Kawasaki Concours Forum

Mish mash => Open Forum => Topic started by: mellow yellow on May 02, 2019, 11:27:37 AM

Title: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: mellow yellow on May 02, 2019, 11:27:37 AM
Don't know if this has ever been discussed before, but for the people who have them, do you refer to them as crash bars, or engine guards? I myself use engine guards since it doesn't imply about crashing. This is what happens when the weather is nice and I can't ride because I have to work on the bike.
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: Cholla on May 02, 2019, 11:30:09 AM
They only protect the engine in a crash, sooo....

Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: just gone on May 02, 2019, 02:32:32 PM
Well on a C14 they mostly protect plastic...so plastic protectors?...tupperware protectors? ..tip over protectors?...for me it would be the last one as that is how they've functioned for me...embarrassingly* several times.  :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

* this would be a good spot for MOB to get back at me for my past cheeky remarks by reiterating his opinion that us little people shouldn't be riding big bikes but rather something more suited to our stature deficits.  :P
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: maxtog on May 02, 2019, 03:43:01 PM
Don't know if this has ever been discussed before, but for the people who have them, do you refer to them as crash bars, or engine guards?

It depends on which "bars" you are referring to, there are several...

Quote
I myself use engine guards since it doesn't imply about crashing. This is what happens when the weather is nice and I can't ride because I have to work on the bike.

I actually call what I use "tip-over guards" or "fall-over guards".  Canyon Cage's rear + front protect the engine, the plastics, the mirrors, the handbars, the panniers, the shifter/brake and pretty much everything else.  Not sure what any of them actually do in a "crash", since, to me,  that word implies a collision with something (car, barrier, wall, etc).  But collisions are very rare compared to just, oops, it done fell over (at slow or no speed).  And they do work for those (I speak from experience, unfortunately).
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: MAN OF BLUES on May 02, 2019, 06:39:45 PM
Well on a C14 they mostly protect plastic...so plastic protectors?...tupperware protectors? ..tip over protectors?...for me it would be the last one as that is how they've functioned for me...embarrassingly* several times.  :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

* this would be a good spot for MOB to get back at me for my past cheeky remarks by reiterating his opinion that us little people shouldn't be riding big bikes but rather something more suited to our stature deficits.  :P

 :thumbs: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :goodpost: :hail:

hey, I will admit, once you have that beast lay on top of you, pinning you under it, up against a garage wall... screeeeeeaming for help for 20 minutes... I have to admit, it ain't fun..... omg... I think I displaced a testicle, and so did my wife,  ???  when we tried to right it up and back on the stand...
so, I call them "plastic protectors"..  :'( :'(

I don't have them, and broke no plastic, but I wish I did have them as with the bags off, the bike doesn't just lay flat, it rolls over on it's back...
or at least it feels like it..

note to self: do not roll bike into tightly packed garage, when shoeless and tired... from an 11 hour ride....and expect it to go well... ::)
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: Michelle on May 02, 2019, 08:20:59 PM
omg... I think I displaced a testicle, and so did my wife,  ??? 

The English teacher in me thinks you really, really need to re-word that!
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: MAN OF BLUES on May 02, 2019, 08:39:44 PM
The English teacher in me thinks you really, really need to re-word that!

 :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

no, that is what I translated to P.C. verbally of what she really said...
Ya gotta know my wife, and she was an English major, and has a Juris Doctorate....

it went something like this; "f--- this..., now I know what you mean when you say I just popped one of my Nu-- out...."...

she's a hoot, fun at parties.... :censored: and I love her dearly...  :hail: :hail:
pretty, and resourceful, can shoot well,  :1DeadBanana :1DeadBanana and will back me up in any bar fight in a second...

so, I wouldn't raise the point...
 :banana :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: mellow yellow on May 02, 2019, 08:54:05 PM
" I think I displaced a testicle, and so did my wife," ok, who wears the pants in your house?   ::)
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: MAN OF BLUES on May 02, 2019, 10:13:49 PM
" I think I displaced a testicle, and so did my wife," ok, who wears the pants in your house?   ::)

well, she damned well wasn't wearing a skirt at the time... neither was I... but to answer ya,
we both do...

don't make me send her to hunt ya down... :rotflmao: :battle: :battle: :chugbeer:
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: Nosmo on May 02, 2019, 10:49:51 PM
MOB's comment about "rolling over on her back" is not something to ignore.  Without the "tip over bars", Connies run the risk of going "over-center" when they go, meaning that you have to pull them back up over the fulcrum point to get them upright.  If they don't break the footpeg and/or the peg bracket, then the peg becomes the fulcrum.  Having dropped mine twice on the left side (withiout the bars) and once on the right side (with the bars), I can say that it is MUCH easier to get her back upright with the bars.

pics below
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: VirginiaJim on May 03, 2019, 05:27:35 AM
I'm all for bars!
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: maxtog on May 03, 2019, 05:34:57 AM
I'm all for bars!

 ::)
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: VirginiaJim on May 03, 2019, 05:56:50 AM
What?   :rotflmao:
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: jimmymac on May 03, 2019, 09:29:02 AM
Happy bars?
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: jimmymac on May 03, 2019, 09:32:00 AM
9 years, no tip overs yet. I have bumped the bags into ****, pulling in too close. The paint is just wearing off, like a faded pair of Kawi jeans. 8)
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: maxtog on May 03, 2019, 02:27:29 PM
9 years, no tip overs yet.

Oh, you just had to say that....
Title: Re: crash bars or engine guards?
Post by: MAN OF BLUES on May 03, 2019, 06:05:53 PM
MOB's comment about "rolling over on her back" is not something to ignore.  Without the "tip over bars", Connies run the risk of going "over-center" when they go, meaning that you have to pull them back up over the fulcrum point to get them upright.  If they don't break the footpeg and/or the peg bracket, then the peg becomes the fulcrum. Having dropped mine twice on the left side (withiout the bars) and once on the right side (with the bars), I can say that it is MUCH easier to get her back upright with the bars.

pics below

THAT is the reality.... and with the C14, when the bags are off (as mine were), it reaaally goes to that extreme... like, the front wheel is horizontal about 8" off the floor, and it's teetering on the handle bar end and footpeg...