Affordable Motorcycle Mods: Upgrades That Won’t Break the Bank

I want to start with really the cheapest way to modify your bike that you can, which is essentially the ones that are zero cost whatsoever, and this is to adjust your bike.

So many people forget about this.

Your bike has a ton of adjustments you can make without having to buy new parts.

A lot of us, we get so excited, we get a new bike, and we just think, "Oh, I got to go and buy something, and that's how I'm going to modify it to make it my own." Well, there's a lot of adjustability just built into these, and many times this adjustment is enough to make a change for the better.

So let's start with the handlebars.

Now, a lot of riders will look at a handlebar and they'll say, "Oh, I want to get a different handlebar because that'll make it have a different reach than I have today." And while that is true, you can also just rotate the handlebars in the clamps to adjust their position, and sometimes just a little bit is all you actually need.

So rotating them back usually lowers the grips and moves them closer to the rider, and this can be good if you're a shorter rider, while if you rotate them forward, usually this raises the grips and moves them a little further away from the rider, and this is often good for a taller rider.

Again, it's not a huge amount of adjustment that we're talking about here.

A few degrees either direction actually can make a big difference to make it more comfortable for you.

And the goal really is to find a neutral position, and this couple degrees d- difference can make the difference between a bike that makes you feel exhausted and tired all the time from just a very short run to one that fits and that you can just ride for hours on end.

So let's look at the hand levers.

Just like the handlebars, the levers can be adjusted too.

If you loosen the clamp and rotate them on the bar, this can change the angle of the lever relative to your hand position on the grip.

Now, if you did rotate your handlebars like we just spoke about, you may need to adjust your hand levers after you've moved the handlebars, as their relative position will change.

If you think of it, if we rotate the handlebars, well, the levers are rotating with the handlebars because their position is relative to that, and that may no longer match with how your hands are going to be held onto the bars.

So you may need to just loosen up those clamps and rotate those hand levers up or down to make them adjust specifically for you.

Now, some levers even allow you to adjust how far the lever is from the bar, and I like to adjust this so that my inner two fingers can hold the lever with my outer two fingers still on the grip.

And I should be able to fully pull the lever to disengage the clutch or activate the front brake, leaving my outer fingers on the grip.

And this maximizes your hold on the bar and minimizes the chance that you're going to grab a fistful of brake, since you can really only use one or two fingers.

Now, some levers also allow you to control the engagement point.

This is usually on a cable actuated lever, but some other levers can give you a little bit of control even without it being cable actuated.

And this can be used to really increase or decrease the point at which the front brake begins to engage or the clutch begins to disengage.

And this works very well if you choose to have those two fingers always on the grip approach.

So the lever is fully activated before it hits those fingers.

So if you think about it, you're squeezing those levers.