So I take the ferry into Seattle everyday and one of the perks of taking a motorcycle onto the ferry is you get priority loading and thus we have lots of motorcycles, especially in good weather.
They just look super uncomfortable, especially for long trips. Is that true? I have only riden more normal motocross type bikes when I was younger so I really don’t have a sense of it. But it just seems your arms are hanging up in the air, mine are aching just thinking about it. Plus it seems your control would be weird,not sure why I think that but it just seems the point of your turn is at the wrong spot.
So anyone ride one of these bad boys and can give me some insight?
Not my style at all. I ride a sportbike. I like my feet under me or behind me. Having feet-forward just seems uncomfortable. And the ape-hanger bars look even more-so.
I’ve heard that about sportbikes as well and always wanted to take one out some day. The handlebars always kinda made me a bit nervous, they look so…touchy. Like just a little flick of the wrist and it would send you into the other lane. Something about the way they’re so low and close together and kind of buried in the body of the bike. My MSF teacher was this older (60ish) big burly leather wearing guy and on the last day he showed up on his bike…a sport bike. We all kind of looked at him a bit surprised and he mentioned that he’d rather have the weight on his arms and shoulders then on his but for long trips and his taken it on several cross country trips.
Anyways, yeah, ape hangers look rather uncomfortable and hard to steer, but I’ve yet to see someone crash one and then say “Geesh, how are you supposed to turn this thing” so it must work.
Ape hangers. Cool! Actually your arms can get tired and cramped from being up in the air like that. But it looks really cool from behind. With you knees bent your legs look short, and your arms are stretched upwards, and it really looks like an ape on the bike. They were more common before *Easy Rider *made the classic chopper the desired look.
You’re not going far on a bike like that. The riding position will turn you into a sail at speed, and it would get really, really tiring after not too many miles at freeway speeds.
Not very functional. Ideally, to cover any kind of distance, you want the kind of riding position you find on a sport-touring bike. Not as aggressive as a sportbike, but your weight is distributed between your butt, your arms and your legs, and you’re not as exposed to the wind.
Apes look great. They’re perfect for a trip to Sturgis, assuming you bring your bike on a trailer and don’t unload it until you’re twenty miles outside of town.
Pretty much the other way around for me. Love having the forward controls and the extra pair of highway pegs for when I really want to stretch out a while.
Full agreement on the apehangers though. Don’t think I’d even want to bother with them on the 15 miles to work.
