Robert n Posted September 14, 2019 Report Share Posted September 14, 2019 Hi all as the title why dont we have them on our handle bars like enduro to protect the leavers iv never seen any on one but always thought it would be a good idea thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richt Posted September 14, 2019 Report Share Posted September 14, 2019 They are to protect your hands when you catch trees doing Enduro, not to protect the levers. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert n Posted September 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2019 Must save a few leavers aswell is there a down side to putting them on a trials Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauls320 Posted September 14, 2019 Report Share Posted September 14, 2019 Broken wrists or arms:( 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cascao Posted September 14, 2019 Report Share Posted September 14, 2019 Have seen a few. They look incredible big and weired on a trial. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyc21 Posted September 15, 2019 Report Share Posted September 15, 2019 (edited) 12 hours ago, Robert n said: Hi all as the title why dont we have them on our handle bars like enduro to protect the leavers iv never seen any on one but always thought it would be a good idea thanks I have run them as well as not run them and find that they do in fact save levers. I ended up deciding that I would go without them to see the difference I have sense bent a lever once. However because I have had my levers snagged by brush on the loop trails a few times after that I decided to at least put a pair of flag type guards on to prevent this. My decision to remove them was because of the increased risk of wrist injury, especially as one starts doing bigger stuff so decided I would rather replace a lever than be out a season of riding. Hope that helps. Edited September 15, 2019 by jonnyc21 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert n Posted September 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2019 Thanks for replying think I’ll not bother Iv not broken many leavers over the years and there cheeper than a broken wrist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feetupfun Posted September 15, 2019 Report Share Posted September 15, 2019 I tried Acerbis white plastic barkbusters on a TY250A twinshock trials bike while setting out an enduro course and decided that for me, the increased inertia in the steering when I did some trials-type riding outweighed the potential benefit of avoiding lever damage. If I was only using the bike for trail riding I would have left them on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherco70 Posted September 15, 2019 Report Share Posted September 15, 2019 Teflon tape under the lever clamps and making sure the levers move seems to work to prevent breaking the levers, also move them in on the bar. Art 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richt Posted September 15, 2019 Report Share Posted September 15, 2019 1 hour ago, sherco70 said: Teflon tape under the lever clamps and making sure the levers move seems to work to prevent breaking the levers, also move them in on the bar. Art I've done this for about 15 years and I also heat treat the levers to normalize them so they bend instead of breaking. I can't remember when I last broke one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mung Posted September 16, 2019 Report Share Posted September 16, 2019 Stu, Fat,old guys with new gear really are a fun bunch. Wait till you are fat and old - you will probably be be wearing new gear to. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikerpet Posted October 8, 2019 Report Share Posted October 8, 2019 I run full loop style bark busters (chinese copies off ebay) with all the extra plastic cut off so they are just a thin strip (nicely colour coordinated of course) ?. They don't look too bad IMHO. I tend to have a go at things I'm not sure I can achieve, so do throw the bike away a bit. After busting a couple of levers (well in on the bars and loose enough to rotate easily with one hand) I went to guards. Haven't broken or bent a lever since. Also haven't had a single instance of the throttle getting stuck open from the grip augering into the ground. Possibly there's an increased risk of broken wrists, but I spent a fair bit of time looking for actual reports of them before going down this path and there weren't that many in the scheme of things, and certainly many more of people with smashed fingers without guards. All these where from reasonably high speed crashes from what I could see. I've had a few tree impacts (riding trials, not trail riding or singletrack) where the guards have saved me from more pain. Wrists are definitely a significant consideration, but I'm not convinced it's any more likely than the potential injury from the end of a lever itself (I've taken a rider to hospital after the end of a lever (complete with ball end) pierced her thigh down to the femur - surgery and several days in hospital). The thought of bilateral fractured wrists is not a nice one, but I'm not convinced the guards actually present such a big increase to that compared to just launching yourself into the ground off a motorbike. Maybe I'll decide otherwise in future. To each their own assessment. I set my guards so they are fairly tight, but I can still rotate them with a good firm pull. They sit slightly below the level of the levers so they're as far out of the way as I can get whilst still protecting the levers. My theory is that in at least some situations they should rotate on the bars before my wrist breaks if it does go through the loop. Plenty of chance for that not to work, but it's a degree of safety. Certainly in the roughly 150 hours of riding I've done with them on I've never felt I've come close to getting caught in them. This includes plenty of loop-outs over the back, some pretty ugly over-the-bars and all the general offs in trials. I've snapped one guard in a crash - I'd be surprised if the lever would have survived the impact without it - I think that was a particularly poor quality chinese guard. Cost was similar for a new set of guards or a new lever. I've had numerous crashes where I was well convinced the guards had saved my levers. The other guards (we've currently got 3 trials bikes here with them on) are bent but not broken. I reckon I'm financially well ahead. Personally I can't tell the difference in the steering with or without, possibly just because I'm old, if not fat ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
austini Posted October 13, 2019 Report Share Posted October 13, 2019 I use a guard on the throttle side of my sidecar outfit as a lot of 2M sidecar gates have a nasty habit of having a tree or 2ft rock stuck right in the middle of them, square peg round hole syndrome usually results in a lot of RH scraping to achieve the aim. If you saw the damage on the guard and think of the damage that would of been inflicted on my fingers and gloves its a wise investment 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluey Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 I've been over the bars in a way that I am sure I would have suffered injury from hand guards. Basically did a handstand on the bars and then rolled over the front. Impossible to get my hands off the grips. The levers bent down a bit and my fingers hurt for a few days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikerpet Posted October 14, 2019 Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 I'm cautiously optimistic that my guards are loose enough that they would just rotate in that sort of crash, much as it sounds your levers did. I dropped the bike awkwardly yesterday and lever and guard both rotated way down with no damage. I suspect the guards did no good, but they did no harm either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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