Adventure Spec Crash Bars Bent

[Tooph]

2 minutes ago, MikeCMP said:

Are the mounts on the bike itself actually at the same level on both sides? I seem to remember someone saying you can't jack up the bike by the tubes/ frame rails b/c one is higher than the other and the bike would tip over. Maybe in order to make the bars be level the one mount has to be longer than the other. 

 

I'd have to go look out and check on mine. I have the Givi bars myself, I am sure they are similar, but consider them just something to help protect the bike. If they get bent up that is ok.

 

But I am now curious about the mounts being even. 

 

Mike

They are at different angles. Though there is enough room to start the bar bend further up and connect it to a shorter mounting plate. It looks like they went for style/uniformity over function on this choice. 

[Patrick ADVspec]

Hello Guys

 

This is Patrick from the Adventure-spec  US office.

 

I think in short the point Dave was trying to make is that the Crash Bars are meant to be the first point of failure and not the bike frame or engine case.  I promise you we spent a lot of time trying to get the balance of light weight vs strength right.   

 

No we did not have a bunch of frames to test and break in the process, we used historical data from Crash bars we have produced in the past and the bikes we had available to us.  

 

I valve the input we receive from this group and try when possible to improve on any product we make using the input from people that are out using the product.

 

As always please feel free to reach out to me directly for any questions or comments you may have.  

 

Thank you 

 

Patrick

 

Patrick@adventure-spec.com

[tenerecanada]

I ended up having a different experience. I totaled the right side bars after a day of heavy use and lots of mid speed drops. I knew the risks associated with this, and was rather grateful that my bars protected my radiator given the hits they took. The tab on the right bent outwards, bring the bars in crushing my fairing, and the cross brace along the bottom punched in my header a bit. Rode with a guy that day who had the same set, he wasn't riding that hard and the 1-2 downs he had had no affect on the bars. I would say apart from parking lot drops, a set like this is a good thing to have as the bars need to be the first point of failure. I am fairly certain that I would have been worse off with a more substantial set, just my two cents.

 

-Ehren

 

Standard gap. RH Side.

 

Lower tab beginning to bend outwards. RH side.

 

Final nail in the coffin.

 

[johnnygolucky]

6 hours ago, Patrick ADVspec said:

No we did not have a bunch of frames to test and break in the process, we used historical data from Crash bars we have produced in the past and the bikes we had available to us.  

Wait, you're saying you sent out crash bars for a bike and never did any testing and just used historical data that you had on entirely different bikes with vastly different mount points? The problem isn't with your bars, it's with a small part of the design which testing would have shown the weak point. 

 

This is the worst part of this: in your warranty disclaimer A.S. states they're not even crash bars as you have them named, they're just for aesthetics. Smart business to put that buried in your website being you don't test things thoroughly before sending to market. 

 

I've learned a lot from this thread and I thank you all for taking the time to post concerns, as well as Patrick candidly sharing Adventure Specs approach to design. 

I'll be selling mine before I crash and buying from another manufacturer. 

[Patrick ADVspec]

Hello 

 

We did test them on T700 bikes and in a lab before production, I was trying to say that we didn't have 20 t700 frames to put in a MTS  test bed and push to failure. 

 

Sorry for being unclear.  

 

Patrick

 

 

[Landshark]

Why not change that small mounting bracket to something a bit more substantial?  The bracket that I see in the picture isn't strong enough or thick enough.   I realise that you wouldn't want the mounting area to break out but if the bike falls from a stand still, it shouldn't bend at all.  If it does, as the pic shows, then it's back to the drawing table.  Once the bracket is bent it won't offer any better results. 

 

You need to do a repair on the crash bars, now that they are bent, for them to stand up to even the lightest bump.  Weld in a better bracket while you're at it.  Repaint the bars and you should be good to go.   

[MagnusR]

Some protection for your bike, not heavy, will bend rather than damage something else.

 

Well, you pays your money and you takes your choice!

I'm ok with the AS bars.

[Stener]

Mounting the crash bars on my own bikes over the years I've often wondered about

adding a small dense rubber  spacer maybe 1/2 inch wide between the frame mounting points 

and the crash bars to absorb some of the initial impact, i'm no engineer and have no idea if it would

scrub off enough of the original impact to be worth it.  Say three mounting points on each side of the 

bike would the combined flex in the three points save things from bending? Just thinkin out loud..

[Tooph]

Here's the final response from Dave. Seems more reasonable to me. 

 

 

I'm sorry for the delay in response. We're currently drowning in Covid and Brexit woes, so much so that we have had to suspend pretty much all product development work on all AS product to ensure that we survive this crazy time. Bonkers...

I've just sneaked down to the workshop for 5 mins in a bid to improve my sanity and to help me answer your questions.

1. The bars are not designed to bend more easily, the mount points on the bike are not level, so some form of different mounting system is needed to compensate so that we retain symmetrical looking bars.
2. We have 'gusseted' the tab on left side of the bike by using a bent piece of plate. This adds 'I Section' to the piece and makes it considerably stronger than a flat piece would be. Our calculations indicated that this fold would be enough to compensate for the length increase. Perhaps from your experience this may not be so. Your issue is not a common one (or at least not many customers have brought it to our attention), but I will ask the fabricators to consider triangulating the fold to further increase the resistance to bending in later iterations of the bars once we manage to get back to some level of normal product development again.

I really appreciate the time you took to write to us, it's appreciated.

Stay safe and ride safe,

Dave

Regards

[concours]

For God sake, take the bar off, have a person with skills straighten it. Lather rinse repeat.

[Tooph]

41 minutes ago, concours said:

For God sake, take the bar off, have a person with skills straighten it. Lather rinse repeat.

I'd argue that having the bars there will cause more damage than not having anything... with good wrap around handguards that is. Damage your header, press into and crack your plastic... not to mention it gets weaker every time you bend it back. It's really weak at one point already. YMMV 

Either way, it's up to the owner to decide. I went with a heavier set. Would you like to buy my as crash bars for 1/2 off and bend them back? Seriously

Edited March 19, 2021 by Tooph

[concours]

54 minutes ago, Tooph said:

I'd argue that having the bars there will cause more damage than not having anything... with good wrap around handguards that is. Damage your header, press into and crack your plastic... not to mention it gets weaker every time you bend it back. It's really weak at one point already. YMMV 

Either way, it's up to the owner to decide. I went with a heavier set. Would you like to buy my as crash bars for 1/2 off and bend them back? Seriously

Seriously, I would have before I bought mine. 45 years in the metal fabrication trade. 

[Idarex]

To up armor or not to up armor... ?

 

I don't mean to toss a grenade in the room but I'm going to do it anyway!

 

Your crash bars should bend.  I would be furious if the bars transferred the energy from a knock into my bike damaging my frame or engine cases.  I specifically went with the OEM guards because a member on here posted up how badly they bent in a minor drop.  Sign me up.  I doubt I'll ever mount them anyway.  The side cowl is only $125 from Yamadog so maybe just replacing that would be the better option.  All these cages are primarily cosmetic for a Starbucks run anyway.  The stiffer the cage the better chance you have of doing serious damage to your bike.  If I do go with one, it better bend/buckle/break depending on the nature of the get off.

 

Off Topic;  In 2004 I t-boned a car with my car on the highway driving to work.  My car folded like an accordion.  It was engineered so the engine dropped out instead of ending up in my lap.  The unibody actually had fold points engineered into the frame.  All the airbags went off.  I bent the steering wheel and hurt my wrists.  I got out and got a ride to work.  It took 45 minutes to cut the girl out of the back of the other car and get her to the hospital.  It was a much older car without any of the safety features of my car plus she wasn't seat belted.  I have continually been amazed at how well my car absorbed all of the energy from the collision and didn't transfer hardly any of it to me.

 

Back on Topic...  I've got re-badged bark busters for my T7 but I won't be putting them on.  I prefer the breakable plastic ones Yamadog installed.  I've replaced five sets of handlebars in the last two years on my other bikes.  I quit buying renthal and pro taper and started buying tusk to save money on bars.  On every bent bar I had Bark Buster type metal hand guards.  The hand guards all survived without bending and I was able to install them on the new bars.  Yeah for me?  These metal handguards can suck it.  I've got Cycra pro-Bends for my Beta.  Luckily I didn't have them on last weekend.  I had a mishap and went over the bars.  Took a little chunk out of my belly button and think I have a very minor fracture on my thumb.  The handle bars punched master cylinder deep into the ground.  If had had the unbendable/unbreakable cycras on, I bet you a set of $125 Pro-Tapers that my bars would have been mangled.  As it was I rode out the rest of the day and had a great time 

 

Unfortunately because of the way the OEM hand guards mount on the T7, I can't slide my levers in like a dirt bike.  I have installed "unbreakable" levers and I'll put teflon tape under the mount so they rotate in a digger.  Just like a dirt bike.

 

I've dropped the T7 on minor get offs several times now.  No cage, no real damage to the bike.  I have had my rack-less soft luggage on.  Unfortunately damage is always going to be down to the nature of the impact.  There isn't going to be an engineered solution that mitigates all the variables.  Energy of an impact in = amount of damage out.  Scratched plastics/pipe and broken turn signals is always the best result that I hope for!

 

In conclusion that's my current thinking on armoring the T7.  I'm going to stick to dirt bike aesthetics and strategies for now.  I'll probably be proven wrong the next time I take a digger on it.  My mind is always changing on this subject and every other subject so it doesn't really matter.  Not here to offend anyone, I'm just thinking out loud.  Would be interested in your thoughts on this.  Thx -EP

 

PS:  I'm not a good rider and I'm always dropping my bikes... 

 

 

 

 

[electric_monk]

18 hours ago, Idarex said:

PS:  I'm not a good rider and I'm always dropping my bikes... 

 

 

You didn't really need to tell us that......

[MagnusR]

On 2/5/2021 at 4:04 PM, MagnusR said:

Some protection for your bike, not heavy, will bend rather than damage something else.

 

Well, you pays your money and you takes your choice!

I'm ok with the AS bars.

Well actually it transpires that I'm not okay with the bars. They do not fir 2021 (Euro 5) bikes. The Adventure Spec website has been updated with this message. 

My 2021 Rally is in 5 Ways at Hull now and they actually did manage to fit the bars loosely but I've told them to remove them and my mate witha 2020 bike is going to have them.

Think I wont bother with crash bars now anyway.

[Bucket Boy]

Seriously. I will buy a set of bent ones for a project. PM me if you have some for sale...

[Mickeyboy]

On 1/20/2021 at 8:44 AM, TomTom said:

warranty page = "All crash bars, bash plates and other products manufactured  by Guard it Technology and sold by Adventure-Spec LLC are designed ONLY for cosmetic purposes. "

 

Serious??? WTF....

I won't be buying these now. I don't want something pretty I want something that works 

[SpankyPineapple]

I dunno, when you drop/crash your bike, SOMETHING has to take that force, and that force has to go somewhere. The AS bars are about 300 bucks.  The large single plastic piece it covers is about 150 dollars.  I mean, potentially the thing only has to survive 2 drops to just about pay for itself. I’d rather my bars tweak and deflect a little, absorbing and redirecting that drop force, than get transmitted right into my plastics, electronics bits, engine mounts, etc. To me crash protection is semi-consumable.  Your crash bars, bash plate, handguards, even fenders and rad-guard are going to take hits and abuse, get scratched and dented and beat up.  If they’re not, you probably didn’t need them.