For several months now we here at City Bike have been picking up the set of FlatBars that Bay Area inventor and motorcycle enthusiast Ken “Holeshot” Hunter had dropped off for evaluation.

The we put them back down, look at each other and ask the same question. When we caught up with Ken at the City Bike headquarters for this interview he confirmed that our question was THE question he had to answer most frequently.

“Do I have to cut the ends of my handlebars off?”

“Yes, you do have to cut your handlebars for these to work.” Hunter grinned, “but don’t worry this time I’ll do it for you.” Hunter’s bars are not round, you see, but oval. Oval is better ergonomically, Hunter claims. Hunter FlatBars are handlebar end grips which replace the final 5” of the existing handlebar assembly (just the grip area).

He explained “the ergonomic problem was the first problem I wanted to solve…I was solving a problem for a girl who already had carpal tunnel syndrome. After buying a Kawasaki Eliminator with 1” bars and the resulting coca cola can sized grips, she had a riding range if 15 minutes before pains would start shooting up her arm. She said “Ken, please help me.” That is when I came up with the idea to change the shape of the grip, and created 3 pairs of flat-oval prototypes. I put one set of FlatBars on her bike for Christmas in 1997, and a month later she rode from San Francisco to Phoenix.

Next in the creative process, Hunter explained, came the task of eliminating bar vibration from within. “I started to become interested in bar vibration when I took one of the original sets of FlatBars and mounted them on a 1992 Yamaha TDM 850” Ken said “I took the machine to Europe and put on 29,680 miles and toured 18 countries on 3 continents. For the purpose of testing the FlatBars thoroughly, often covering 300 miles in a day. “I rode the entire distance without having to ‘shake out’ my hands even once!”

When we asked Ken why the left bar grip needed to move as well, he replied “The left grip movement is literally what stops the vibration. If it were pinned to the handlebar in any way, that would be a path for vibrations. If I had made any of the materials harder, more vibration would get through. What you have is engineering, picking the proper balance of characteristics among opposing engineering traits. What you see now is the result of 8 years of testing.

Hunter then went about experimenting with vibration damping. He had a 2003 Kawasaki Concours, which he claimed vibrated ‘like two pounds of bees in a one pound bee box.” He claimed that he could not ride the Concours for more than 10 minutes before experiencing tingling in his hands and wrists. With FlatBars installed, it is no longer an issue.

We then asked Ken if he would sell the revolutionary system to an OEM for Big Bucks? “I am not really eager to have this patent bought out ‘cause I know how much it’s worth and I want to keep the prices down, so that everybody can afford them. For instance, Yamaha charges $220 for a pair of heated grips. I charge $150 for a pair of FlatBars (including the grips) that are equipped with heaters that are engineered to do the job.”

What are your plans for the FlatBars in the future? Are you equipped to produce big numbers when your invention takes off? “Our plans are to produce and sell 30,000 pairs in the first 2 years. I am confident in the product, because once you experience something that is so much better you won’t want to switch back. After a while riding with Hunter FlatBars, you won’t be able to switch back to cylindrical bars.
“I expect the internet and word of mouth to be the strongest selling tools. The price is low enough, and the FlatBars are good enough to do that. Right now we own $150,000 worth of product and we’re in the black. There is no way this can fail.”

We asked Ken if he felt that the product was complete now, with no other improvements needed. He replied “The only thing that is left that I still want to improve a little bit is the outer grip, the rubber part on the outside. I want to make it tougher, because right now I guarantee the cores and dampers for five years, and the grips for 1 year. I want grips tough enough to match.

Hunter said “there are only 3 contact points between you and what you are riding on. Everybody and their uncle has made various kinds of foot pegs, from tiny little dirt bike ones to big fat floorboards. Many companies make seats of different densities and shapes, from Day Long saddles to custom little slips of nothing, which appear to be tremendously uncomfortable; there are aftermarket seats everywhere. NO ONE changed the basic shape and structure of the handlebar until I came along. This improves that third contact point for the very first time.”