Well I dumped my bike for the first time today. Luckily it was only at 15ish mph and took litte damage to the bike, my tank is fine, engine was protected by my Ricochet skid plate and didnt bend my rear brake lever. I always wondered why I saw some people saying that the cycleracks rear rack works well when the bike is dropped and when I went to pick up the bike, the rear rack saved my rear right blinker, exhaust and plastics. However where I did suffer extreme damage was in both my ego and my handlebar brushguards. They were $20 chinesium guards with pretty crappy aluminum bars since I mostly caught the bike before dropping it and they deformed about 1.5 inches. This is a good excuse to replace them with a set from Tusk. I guess the lesson of today is ride your experience level since most of my miles were on the road and probably only 25 miles offroad, I should have been going slower coming up to the curve and remembered to use more rear brake rather than using only the front brake which washed out on gravel. I am at 889 miles as of getting home and up till now, I was proud of almost hitting my first 1000 miles without incident. All in all I still had a great day riding and learned a lesson without it costing too much.
Rut roh, Raggy... Glad you’re okay, though! If you’re like me, most of your lessons learned come the hard way. LOL. Keep at it, Yama, but next time keep the shiny side up, okay? Okay!
The Tusk guards are a very wise choice. I have dumped several times since installing them. They have been knocked out of position and required slight re-location - but have saved my hands more than a time or two!
I have the tusk handguards without the plastic bits because i liked the way they look over the ones with the plastic guards and they have saved my levers a number of times. One time was enough to bend the stock bars a little and the handguards came out of it with just a few scratches.
Now your TW has experience and character!! There are some really excellent handguards from many companies but a lot depends on the bars as well. It is VERY difficult to get most handguards to stay put in a hard crash.
What I did on my Beta was to order Enduro Engineering guards, but instead of the crummy friction expanding plugs usually used inside the bar ends, I ordered a double threaded insert which I had to actually tap the threads inside the bar ends, then screw in the threaded inserts, then attach the the actual guards to those with BEEFY 8mm bolts. Since then they have never budged and I have tested them way too many times on the ground and trees LOL...My bike has a mountain of character!!
The link below has pictures that show how those beefy inserts work.
Shop for Handlebars & Controls, like BRP Threaded Bar End Insert Kit at Rocky Mountain ATV/MC. We have the best prices on dirt bike, atv and motorcycle parts, apparel and accessories and offer excellent customer service.
Glad you're ok, but remember, scars are nothing more than trophies with damn good stories attached to them. Seriously though, you're alright, the most important thing!
If you're challenging yourself and out there having fun then dropping the bike happens. My first experiences off-road were in Vegas and damn if I didn't drop the bike dozens of times. Mountain trails and desert are forgiving. Pavement not so much. Glad your ok!
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