Crash bar anxious

[Smalesy]

Tonight have fitted the long awaited crash bars.

Everything is tight however when I bang on the bars with my fist they rattle slightly. The rattle comes from the top fitting on the right side, close to the telelever which is a "floating" location point. I presume this is because the bars are not an absolutely perfect fit for the bike.

When I swing on the bars, there is a small amount of fex in them, 2 or 3mm. Is this normal?

Steve

 

[nadeem]

What make of bars is it mate...?

 

[Smalesy]

Touratech

I have to say that I am not 100% happy with them. Especially at the price.

I had read quite a bit on here and was well aware of the potential fitting problems and the fact that some of the welds can be a bit workmanlike.

What really appealed to me was the fact that they're stainless steel. What I didn't realise is that they are clearly seamed tubing with a finish applied.

Going to ring TT this morning.

 

[nadeem]

I'm surprised no one's posted a reply... I have the Hepco & Becker and they seem to fit okay...

 

[Smalesy]

They've gone back in the box tonight and are on their way back.

I don't really want to get into bad mouthing TT UK as so far, they told me that the bars would take 12 weeks to arrive, they came after 5 weeks.

I just hope they refund me without too much grief.

 

[nadeem]

Bad mouth Touratech...what here in the Gser forum.... 5 weeks is crap delivery time... give Nippy Norman a call & get yourelf some Hepco & Beckers - delivered rapid...! And they fit + are crash proven...they work...!

Have a look here for the latest comments on TT

www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51522

 

[Wizard]

And they fit + are crash proven...they work...!

Nadeem, stop making it so easy. (says he with a dinged rocker cover)

 

[nadeem]

I wonder if anyone told TT Germany about the Ride Survey results....?

 

[Smalesy]

I have read a lot of threads about TT.

I find it hard to be too negative about a company that says 12 weeks, delivers in 5. It's a case of take them on my own experience, not others.

I don't find it hard to be negative about crash bars that are bigged up to be a premium quality product, cost £208 yet leave me feeling like I have paid well over the odds.

I wonder if there's a market for titanium crash bars. No corrosion, lightweight and very resilient in an impact.

 

[thornley]

I'd love titanium, difficult to work with,try forming titanium tubing,drilling it bloody difficult with the old Black and Decker, incredible expensive to fabricate, sparks beautifully as you slide down the road though. 40% the weight of steel, twice as strong. Titanium would probably survive the impact and transmit all those nice forces into your bike leaving you with intact crash bars and a bent bike!!. It would be cheaper to keep a set of rocker covers on the shelf.

£208 for a set of crash bars is expensive but they are not volume produced and are probably made in small batches, Now if BMW fitted them as standard the cost to them would be a few quid based on sizeable production runs.

 

[Wizard]

Or you could just get the SW-Motech ones which fit fine, cost under a ton, and can be tidied up with Hammerite

 

[Yellow Peril]

Agree with wizard and they work as Shrek can testify to, dropped mine on Dartmoor excellent product and tested to tUV standard.

 

[Pukmeister]

I got H-B bars in silver finish from Nippy Norman, arrived within days, a cinch to fit despite the german instruction leaflet. Protected the bike when it went down whilst off-roading (a day after fitting). Paint finish can get scratched but would be easy to repaint.

The best bit about the H-B bars IMHO is the horizontal bracing outboard of the cylinder heads, which many other brands of bar don't incorporate in their design, and the covering of the exhaust lambda probes. I reckon they would be very good protection in a spill 'on road' but hope never to functionally test them.

 

[Smalesy]

Well, the story so far, returned the TT bars and to their credit there has been no hassle. They have refunded promptly less a small handling fee so no complaints there.

The H+B's arrived from Norman Nippy's within 48hrs. Really, really pleased with them. The finish isn't so hard wearing but have found a place in Leeds nearby that does powder coating in a choice of about 4 grey colours really reasonably so if in the fullness of time they start to look tatty they can have a birthday.

Best of all, I can get my feet up on them for those "On a dark desert highway..."moments.

Steve