Tight woods and the handle bars

I cut off close to an inch a side, but the key thing is to lay out all the handlebar stuff to make sure everything fits before you hack away.

As a rule, I never volunteer how much I spend for anything, because of all the helpful replies you get ;)

I run mine at 28.5 inches and that's about as narrow as I've been able to get and still have room for the bark busters, which are a must. Some guys up here in New England go with "mini" bars to get even narrower. Everyone I know that rides up here has their bars cut down to at lease 29 inches and
nobody ever complains about stability.

gnc32:
Mine are cut to 29" and I love 'em that way. I don't know about NJ woods but where I am, hooking a bar on a tree while riding a sidehill trail can and has kicked my rear tire off the trail and my bike ended up hundreds of feet down into a canyon. The shorter bars help out in keeping to a minimum the tree snagging, but I did discover that I can't bulldog the handlebars into the dirt to slow down a slideout as well now.
As far as spending too much $$$ for your upgrades, some guys are just jelous that you can afford to do all the upgrades in one shot, pay someone else to do the wrenching, and go play on your snowmobile in the meantime. I personally like doing my own work, but that doesn't mean everyone does or should. One thing you should do is know HOW to do this work in case of a failure out on the trail. No AAA service is going to come out there and drop the bike off at the dealer who didn't install something correctly. Everyone who owns a dirtbike KNOWS we are going to loose money on them. Just like a boat or anything else you play with, they are money pits. But they are fun and well worth it too or we wouldn't be riding.
Your replies to the critiques earlier shows a lot of class!

hey gjc you were probably right about those bars not being cut being a blessing. If they came out too narrow you would be disappointed and all cramped. thats not the way you would enjoy riding. Since you just got back into riding, see what style of a rider you are. If you ride a lot standing you will want some taller, further forward bars adn probably a triple clamp that will move the bars further over the front of the forks. For those that like to sit the bar position tend to be more in your lap.
nothing matters more than your comfort and happiness while riding even if it is a snowmobile.

I cut my bars down 1" on each side and like the compact feeling it gives as you whiz by the trees and rocks. I did find it crowded, however trying to mount the bark busters on the shorter bars. My answer was to buy the mounting adapters to attach the aluminum protectors to the top triple clamp. Very slick mount, more room and much stronger. I had to bend the protectors a little to re-align with the new mounts but it's no big deal.

gjc32:
Your story is much like mine. After more than 15 years away from riding, (my last bike was a 1985 KDX200) I got back into it about a year ago. I was lucky enough to have a co-worker even older than me who had a new KDX and talked me into getting back in the saddle. It is not the same as it was to wrench on these new water cooled machines, but with my bud's help, I am learning all about rear suspension lubeing, KIPS, etc.
BTW I prefer to ride standing up and can go much faster and farther without tireing than when I am seated. RAHRAH is right, at least in my case, that a forward mounted, trimmed down set of bars helps out here. I would ride that bike some more and focus on what position you prefer to ride before settleing in on cutting the bars.
marksharp: where did you get the T-clamp mounting adaptors for the bark busters and how much were they?

good call mark I had forgot about those things bolting up to the triple clamps. Its cool to be able to bolt on oversize barclamps too
The barkbuster clamp (is that what u callm?) make matters more roome and you can still rotate your levers to werever you want when bolted to the trp clamp instead of the handlebar itself.

I found them in the Chaparral catalog. If you have the #60 catalog its on page 122. MSR makes them at $51.95.