If your hands feel numb or buzzy after a long ride, it’s usually engine vibration coming up through the handlebars. Heavier motorcycle bar end weights are one of the easiest ways to take the edge off it. The bike here is a Honda NX500, and swapping the weight made a clear difference.

Most of it is the engine. Single- and twin-cylinder bikes tend to be worse than fours, but almost any bike buzzes somewhere in the rev range. The vibration travels through the frame and into the bars, and your hands sit right where it builds up. Over a couple of hours that turns into tingling fingers, numbness, and tired hands, and it wears you down more than you’d expect.

A bar end weight is a piece of metal that fits into the open end of the handlebar. The mass absorbs some of the vibration before it reaches your hands, so heavier generally means less buzz. It won’t make the bars dead still, but it can take a good amount out at the speeds where the vibration is worst. It’s a simple part and an easy job, which is why it’s usually the first thing riders try.

Factory weights are chosen to keep cost and overall weight down, not to damp vibration well. The stock weight on this bike was 172 grams. That’s enough to balance the bar, but if you’re getting a lot of buzz through the grips, it isn’t doing much for you.

We made a new weight and a spacer from stainless steel using CNC turningWe made a new weight and a spacer from stainless steel using CNC turningWe made a new weight and a spacer from stainless steel using CNC turning, that come to 350 grams together, about double the stock part. Stainless is dense, so even at that weight the part stays compact and slides into the bar.

The spacer fills the gap so the weight sits properly inside the bar, and the added mass does the rest. Back on the bike, the buzz through the grips dropped off noticeably.

A heavier weight moves and absorbs vibration rather than removing it, so the aim is to bring the buzz down to where it stops bothering you, not to make the bars perfectly smooth. There’s a limit, too. Past a certain weight you stop gaining much, and too much mass can change how the steering feels at low speed. For most bikes the big improvement comes from going from a light stock weight to something moderately heavier, not from piling on as much as you can.

The extra mass also adds inertia to the bars, which makes the front feel steadier. It takes a bit more to set the bars moving, so the light headshake some bikes get at speed, or when you briefly let go of the grips, tends to settle sooner.

That said, a heavier weight won’t fix a real wobble. A violent tank slapper, what some riders call death wobble, almost always comes from something mechanical: worn steering head bearings, an out-of-balance or worn tire, a bent wheel, loose triple clamps, or tired suspension. A bar end weight can take the edge off minor shake, but if your bike wobbles badly, have the front end checked and the cause fixed rather than leaning on the weight to hide it.

The weight has to fit your handlebar, so the two things to pin down are the inner diameter of the bar and how the weight mounts, usually an expanding plug that grips the inside of the tube or a bolt through the end. The throttle side and the clutch side can differ, so check both.

After that it comes down to weight. You can add mass by making the part larger or by using a denser metal such as stainless or brass, and a spacer helps you dial in both the fit and the final weight. The finish is up to you: left bare, polished, or anodized in a color to match the bike. It’s also worth doing both ends as a pair so they match and balance out.

Handlebars and mounts vary from one bike to the next, so a generic weight often won’t fit or won’t reach the weight you want. Machining one lets you set the diameter, length, mount, and weight for your bike, and make a matching pair that come out the same.

Bar end weights are just one of the parts we make. We machine custom parts for motorcycles, from one-off prototypes to small production runs, in metals like aluminum, steel, and brass, plus engineering plastics such as PEEK, POM, and acrylic (PMMA). Finishes include bare, bead-blasted, polished, and anodized in the color you want.

Send us a drawing, a sample part, or a rough idea with some dimensions, and we can help sort out the design for machining. Contact us to get started, and we’ll get back to you with a quote.