Crash Bars For Safety? Motorcycle Safety Discuss Crash Bars For Safety? in the Other Topics forums; How many people on this site ride with crash bars (some folks call them roll bars) on the bikes for safety? Some of them look great, others a bit odd, ...

[Buzz Kanter]

How many people on this site ride with crash bars (some folks call them roll bars) on the bikes for safety?

Some of them look great, others a bit odd, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I run crash bars on my Ultra, but not on any of my classic bikes.

[humpbackbob]

I run "crash bars" on my bikes.I like the look of them,and useful for highway pegs.

[GOMO]

Late this past summer I was riding sweep for a group ride when I had the misfortune of watching the two bikes in front of me go down and when they hit the road - they hit it hard. Without getting into tons of details, probably the one thing that helped prevent excessive damage to both the bikes and riders were the "crash bars" (aka engine guards).

One bike was a Heritage Softail and the other a RoadKing Custom. The combination of the engine guards and saddlebags helped keep the bike high enough off the road so their legs/feet did not get crushed - the same goes for the side of each of the bikes slide on. Although H-D slaps a lable on the guards as to the limits of their protection, I believe that they can be extremely helpful in preventing excessive damage to ones body or bike - depending on the type of accident. If you T-bone a left turner, they probably wouldn't help much.

They do protect to a point. I have seen bikes go down at low speeds where the engine gaurd protected the bike. I put it on mine so I could install Highway pegs. I call it my Brush gaurd. You know when you have to chase down those individuals as they are running through a field. Keeps branches from slapping the legs

Originally Posted by Buzz Kanter

How many people on this site ride with crash bars (some folks call them roll bars) on the bikes for safety?

Some of them look great, others a bit odd, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I run crash bars on my Ultra, but not on any of my classic bikes.

About the first thing I added to my 04 Low Rider was a H-D oil cooler & I'm sold on it. But thus far it has prevented me from adding bars, which I would really like to do, because the bars that fit my Low Rider need to mount where the oil cooler mounts.

Anyone know of a nice bar that will fit?

Thanks.

John Brown

Ultra yes
Sportster no

[texan321]

Gosh I thought they were called engine guards???? I have had them on both bikes - saved me a ton of cash when I "dropped" the RoadKing...

They used to routinely be called crash bars "back in the day". Names been changed now, as have so many other names, by the lawyers and PC crowd. It would cost too much to certify & prove a "crash bar" actually protects a person in a crash. Someone who did get hurt could claim he thought he was going to be immune because of the "crash bars" and sue the manufacturer. I'm sure the lawyers suggested this name instead of the old one.

John Brown

To me, I think they look best on the nastalgic looking bikes. RE: Heritage, Softail Deluxe, Road King and of course the FL line. Always thought they looked a bit odd on a Dyna but as you said each his own. Safety is more important to some then looks which also makes perfect sense. They do help too when you dump the big boys. A bit easier to upright. Botz

[shovelmike]

I'm sure the bars saved me from some bike damage. Soon after I bought the Ultra (180 lbs heavier than the Shovel) I pulled up to a stop sign with the wife on back and put my left foot down on some sand. Yep- Down we went. A good neighbor(ex-rider) was behind me and made sure we were OK. We were, but embarrassed. Sure was easier to pick up from only a 45 degree lean.
I make sure I have good tread on my boots now and watch for debris on the road.