Liberty Handlebar Upgrade

This may fly in the face to many who like the chopperesque look of the 2020 Rize Liberty, but for me, I wanted a more motocross inspired look, similar to the 2020 Rize Blade, but with suspension. I also wanted a bar going across the top so as to mount my phone, or camera. In my goal to achieve such a look and feel I opted to change out my Liberty's handlebars for a set of BMX handlebars that I had on hand. I may very well change these out when I find my perfect Liberty bars, but until then I'll test these out.

Here is what I came up with.

* If you are going to attempt upgrading your handlebars, be sure of the following... 

1. Make sure the handlebars you choose are the same diameter of thickness as the stock bars, or you will need to add shims, or replace the headset stem.
2. Make sure the handlebars are wide enough to fit all the controls

**(In all honesty, I found out the hard way about the tips mentioned above, as this is the second set of bars I used, as the first weren't wide enough for all the controls to fit on)

Step 1.

Starting on the throttle side,  I removed the grip, throttle, brake and ebike controller

Step 2.

I proceeded to remove the display screen

Step 3.

I then removed the grip, brake, gear selector and bell off the opposite side.

Step 4.

Remove the handlebars, or remove the stem if your upgrading that as well.

(The 2020 Rize Liberty comes with 25.4mm handlebars and a 25.4mm x 28.6 stem, my BMX handlebars were 22.2mm, so I used shims to make up the difference. Another option would be to get a stem that was 22.2 mm x 28.6mm or you could go larger with MTB stem and handlebars combo which is typically 31.8mm x 28.6mm)

Step 5.

Pick your handlebars!

(Generally you want handlebars that have 7.5" or 190mm of space from the bend to the end of the handlebar. The first pair of handlebars I used were cut down and didn't have enough room for all the controls)

These are the bars I had on hand and went with. They are Haro BMX handlebars

Step 6.

Install you bars!

As my bars were 22.2mm I used shims to get the 25.4mm needed

Step 7.

(Basically go in reverse from step 3 to step 1)

Done.

My Thoughts.

While this is all subjective, I really feel more comfortable using BMX handlebars, as that's what I'm used too. Making sharp turns seems much easier with these handlebars, compared to the standard Liberty bars. In the future I'll change out the stem, and get handlebars that are a bit taller as these are short at 8.5" high. Also need to do some cable management work.

Hopefully this post has been helpful to those looking to change their 2020 Rize Liberty handlebars.

Hastings Park, Vancouver (2021-07-26)

 

Took the Rize Liberty (2020) out for a short little ride today and decided to document the trip. I'm finding it difficult to document my trips, as I wear a camelback, helmet, and gloves. My phone is tucked away in my camelback, and so I have to remove my camelback to access my phone, and remove my gloves because the screen wont respond with them on. I'm thinking of getting some sort of sports camera to attach to my Liberty. Anyone out there have some suggestions on a cheap, small, and decent sports camera for this application?

I'm also worried about having someone make off with my stuff, maybe I should enable the LCD lock on my Liberty, any fellow e-bikers use this feature?

Anyways, this trip is to my favorite local spot Hastings Park which hosts the Pacific National Exhibition, Hastings Skatepark, Leeside Skatepark, Pacific Coliseum, Italian Gardens and Japanese Gardens, Empire Bowl, did I miss anything?

Leeside Skate Park

Momiji (Japanese Gardens)

Now I'm known for being extremely critical of our Vancouver Parks Board, but I have to admit, what's been done at Hastings Park is truly amazing. 

I'm hoping to better document Hastings Park in the future.

Let me know what you think.

Mass

Liberty Headlight Bracket Mod

Not sure if this is considered a mod/hack or what have you, but it is what it is, take it or leave it. The stock 2020 Rize Liberty comes with the headlight mounted at the top of the triple tree forks as seen in the picture below.

While this is fine, I was concerned that the frame stops might move, and thought a solution would be to mount the headlight below the frame stops, so that the headlight would hold up the frame stops no matter what.

First I measured what I thought would be the perfect height for the frame stop. On my bike it seemed 3.25 inches down from the bottom of the top triple tree was a good number.

I then removed the headlight 

and it's brackets, and repositioned them below the rubber frame stops.

** This is where the mod/hack comes in**

My headlight seemed to move every time I bumped into it, so when re-assembling the headlight brackets, I added a small nut in between the two bracket halves. I don't know the nut size, only that they were .25 inch in diameter. I'm sure you could use just about anything you wanted that was .25 in in diameter.

As you can see in the following picture, the nut is placed between the two headlight bracket halves, and prevents bending the brackets when tightening.

This is what the bracket looked like before adding the nut

Now you can tighten your headlight, without worrying about bending the bracket, and it wont move. Also if you followed my suggestion by placing the headlight below the frame stops, you wont ever have to worry about smashing your forks against the frame. This is what it looks like now...

Let me know what you think?

Is this a helpful post?

Should I continue documenting future upgrades to my Ebikes?

Rize: Bolt X - Manual

 

For those who have a 2020 Bolt X as well, like we do, here the manual for that...

2020 Bolt X

Rize: Liberty - Manual

 

As many of you may know, I own a Rize Liberty (2020) electric bike. I thought it would be cool to offer others, who also have a Rize Liberty a place to get the PDF manual. I know they have the manual on the Rize website, but it's kind of hidden.

Rize Liberty (2020) Manual