Installation Issues

Customer writes:

I outfitted my 2003 KLR with your Paris Dakar Nerf Bars and on installation new I had a problem. The Nerf bar set up did not fit on the right side of the bike and hit my fork tube. Also, it appears your product makes the radiator cap inaccessible.

Happy Trails Technical Support responds:

Sorry you are having issues installing our PD Nerf Bars. I have a 2005 KLR and have to agree that they are not the easiest product I have installed on a bike (but actually not the worst...) However they did fit and have been on the bike for many years doing their job saving the radiator and side panels on the occasional slow speed tip over.

It does look like you are mounting the bars to the correct locations. From the pictures you sent, the one thing you may want to verify is that the three engine triangle bolts that mount the EG3 foot peg bar to the bike are very loose and not tightened before attempting to install the side nerf bars. The angle mismatch at the lower EG3/Nerf connection in your pictures is often caused by this issue. As stated in the instructions, it is very critical that all mounting locations remain loose until all bolts are in place. This gives everything a chance to settle into position and alignment the best it can.

With the engine mount location loose, it is also possible to pull up on the nerf bars at the top locations to gain a little more clearance at the radiator cap. Typically there is only about 1/4" gap which as you state is not enough room to remove the radiator cap. There are not a lot of mounting options for the upper mount points that do not require drilling a hole in your frame and thus this was one of the tradeoffs that was made in the original design. The thought process is that customers very rarely need to remove the radiator cap except for periodic maintenance when you change the antifreeze every few years. I think the last time I had to remove mine was for this purpose about 2 years ago ... To access the radiator cap, undo the upper Nerf mount bolt, remove the bolt holding the steel wiring harness in place and just loosen the lower mount bolt to allow the Nerf will swing out of the way.

To address the fact that the fork tube touches the nerf bar, I believe mine also does that. To minimize interference we recommend pushing the top bars back toward the rear of the bike as much as the bolt hole "slop" will allow before tightening these upper mount locations. Again, there is not a lot of room or locations for the upper bars to attach to the frame in this area and I believe this was another one of those tradeoffs. I can only say that mine have been on the bike for many years and about 40K worth of fairly hard riding and it has never been an issue. Probably because the interference is very minor and the only time it touches is at full lock which only happens occasionally when moving the bike around the garage or turning around on a tight trail and never at normal riding speeds (or at least let's hope not

.)