Royal Enfield Handlebar Swap: Bullet 350 to Classic 350.

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:11]Welcome back to the garage. Got a small job I need to do today on the Royal Enfield. So, that's what this video is going to be about. And um yeah, might as well just jump straight into it. So, I really like how these bars look and they are a lot more comfortable than the normal bars, the standard ones. Um, so you might ask, why am I getting rid of them? Um, and it's because of this.

[00:00:35]No matter how much you tighten them, you can't get it enough where the bars don't move. And that's kind of blown my confidence in these bars. So, I'm going to take these off and put something else on. So, I read that there was um the Bullet 350 handlebars were slightly higher and slightly taller than the classic 350 handlebars. If anyone was wondering, um, this bar, this is the original classic 350 handlebar, and then the one behind it is the bullet 350 handlebar. So, I don't know whether you'll see this on camera or not.

[00:01:11]Um, try and hold that about right. The Bullet 350 is maybe maybe an inch higher and just fractionally wider. Um, so maybe that'll help, maybe it won't. I don't know. So, the first thing I need to do is I got to take off the quad lock and all the switch gear off the old bar and then we can get on with it.

[00:01:51]The story of why um I decided to change the handlebars in the first place is when I first got the bike, not long after I after I had it, I started to notice quite a bit of pain on my left elbow. Um, and every time I went out on the Triumph, no pain. And every time I went out on this bike, a lot of pain. And that's progressed to the point where pretty often I have to wear this silly thing.

[00:02:27]Um, cuz I've got some kind of variation of tennis elbow that won't go away. Um, and I put that down to the weird seating position because it sort of almost feels a bit when I first got on it like you're sitting too high and the bars are too low. Um, and so I thought bars is a bit more pullback might be might be the way to go.

[00:02:53]Um, and I saw these ones.

[00:02:56]I'm not going to throw the um the shop under the bus who sold them, but they are advertised as being compatible with this bike and they're not really.

[00:03:22]So, these were advertised as fitting the classic 350 and you wouldn't need to buy any extra cables, which was the first thing that was wrong about the listed because although you can just about make the throttle cable, the clutch cable was definitely not long enough. So, you only find that out once you've fitted the handlebar because the listing for the handlebars says that they you don't need extra cable. So, you know, once I got this all fitted, uh, clips C wouldn't fit. Wasn't long enough, and no matter how I rooted it through the bike, um, could not get it to fit. So, that was a pain cuz I had to go and find an extra cable, um, which delayed what I was doing.

[00:04:22]So, okay. So, uh not the end of the world to be fair.

[00:04:27]Um I thought so I ordered my extra long cable and just waited for it to arrive.

[00:04:40]Tell you, while I was um waiting for the new handlebars to arrive, um I'll get on with the rest of it cuz I can do the cable at another time. It's not a total nightmare. Anyway, after uh torquing them down, I found that the handlebars were still moving quite a lot. And um like any good caveman, I decided the best thing to do would be just to um tighten them up even more, which uh was a terrible idea. But the little bolts that are on here, the capended chrome bolts that you get with the bike, um they are quite clearly made of cheese.

[00:05:23]Um, I tightened them up only a fraction more than the Torx shed settings and the head just sheared clean off. Um, I ordered another bolt and I did exactly the same thing again except this time trying to drill the or trying to back out the remainder of the bolt that was left in the stump was it went in slightly the wrong way and it just got so badly chewed up that I just could not get it out. I couldn't drill it out just and as these bolts go straight into the top uh fork clamp.

[00:06:02]Um it messed up the whole the whole thing and I got to the point where I just thought, you know, it just be easier just to replace the part. So ended up having to buy a new top tree triple clamp, whatever you call it.

[00:06:13]Anyway, so that was cause basically because I couldn't stop these from moving. Um, and it was that point that I sort of deduced that maybe it's because um the nurling wasn't very good. So, I emailed the um the company that sold me the bar and uh they said, "Look, you know, there's no milling on this bar really, and it it can't hold the bar in place enough.

[00:06:48]stop it from moving with the with the right torque settings without busting the screws up. Um, and there was they acknowledged that yeah, they had a batch of uh bars that didn't have good enough screws uh good enough, but there was no apology. There was no offer of a replacement bar. Um, I was just left to buy cuz I really wanted these bars. So, I just ended up having to buy another one. And the only thing they did for me is they said that they would go through their stock of bars and pick me out one with the best sterling on it.

[00:07:18]So, I thought, all right, you know, fair enough. No company's perfect.

[00:07:22]Um, mistakes happen. So, I'm not the best customer service really, but okay.

[00:07:29]I'm not really that expensive.

[00:07:33]I'll put at least 50% down to that to me just snapping the head off, which, you know, didn't need to happen, but I made it happen. Anyway, so new bar arrives.

[00:07:46]take everything off again.

[00:07:51]Then I put the new bar on, which is this bar.

[00:07:55]And admittedly, it is slightly better, but it still moves, which I'm not happy with.

[00:08:09]I don't know why I'm doing that. Um, so I had read about the touring handlebars and much better of a comfort, but I don't really know why they don't do them in a chrome finish because it's I think if they'd done them in chrome I would have bought some, but I don't really want black candle bars. So I've sort of been looking around for other options.

[00:08:29]Um, and there aren't any really. Um, unless you can be bothered drilling holes and handlebars and all stuff, which quite honestly I can't bother with that. I did it for these bars. I don't really want to do it again cuz it was pain in the butt to do.

[00:08:52]So, that's where we are. I'd read that the bullet handlebars were um somewhere in between.

[00:09:02]I thought, you know what? It's worth a go.

[00:09:07]So, I'm going to put these uh where they belong, which will be in my bin of things going to the tip. All right. So, these are the Bullet 350 handlebars.

[00:09:18]See if these make a difference.

[00:09:22]That will go there. Like that. Okay.

[00:10:51]The threads on these are quite gked up, with old Loctite. So, I'm just going to give these a bit of a clean. There's my tuck and dice set.

[00:11:04]Need little pair of pliers.

[00:11:09]This I don't know how well you can see it, but I need to get the throttle cable into this little notch and then that can see it there. So, put that on first inside the housing.

[00:11:45]And then I need to these needle nose pliers getting that down in there.

[00:12:24]Okay.

[00:12:25]And very stupidly.

[00:12:29]Oh, you idiot. Or maybe maybe maybe if I'm lucky.

[00:12:36]Oh, yes. I can't leave that light on.

[00:13:12]Okay, so that's all done and the new bars are on. Um, I think the only thing I need to do now is go and take it for a test ride.

[00:13:44]So, it's the next day and I've been riding around the Peak District all morning with the new bars on and I'm really pleased to say that they've worked a treat. Um, ergonomically they're not all that different from the original bars, but it does seem to make quite a difference. The bike's a lot more comfortable now. Um, I've been riding around all day without my uh arm strap, and so far I've had no pain, so that's a good thing. Um, I don't know whether the reason why the Bullet 350 has got a slightly different bar is because Royal Enfield knew there was a bit of an ergonomic problem with the stock bar with the classic 350. But either way, um, it works an absolute treat for making the bike a bit more comfortable. So, if you want to make your classic 350 slightly more comfortable, but yet retain the looks, um, the Bullet 350 bar is a really nice upgrade. Um, and it's not visually looking at it doesn't really look that different from the original one. Um, but it is a lot more comfortable. So, that's it for this video. Um, I have a few more modifications that I think I want to make to the bike. Um, but actually looking at it as it is now, maybe some chunky tires and maybe I did think about scramblerizing it. Um, and if you want to watch Coach Rider Scotland, he's just done that to his second classic 350 and it looks really good. It looks like a cool bike. Also, Beline have one that I saw at the bike shed show that looked incredible and it it kind of inspired me to think I might want to do that to my bike. But actually, looking at my bike as it is right now, it's such a pretty thing. I don't know that I want to that I want to deface it really.

[00:15:23]Anyway, um that's it for this video. Um I'm going to carry on riding around whilst it's not uh raining and I'll see you in the next one.

[00:16:00]Heat. Heat.