Greetings all, We are looking at getting a F700GS to compliment our Vstrom 650, and are looking to get some crash bars right off the bat. Three crash bars set-ups we are considering are: 1) Sw Motech 2) Alt-rider 3) Touratech Any feedback as to if there is a clear winner would be appreciated! Thanks, -Kevin
I've got the SWM on mine, they've held up very well. Mine are bent and twisted a bit, but they've taken a serious beating. I'll be replacing them soon with another set.
Thank you for the prompt feedback! Zeke, how good of a job did the SMW bars do at protecting the plastics? That seems to be the area that the other bars have more coverage, but perhaps its overkill. The SWM bars look to be a little lighter which would be nice.. Cheers, -Kevin
I'm on my second set of fairings, but no bars would have saved the first set. Everything forward of the forks got ripped off. My second set has a few scratches, and a small crack, but again, I don't think any set of bars would have been able to prevent it.
Bought mine a month ago (f800gs), came down too Adventure Spec & Alt-rider. Chose Adv. Spec (highest protection) so of these three I would go with Alt-rider. My.02
Aren't they supposed to sacrifice themselfs after the first big crash? Don't think they are worth the money I'm using Holan Pro's but I don't think they sell them anymore in the US. My second choice went to the SWM's. They look good and not as "much" as the Altriders.
The Givi bars didn't make the cut simply because of their reputation in the vstrom world. A friend with a vstrom 1000 has them and they vibrate badly and don't appear to be very solid. I have SWM bars on the wee and have thus far been happy with them, but haven't dropped the bike (yet... Knock on wood) to find out about their durability. I want to seriously consider alternatives as I have found many times that cheapest isn't always best. Thanks for the input! -Kevin
if you want some alternatives just take a look in this thread. A lot of pictures don't worry . I know this is how I cornered it down between holan and SWM Crash Bars On Your F650 / F800
the question here is not the Vstrom but the F700GS. I had the GIVI CB on the F650GS and now on the F800GS, i can tell you they are very solid, they do not vibrate at all and when it happened once that i had a crash with the 800 the GIVI did the job perfectly and are still fine. Of course the F700GS uses the very same CB than the F800GS. But this was just my 2cts as i already have mine and am happy with it!
Thank you Scapadu for the input. You have a valid point about F650/700/800 vs Vstrom. I haven't actually heard from anybody that has the Givi CB's. I'll add the data point to the survey. À votre bon cur! -Kevin
I went with the SW Motech - lots of other choices out there. It came down to availability and a little bit of looks.
