Hey guys, I wanted to share my experience with the drag/low bars on the Livewire. My experience was not as positive as I had hoped, which I will explain below.
I was considering two options, the Harley Drag bars that tcypher used (
Drag Bar - 55800861 | Harley-Davidson USA) and the Biltwell Zero Drag 1" Handlebar (
Biltwell Zero Drag 1" Handlebar - RevZilla).
The differences in the specs are notable. The HD drag bars have a 4" pullback and the Biltwell has 2". The Biltwell is very narrow, at 27 inches tip-tip making it great for lane-splitting. The HD one is 28.5 inches wide - which is still better than the 30" width of the stock bars. I went with the Biltwell.
Well, the issue quickly became apparent. After HD of Glendale updated my bar, these turned out to be so compact that I can no longer "lock" the bike's steering - the left-hand switchgear hits the tank! In fact, many times after I got my bike out of park, I see the traction control feature has been activated because that switch was rammed up against the tank. Last week, I had to wrangle the bike off its stand, against gravity, and had to turn the bars more left using my weight as leverage, causing the traction control plastic switch to BREAK OFF!
The other issue I had with these bars is that although it allowed me to lean forward more to "attack" a curve, giving a sportbike feel, the handling itself wasn't any better. In fact, the bike felt better "balanced" with the stock bars. It is pretty apparent to me that the engineers designed the whole bike around this specific rider triangle with the corresponding center of gravity of the rider. Also, the low and forward bars meant I had to push my crotch up against the tank, which felt cramped. All in all, this bike's geometry doesn't support traditional crotch-rocket style ergonomics, or even handling.
Nevertheless, this bike has made me widen my definition of what is "sporty" on a bike; sportiness need not mean pegs up way high and sitting on your crotch. Of course, every Hyperstrada and supermoto rider knows that.
Please see below my hand position and rider triangle differences between the stock and Biltwell drag bars - you will notice how my arms are also much closer to each other with the drag bars.