Description
We raised the bar - CenterFlow, the clear #1!
•Industry-exclusive INTEGRATED CONTROL - adjust the heat output with the custom flow-control valve mounted directly and conveniently at your cockpit!! You'll wonder how you ever lived without it
•No-weld design, CNC precision machined internals. Industry-exclusive purpose-engineered manufacturing methods right from factory - not just modified off-the-shelf
•Modifications are now done in the center area between the bar mounts, where the stress is essentially zero instead of the maximum
•Guaranteed as strong or stronger than stock bars - top-grade 7000-series alloy with profiled wall thickness
•Carefully thought-out custom bend - neutral and natural, not a weird banana-bar!
•Superior customization, fit+finish, AND value
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Nothing puts a damper on a ride day braaping though the snow quite like frozen hands... Never again!
C3's CenterFlow heated handlebars run warm engine coolant through your handlebars to keep your hands nice and toasty. Ditch the bulky mitts and reclaim perfect throttle and lever control. Superior design and better value compared to competitors.
The bend of these handlebars was specifically designed to have you feel right at home no matter which bars you were using before (we measured every OEM bar and made ours right in the middle) - the riding posture is neutral, natural, and reactive for quick posture adjustments with changing conditions and aggressive riding. For the numbers people, that's like 9 degrees of upsweep and 14 degrees of backsweep. Definitely very "normal", we get nothing but good feedback.
Warm-up is quick, and the heat output is never finicky like electric grips and much more powerful (tunable by the provided valve).
These are ready to roll with built-in tapped ends for the C3 FORCEFIELD Handguards. We also gave you a touch of standoff between the grips and basher bars to eliminate the hassle and safety concern of gloves getting pinched by the throttle. WILL fit most OEM mounts! But - bars are 1 1/8" "fat bar" diameter - may need risers to replace stock bar mounts on certain Honda and Kawasaki bikes. Certain one-piece bridged bar clamps (some KTM XCFs) are also incompatible without risers. See FAQ tab.
Install is quick and easy thanks to push-to-connect fittings, NEW durable BRAIDED nylon lines, and perfect compatibility with the C3 Thermostat.
> Yes, you'll need a thermostat to use these: the best thermostat on the market - with dedicated Heated Bars bypass ports and custom return lines - is available HERE, or go to THIS PAGE to buy both and save!
C3 thermostat kits have all the connection hardware you'll need, but there's an option for a "backwards compatible" kit too: we'll add to the handlebars kit the valves and NPT fittings, which some other brands of thermostat may accept easily (for instance "Thermo-Bob") - but you should be prepared to maybe do a little custom plumbing.
FAQ
I heard it's bad to dead-head the bike's water pump?
Where did you hear that??? ;)
4 things:
- A C3 thermostat + bars setup can never be deadheaded. Our thermostats are built to our custom specifications with a small bleed hole, so there is a built-in bypass system at all times.
- Even if you could, "dead-heading the pump" is not a swear word or even a bad thing at all. Ask anyone who's worked in industry - it's a very common and very widely used method to throttle centrifugal pump flow and control complex systems.
- The reason that you may have heard as a warning against deadheading pumps is if the same liquid is churned around in the same space for an extended period of time (typically hours and hours straight), the friction will eventually build up enough heat to straight-up vaporize the fluid ("cavitation"), and those pockets of gas are indeed bad for the impeller and bearings. There are some applications where this is a legitimate concern, but clearly that's not the case in a motorcycle engine scenario where any liquid friction heat is negligible (to say the least) compared to the internal combustion occurring in the cylinder inches away! And it is ESPECIALLY not a concern in a system where the thermostat itself inherently acts as a safety control valve, sending up to 100% of coolant flow through the radiators if the coolant temp gets even remotely close to boil point. So all good! At least when you're talking centrifugal pumps like on bikes ("positive displacement" type pumps, that's a different story)
- If for some reason you are still concerned, with the valve conveniently located directly ON THE HANDLEBARS with all your other controls, you will have no problem maintaining a perfect level of warmth on the fly without ever closing it entirely, if that is what you choose!
- If for some reason you are still scared or apprehensive, we will add the fittings for you to elegantly plumb in another bypass circuit to your next order for free.
What about "hot spots"?
See above about A) the optimized "bleed hole" ensuring the proper slow circulation (never stagnant), and B) the cylinder of course heats up all coolant uniformly - definitely don't worry about "hot spots" in C3 systems.
Do the bars fit my bike?
•CenterFlow connections have been carefully optimized to fit the widest variety of applications possible
•WILL fit stock risers on most popular bikes
•WILL fit with all handguard styles, to our knowledge
•WILL fit with one-piece TOP clamps
•will NOT fit 7/8" mounts
•will NOT fit bar clamps that are one-piece solid "bridged" on the underside
Do I need to bleed the air out of the bars?
No, it will happen on its own. The pump pushes fluid through the path of least resistance - this forces fluid INTO the bars with some PSI of positive pressure, displacing any empty space. Remember, there's internal passages for even heat distribution so the fluid has to reach the top end of the bars to make it to the other side. Then the air will eventually rise to the tops of the radiators.
So, to answer the question, just run the bike up to temp with the valve to the bars open, then top up the coolant level in the radiators. As always, be sure to follow your owner's manual, this includes keeping an eye on the coolant level after each ride too.
Instructions how to install / plumb / route the lines?
Check the tabs above, for example
Videos
Ball Valve Info
(New & Improved!)
