do you ride with crash bars?

just to get your short comments:

do you ride with crash bars? do we need crashbars? on our ktm9x0

Yes, plastics are expensive.

Yes. I use them quite often!

Yes I do, the fuel tanks are bleeding expensive.

Yes and use them often as well. If I am not using them, I am not trying.

Yes they come in handy when cars run into you.

:eek1:eek1

I take them off before a ride and put them back on when I return home.

Nope.

This

Had them on, had them off. Currently off, as they seem to be the culprit of resonating vibration, these are the full wrap around type.

Have two sets taking up space in the shed.

Bought a set for my first bike and never installed them.

Second bike came with a set and I never installed them.

To me, the plastic protectors on the 990 or the aftermarket carbon ones are enough.

Crashbars makes it a pain to do maintenance and just bend to shit after few hits.

The tanks take the hit pretty good, they just need wear protection like the plastic or carbon protector.

+1

I was told it was damned near impossible to wear a tank through on a slide. I went for a nice 35mph slide on VERY rough tarmac - ugly but covered up with a new plastic tank lower cover.

I used mine last week. They saved my tank. I wouldn't ride without them.

I suppose it depends on what your riding on. Pavement or gravel/dirt roads - perhaps you don't need them if you don't mind scuffing your tanks. But I ride on a lot of rocky single track type stuff and I have NO DOUBT I would have punched through or torn off something important without them by now.

I am certain the barrel roll down Propeller Meadows would have done something bad without them......

I ran sideways into the front wing of a car as I moved to turn left and she tried to overtake me. I managed to stay upright as I stuck to the car until we had slowed enough for me to peel off it safely. The car's front right wing and bonnet (that's a hood if you are a yank) were trashed. It pushed my LHS crash bar in by about 1/2 inch

ah yep. I sure do.
I ended up about 10' into the bush. the bike came to rest, luckily, on a high spot in the wet


That little incident involved a slab of rock angled into the trench. Ground halfway through the crash bar and nothing lines up anymore on that side

Yeah. that woulda wrecked a tank.

I have the high crash bars, and pulling tanks sucks, but it's worth the protection.

Crash bars installed here. Dunno if I need them really since I use the safari tanks but they give me mounting points for my highway pegs and aux lights.



(990 bags shredded off in a crash last summer - yet to be replaced)

.

Nope. I have been down plenty on the dirt and pavement... Bike takes the hits amazingly well. The carbon cards that are readily available are crap. The plastic gaurds are much, much better as far as actual functional protection. I prefer not to have the weight and much prefer the lines and look of the bike without the gaurds.

Friend and I both have 990's. One with crash bars one without. Which bike looks the most dinged up?

The one without crash bars of course!

We ride 50/50 rocky desert of the west USA.

Definitely not.

I USED to use them on my 990 R, however after a nasty high-speed offroad fall I found on a big enough impact the rear mount can pop off the frame, and ends up dug into the rear cylinder block. I had the SW-Motech ones with the cross-brace. When this happened the cross-brace also dug a nice gouge into the oil tank.

They add tons of weight, ugly, and most importantly - these bikes crash WELL out of the box. Most people use them as a reflect and protective action. I've crashed with and without them, and had less risk of serious damage when they were on. My crashes without them - the bike slides better, is lighter, and those plastic lower guards on the 990 work really really well.

For road only use, maybe they are fine. And I know they are good for "car-park tumbles" - low speed crashes. But IMHO for really gnarly falls, they suck.