Mileage: 9,811
Today I added AltRider Crash Bars. I purchased them directly from AltRider.
Why AltRider? Three reasons:
- Best mechanical design in terms of crash protection
- Best materials (stainless steel — no rusty scratches)
- Cleanest design (no visible nuts and bolts)
Most of the other crash bars that are available, including the factory bars, tie into mounting bosses on the front of the engine. I don’t think this is a good idea. It might help a little in terms of forces pushing the bars towards the rear of the bike, but a lot of the force in a crash will be from the side. These front mounted solutions are likely to be much stiffer, which means a lot of shock force will be transmitted to the front engine bolts as a shearing force.
The Altriders top mount fits into the frame providing a strong anchor against forces which push the bars rearward. There will be some shearing forces on the bottom engine case bosses, but that’s true for all designs as they all attach at those locations. Without being rigidly mounted to the front engine bosses, it looks to me like the AltRider bars are better able to transfer stresses to the other side of the bike and are more likely to flex, which if true would absorb some of the shock stresses and reduce the potential for cracked engine cases. That said, I don’t know how much the bars will flex, they’re pretty stout.
The AltRider bars don’t look bad, but I think some of the other solutions look a bit more integrated with the bike’s styling. However, for me, it’s function over form when it comes to crash protection.
I chose not to install the upper crash bars at this time. I don’t know that they’ll add that much more protection. I do know that they’ll add weight higher up on the bike.
Pictures to follow.