Introduction

Apart from armor and a helmet, usually a motorcycle rider doesn't need much in order to ride their horse. Usually they know their barings, general direction, don't need to talk to anyone, don't need to listen to music or to know in real-time any other variable.

Times have changed it seems and the very same technological changes that found their way into our cars and other transport veihcles, found their way to motorcycles as well; GPS devices, smartphones, compasses, radar detectors (speed trap detectors), TPMSs (Tire pressure monitoring systems), temperature gades, gear gades and even real time "dash" camcorders and good old digital clocks.

The addition of the aformentioned is rather debatable since some riders and critcs would say that adding more instumentaion and gadjets to one's motorcycles would just cause more harm by drawing the very important attention of the rider off of the road which would eventually make them end up there, usualy seriously hurt, even dead.

The other side of this debate is usually supported by gadget and innovation enthusiasts who consider almost every product that displays information by LED technology packaged in a nice, sleek and sexy casing along with a cool name to be an absolute necessity for a professional and experiences rider.

My opinion, along with many others, is that both sides are correct and a balance must be found between necessity and safety. Humans are a very adaptable creatures but never the less are very prone for mistakes, AKA, human errors and these are cause by our very easily attention drawn brain.

The following product makes it that a rider would be able to add more gadjets and instrumentation to their motorcycle handlebar. In my case – it was absolutely necessary, in many other cases- it might wouldn't be.

Packaging:

The products comes in 2 parts – the handlebars holder and an additional small handlebar. The package is very nice, to the point, small which makes very little room to mistake the product for something else.
Opening it was a bit of a hassle due to the tight sealing.

The cardboard part of the packages comes printed on both sides. The back side is printed with two photos of the two types of models of this product. It also shows the diameters of the rings in centimeters and a Barcode which leads to http://www.gubbike.net.

The front side of the package is made out of mainly the two parts of the product, a big logo of the company and two very obvious reminders that the product was made using CNC MACHINING. Thanks for the reminder.

Parts:

As mentioned above, the products comes in 2 parts – a handlebars holder and an additional small handlebar.

The handlebars holder is made out of metal and is similar to the number 8. It is made out of two open rings which are supposed to be inserted over the handlebars. The mechanism was designed that when tightening the screws over the rings after the handlebars are in place, the motorcycle handlebar ring tightens the small handlebar's ring automatically.

Both parts are black. The small handlebar is also made out of metal, it has a rugged outer surface and both of the adjacent round surfaces are grew and smooth.

The product comes with two relatively long Ellen screws and two washers.

Quick Overview:

The overall impression the product gives at first is of a very simple and to the point kind of a product with a very minimal design in mind – one device to connect two handlebars and an additional short handlebar.

The black color is indeed very welcomed since it would blend very well with almost any motorcycle's color theme, especially considering the fact that usually most of the instrumentation and cables around the area of the handlebars are usually painted black.

The product gives a feeling of being very fragile due to its small size and narrow cut. It almost gives you the notion that this product was not meant for motorcycles at all but for bicycles, though, a lot of products for the latter would very quite adequate for a motorcycle as well, and vice versa.

Assembly:

Setting up the handlebar Extender main part

1. Clear enough space on your motorcycle handlebar of at least a Centimeter in length in order to prepare a gap in which to install the bigger ring that would hold on to that handlebar

2. clean the cleared gap as much as possible. Make it shine. This is done in order to prevent dirt and other obstacles to interfere with the grip of the ring to the handlebar's outer surface.

3. Since in my case the motorcycle's handlebar's diameter was way narrower than the device's ring, I had to use pieces of friction prevention rubbers I had saved from a previous product. I used 3 of them in order to reduce the inner diameter of the handlebar ring of the device. I went a little overkill with it and added a 3rd rubber to make the inner diameter even smaller since the rubber would contract under pressure from the metal part of the ring being tighten over it.

4. I had to unscrew the some of the devices already present on the motorcycle's handlebar in order to clear more room for the ring. Again, I went over kill here as well and took a bigger space than I actually needed in order to have a bigger error margin.

5. Have the motorcycle handlebar ring part completely open. If you use rubber seals like do, try to hold them as close as possible to the ring itself with having them falling over (happened to me a few times – very frustrating).

6. Make sure the rubber seals overlap each other and that there are no gaps among them.

7. Prepare the screw and its washer close by

8. After positioning the handlebar extender in the right position insert the screw and the washer to the screwing hole in the triangle part that is connected to the ring. Drive the screw till it's tighten but not all the way since tightening this screw will not only tighten the motorcycle handlebar's ring, but also the small handlebar ring as well.

9. make sure the handlebar extender is in the desired position (usually upright at a 90 degree angle). After making sure

10. Insert the small handlebar into the smaller ring.

11. continue tightening the screw of the big ring all the way till the handlebar extender doesn't seem to move so easily.

12. Insert the smaller ring screw and washer into their hole and drive the screw in.

13. At this stage, the more the smaller ring is tighten, the bigger the gap that is created between the two triangles' tips.

14. Make sure both of the screws are tighten all the way and the handlebar extender is firm at its position.

Fulfilling the purpose of the motorcycle handlebar extender – installing more gadgets!:

In this case I have installed a mobile phone cradle for motorcycles and bicycles.
The cradle of choice was as small, reliable and stable that I could find at that time, for a reasonable price of course.

1. Release the screws of the cradle so that it could be slide through the small handlebar

2. Position the cradle in the desired position

3. Tighten the screws all the way

4. Insert a suitable mobile\smartphone onto the cradle

5. After adding the cradle and the mobile\smartphone ,test and make sure that the motorcycle steering handlebar moves freely in both directions and make sure that these are not in the way of your hands.

6. Make sure that the handlebar extender, it's small handlebar and the installed cradle+ the added mobile\smartphone don't obscure any important display or instrumentation.

Prior Usage:

Since the assembly itself presents some sort of a challenge, one could easily ignore the possibility of the handlebar Extender obscuring the motorcycle's stock or added displays and instrumentation.

Make sure the final position of the handlebar extender is one that would not cause such a thing.

Make sure the position of the handlebar extender does not interfere with steering the motorcycle. When the motorcycle is turned off, move the steering handlebar all the way in both directions and make sure the newly installed product doesn't not come into contact with other parts of the motorcycle.

Make sure the handlebar extender does not interfere with the movement of your hands and arms.

Usage:

This part can only be done when actually using the product and it has to do with its positioning. No matter how much you believe you positioned it correctly beforehand when installing it, when riding the motorcycle perspective might change and the position you had thought was perfect and comfortable might not be one anymore.

Therefore it is recommended after installing the product, to make a few short test drives around the block and get on a highway or two and take a set of tools with you so you could stop sideways and re-align it again, according to your needs.

Try not to install too many gadgets on this product. Though it is made out of metal, it doesn't seem to be the strongest built.

The stock small handlebar can be replaced with a longer or a shorter one, or any other form of a handlebar for that matter. The longer the handlebar the more gadgets would be able to be installed on it.

Regarding the black paint – it seems that after a few months of riding and parking in the sun, the black paint cover of the small handlebar got burnt and turned into a gold like color.

Cons:

- Challenging installation
- Limited areas where the product could be installed
- Could potentially cause safety issues
- Might conceal motorcycle instrumentation and displays like speedometer and odometer
- Easily bent with enough force and put out of desired position
- Might not be suited to support multiple gadgets due to weight issues
- Looks a bit odd and unorthodox

Pros:

- An excellent solution for adding more gadgets to your motorcycle's
- Though it looks odd and unorthodox, it still looks cool
- Nice design and black color
- Can be fitted with various types of handlebars
- Could be installed on bicycles as well (with the right modifications)
- Cheap
- Flexible solution – could be used over other products other than motorcycles and bicycles.

Summary:

For a cheap product that is relatively easy to install (though a bit challenging), position and customize – I must say that the GUB motorcycle handlebar extender riser is a very good solution for those who really need more space on their two-wheeler for their gadgets.

This product is an excellent one for bicycles due to the fact their handlebar have way more space usually than motorcycles.