Heed crash bars

Fatboydel

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Has anyone bought the Heed crash bars for the R1200GS from the Czech seller on eBay? They look quite good, but you never know.
 
For petrol tank protection - why not. But Machine Art X-Head protectors look a much better bet for engine protection.

http://www.nippynormans.com/products/mudsling-xheads-exclusive/orderAZ/page2

Hit it hard enough to knock the head off and it wont much matter if you had crash bars or not. Hit hard enough for the bars to crack the engine cases (Hint - not very hard) you might wish they'd stayed in the factory. Crash bars often magnify crash loads at the mounting points, doing more harm than good.
 
A mate put a set on his 2005 GS, he's not happy with them, if the get scratched at all they rust up very quickly.
 
I've got a set on my 07gs, I'm happy with them. After I fitted mine my mate bought a set for his aswell.
Also got the storage bags that fit in them aswell.
 
For petrol tank protection - why not. But Machine Art X-Head protectors look a much better bet for engine protection.

http://www.nippynormans.com/products/mudsling-xheads-exclusive/orderAZ/page2

Got a set on my TC. Didn't take too long to fit (although they are pretty tight, so there was more wiggling and swearing involved than I expected). They do feel like you'd have to slide on them for quite a distance or hit them quite hard to take them off... by which point (as you mentioned) bars probably aren't going to make much difference either.

The only advantage I see for bars is if you are off-roading because you'll lay it down fairly frequently. For road use I'm less convinced. My only complaint with the X-Heads is that even though they are really nice quality, they are bloody expensive for a couple of bits of plastic.
 
Got a set on my TC. Didn't take too long to fit (although they are pretty tight, so there was more wiggling and swearing involved than I expected). They do feel like you'd have to slide on them for quite a distance or hit them quite hard to take them off... by which point (as you mentioned) bars probably aren't going to make much difference either.

The only advantage I see for bars is if you are off-roading because you'll lay it down fairly frequently. For road use I'm less convinced. My only complaint with the X-Heads is that even though they are really nice quality, they are bloody expensive for a couple of bits of plastic.

Plus one for the X-Heads price - they really are not low cost. But they compete with such as Touratech stuff that I really believe offers a risk of breaking the cylinder head. The brackets are stainless steel fastened with M6 bolts to little lugs cast into the head. Any reasonable whack could crack the head. I would rather have to replace the rocker cover than take that risk. On top of that the TT protectors don't properly protect the rockers and plug covers.

I dropped my Adventure at about 20mph on a very muddy back lane. I was on the wrong tyres and should not have taken that route but once in you keep going. The RHS engine crash bar bent back to the cylinder head and distorted the TT head protector. Basically they were both totalled and any more force on the crash bar could have easily damaged the cylinder head fins. An X-Head cover would have shrugged it all off.
 
My concern is the crash bars have to mount to something strong enough to stand the impact or must bend without hitting and breaking something expensive. The OEM crash bars don't do either very well.
 


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