along the way.

The other good news is that the Apex bar risers are a good fit for the TTR. They are a nice piece of kit that suits the look of the bike, IMO.

The correct Apex fork clamp size for the 2016 TTR is 52 mm, and the bar size is 7/8”. The 4” riser post will work without significant modifications to the cables or the fairing, although the brake fluid reservoir might just graze the fairing, necessitating some adjustment. I mounted the clamps so that the risers are positioned toward the near/tank side of the forks, versus the stock risers’ position where the bars attach more on the far/headlight side. The clamps can’t be pointing straight toward the bike, of course, but they can be positioned so the risers are closer to the rider than with the stock arrangement. (This is kind of difficult to discern in the before/after photo due to the angle, but if you look closely you can see the Apex clamp is positioned aiming more backward.) However, that also means the repositioned clamps are lower to the ground, by virtue of the rake angle of the fork. It would be possible to mount them differently, but at some angle the position might cause a problem with the brake reservoir hitting the fairing. I didn’t experiment much with that; I just wanted the closest position I could get for my height of 5’-8” without hitting the fairing. I opted for the 4” risers, and I positioned them in their highest position -- but as noted, oriented toward the near side of the fork tubes.

The Apex risers provide a more comfortable and natural seating position than the low clip-ons that were mounted on this TTR, which made me feel like I was reaching for the bars and craning my neck to look up the roadway. The difference, however, isn’t as dramatic as I’d expected. In fact I’d been hoping the Apex clip-ons would allow me to sit back further, on a wider and softer part of the seat, away from the godawful hard front part where the cushion is thin and the seat pan increasingly becomes an implement of pain after 30 minutes of riding.

On the upside, in the new seating position I don’t feel like I’m sitting up too straight, like I would with a cruiser. I'm still leaning into it, and that’s a good thing.

Overall, I’m pleased with the Apex bar risers. Whether they’ll provide as much comfort as I need to make good use of the TTR remains to be seen.

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