Crash Bars

First some general talk about crash bars, some might call it unnecessary since the bike didn’t come with it.

Well if you use any off-road bike for more serious off road it might protect from some big bills!

There is usually several different models available depending on you bike, what to think about:

• Mounting points?
• Protection?
• Price?

Mounting points should be to something that will stand up to the forces, preferably the frame. Do they have any cross brace between the sides?

Protection can vary in what area they cover just low or more the entire side of the bike.

Price, most persons want the most bang for the bucks so might be worth comparing if there are several similar products.

So doing a search on the bike model to find out what bars are available is worth it and finding sites comparing them or at least trying to find out people reviewing them and giving an honest opinion about them.

I did that research for the KTM 950 Adventure several years ago and since then there have come several more manufactures to that machine so if having to change I would probably have to go through that process again.

What I ended up was a set of crash bars from SW-Motech that felt like it provided really good protection and sturdy mounting points:

This specific style of bars have been discontinued mainly since the upper mount is not possible on the newer 990 model.

Have even crash tested them some a low speed crash on tarmac in Norway 2008:

Sure they deformed some and were rubbing against the tank but they took the brunt of the impact, since it was in the beginning of a longer trip I chose to take them off and try to bend them back in shape so they would not wear into the tanks.

On newer pictures you might see that I have skipped the crash bars!

WHY?

Well have been able to acquire a set of “crash tanks” and extra plastic so when riding locally I relay on the improved lower edge plastic protection on the KTM tanks. Should I have a broken tank help won’t be that far away, if doing any bigger trip and not being able to be rescued easily they would come back on.

Ups and downs?

Can there be any downs?

Ups are for sure added protection and that is pretty much it! But having a trip ruined would surely suck and look at the prices on the different parts that might break easier without the added protection.

Downs a hassle to remove for maintenance, if they are used lining them up can be quite a struggle.

Weight, a lot of the bigger off-road bikes are quite heavy to start with.