seeking crash bar advice

Bmwdumptruck

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Jun 20, 2021
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427
Location
Bedfordshire, England
I couldn’t find any availability on the Touratech ones. I see these as either full scaffolding like the Givi, Heed and Altrider ones, or kinda half scaffold like the Mastrech, HepcoBecker, Ibex and Touratech ones. They serve different purposes. Full scaffold for off road riding where you’ll regularly be dropping it, but for road riders that will generally only drop on the odd low speed carpark drop, the half scaffold is plenty. Bearing in mind anything much faster than car park speed isn’t likely to matter which scaffold you’ve got, in most cases anyway.
 

Revz

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
80
Location
Central Minnesota
I couldn’t find any availability on the Touratech ones. I see these as either full scaffolding like the Givi, Heed and Altrider ones, or kinda half scaffold like the Mastrech, HepcoBecker, Ibex and Touratech ones. They serve different purposes. Full scaffold for off road riding where you’ll regularly be dropping it, but for road riders that will generally only drop on the odd low speed carpark drop, the half scaffold is plenty. Bearing in mind anything much faster than car park speed isn’t likely to matter which scaffold you’ve got, in most cases anyway.
I can vouch for the T Rex bars. (1) twenty mph gravel road dump and at least 5 slow speed get offs on gravel and dirt equaled nothing broken and a little touch up on the bars themselves.
 

MattR

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Joined
Nov 16, 2019
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1,175
Location
North Hampshire UK
I have the Touratech bars. Can’t say how they will stand up to a spill but they look good and fitted well and you can get the cover off without removing them


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lund

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Jul 8, 2019
Messages
809
Location
Okanagan Valley, Canada.
I personally highly recommend the Outback Motortek bars. Tough and 100% functional. But any in the comparative in design is a good choice, some have been mentioned. Don't get fooled by big cages, a sturdy crash bars will be designed in a compact manner with limited amount of span between bracing and mountings. Large bars unless built with alot of extra braces will bend. A fine example is the Yamaha OE front bars, garbage and more of a decorative bar.
An other thing to know is bigger or more is not better, all it really does is add weight to an already heavy motorcycle, adding weight will increase the chances of dropping.
 
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AusTexS10

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Jan 24, 2020
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732
Location
Austin, TX
An other thing to know is bigger or more is not better, all it really does is add weight to an already heavy motorcycle, adding weight will increase the chances of dropping.
Well, there is that fact. My 270 lbs probably doesn't help, either.
 

WJBertrand

Ventura Highway
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Messages
4,516
Location
Ventura, CA
I found the Givi bars to be a pretty good compromise between protection and cost. Only about $200 from Motostorm in Italy. I was concerned about fitting crash bars that would be more expensive to replace than the parts they’re protecting. I think of them as somewhat sacrificial.

I’ve tested the Givis 4 times one 20mph sudden crash one low speed crash and two zero MPH tipovers. No bike damage.


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Reno

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Oct 6, 2021
Messages
206
Location
Colorado
Try to find some used Altrider , my bike has been down a number of times and no damage to any parts on the bike. I would not try to save a few bucks up to only end up paying for more expensive parts later on. I have been camping in rain and the bike has fallen more than once, from a sinking kickstand.
I have dumped my bike in places that I would not want to try to hike out of due to unrepairable components.
There have been a number of memb on this site that have not been happy with the Trex bars due to fit, but they look great
 

Changamoto

New Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2023
Messages
3
Location
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
New ADV rider coming from a cruiser. I bought a used Super Tenere that came with a smaller crash guard (see pics). Is this sufficient for general riding say 80% pavement, 20% gravel/off-road or should I get a bigger one?

I have never dropped a cruiser so far, but this S10 is a much taller seat (I am 5'8") and I plan to do more adventure (off pavement).

View attachment 96943View attachment 96944
I have that same roll bar on my 2020 S10. I say "roll bar" because that's essentially what it allowed the bike to do (from a stand-still) when I laid it down in the Dollar General parking lot in Santa Rosa, NM last October...about 3 hours after buying it in Albuquerque. ‍Like you, I was converting to ADV from cruiser and learned quickly how much higher the S10's center of gravity is.

I was sure the tip-over would mess up the side of the bike...but that crazy bar allowed it to just rock a little once it hit the pavement. No mess at all. Now, for protecting your bike off road, I can't say how well the bar would do...but it sure did its job on the asphalt.
 

RCinNC

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Joined
Aug 30, 2014
Messages
2,816
Location
North Carolina
Can you remove the battery panel without removing crashbar?
I have the Altrider bars. You can remove the panel, but you can't remove the battery with the bars on. I have these bars. Last summer I was in Virginia and had a battery failure. I found out the hard way that I was missing the right size socket to get the bars off and remove the battery so I could install a new one. Fortunately I was in the parking lot of an Autozone, and could buy a socket.

They're really good bars. The bike's been on its side a couple times with no damage to the bike and no deforming of the bars.
 

thughes317

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Joined
May 27, 2018
Messages
1,055
Location
The Bluegrass, KY
I have the Altrider bars. You can remove the panel, but you can't remove the battery with the bars on. I have these bars. Last summer I was in Virginia and had a battery failure. I found out the hard way that I was missing the right size socket to get the bars off and remove the battery so I could install a new one. Fortunately I was in the parking lot of an Autozone, and could buy a socket.

They're really good bars. The bike's been on its side a couple times with no damage to the bike and no deforming of the bars.
Interesting...I have no problem removing battery with AltRider bars (upper and lower). Maybe because I run a smaller LiPo battery? (although others here have stated they have no problem R&R'ing the standard Pb battery with the Alt bars installed)

Agreed on great bars, you can kick her over on her side with no worries at all about damaging anything.
 

RCinNC

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Aug 30, 2014
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2,816
Location
North Carolina
I sure don't know how they manage it, thughes. I had a Platinum Start XTZ14S, and the battery couldn't even be pulled all the way out of the battery box before it hit the crash bar. There was no way twist it or rotate it to work it out.
 

TenereGUY

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Joined
Jan 19, 2023
Messages
993
Location
Illinois
4 weeks ago I bought a lot of stuff from AltRider. Their belly pan is out of stock and discontinued. As of 4 weeks ago you could still get upper and lower bars, kickstand footprint enlarger, kickstand switch protector. Yes you can get both side panels off with the lower bars on. I learned a good tip on here though. Put the smooth/soft side of velcro on the inside of the bars to keep from possibly marring the panels. Heavy screwdriver will get the battery bolts out. T-Rex bars give better coverage for the engine cases but may snag things and spin you around. I bought T-Rex Racing belly pan but knowing now about Tabasco's bash plate I would go with that and AltRider bars. Everything is well protected then.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

Wymbly1971

Active Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2022
Messages
117
Location
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Can you remove the battery panel without removing crashbar?
Yes....easily. Just straight out a bit, then back. You can also barely remove/install the battery through the little "rectangle section". You might have to loosen the two lower bolts on the right-side crash bar a bit, but you don't have to take the bolts right out.

I would also consider Outback Motortek as alternatives although I don't have 1st hand experience with them. Decent price, from Canada. They also have some pretty good "practical crash testing" videos with a Super Tenere in particular.
 
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jeepinoutwest

Active Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2016
Messages
120
Location
USA
+1 on the Altriders. I have put them through the test several times and not even a bend. Used for 125,000 miles now. Still look great. Can touch up with flat black rustoleum. IMO Pay now instead of paying later.
 

enfield68g

New Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2023
Messages
17
Location
El Paso, Texas
I just bought a 2015 S10. It came with an altrider skid plate. I too looked into crash bars. Just got my T-Rex racing skid plate and crash bar combo. I am not disappointed, it is beefy. The altrider skid plate won't work with the T-Rex crash bars. It was cheaper to buy the T-Rex combo than just buy an altrider crashbar set.
 

Sierra1

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Nov 7, 2016
Messages
14,817
Location
Joshua TX
. . . . It was cheaper to buy the T-Rex combo than just buy an altrider crashbar set.
Yes, and you likely wouldn't have been able to locate the Altrider crash bars anyway. You can post the Altrider skidplate on here with a price and a couple of pictures. Their plate and bars are quite popular, and getting harder to find.
 

Pdrhound

Active Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2017
Messages
335
Location
High desert
I have the Altrider bars. You can remove the panel, but you can't remove the battery with the bars on. I have these bars. Last summer I was in Virginia and had a battery failure. I found out the hard way that I was missing the right size socket to get the bars off and remove the battery so I could install a new one. Fortunately I was in the parking lot of an Autozone, and could buy a socket.

They're really good bars. The bike's been on its side a couple times with no damage to the bike and no deforming of the bars.

I can replace battery by just loosening the altrider bars.

The Givi bars don't have reinforcement between the side mounting bolts. That allows the yamaha mounting tabs the tabs to bend.

I went with the ALT rider lowers because of this flaw in the GIVI design.

If I was just staying on pavement and gravel roads, I'd consider these. MASTECH P/N 103.009
 
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