FROSTY
25th September 2010, 16:06
Hey folks. Another thread prompted to start this thread up.
I must say that the vieiws expressed are entirely my own and may or may not line up with other peoples views or experiences.
WAAAY back in time (60's-80's) most bikes were naked.resembling gn250's or hornet 900's. Those of us riding bigger jap bikes had very wide engines to deal with that would dig into the ground and get damaged in a minor crash. So bright sparks came up with the idea of engine protection cages or "crash bars". They were fantastic at protecting the engine in a fall over or a low speed crash.Trouble was in a faster crash the crash bar would act as a single point of contact with the ground and the bike would spin off up the road doing a lot more damage than if the bars weren't fitted.
So the bright sparks had a rethink and came up with aluminium case protectors.
They were usually bent sheets of ally that tightly conformed to the end of the engine case. -problem solved and no more spinning bike.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY-- and we have come full circle. Bikes have lovely plastic fairings that if bumped off the stand get scratched and damaged. In a slow speed crash -more of the same. So along come the inventor of oggie knobs.
BUT -heres the thing. In a high speed or high impact crash theres an issue with oggies. First one being that at speed all the weight of the bike can transfer to a small area of your bike frame causing busted off engine mounts or whatever mount the oggie is secured to. Second--rather than the bike sliding on its nice smooth aerodynamic fairing side it finds its entire weight spinning round one tiny spot and can cause a heck of a lot more damage.
So the circle has closed in a way. Because we are now able go back to not having bits sticking out of our bikes and using case protectors AND fork top protectors (to stop all your adjusters getting munched)
I've got a set of these protectors fitted to my bike and the potential protection and lack of damage to the rest of the bike is really clear.
I genuinely believe they are a much better form of protection than oggies
I must say that the vieiws expressed are entirely my own and may or may not line up with other peoples views or experiences.
WAAAY back in time (60's-80's) most bikes were naked.resembling gn250's or hornet 900's. Those of us riding bigger jap bikes had very wide engines to deal with that would dig into the ground and get damaged in a minor crash. So bright sparks came up with the idea of engine protection cages or "crash bars". They were fantastic at protecting the engine in a fall over or a low speed crash.Trouble was in a faster crash the crash bar would act as a single point of contact with the ground and the bike would spin off up the road doing a lot more damage than if the bars weren't fitted.
So the bright sparks had a rethink and came up with aluminium case protectors.
They were usually bent sheets of ally that tightly conformed to the end of the engine case. -problem solved and no more spinning bike.
FAST FORWARD TO TODAY-- and we have come full circle. Bikes have lovely plastic fairings that if bumped off the stand get scratched and damaged. In a slow speed crash -more of the same. So along come the inventor of oggie knobs.
BUT -heres the thing. In a high speed or high impact crash theres an issue with oggies. First one being that at speed all the weight of the bike can transfer to a small area of your bike frame causing busted off engine mounts or whatever mount the oggie is secured to. Second--rather than the bike sliding on its nice smooth aerodynamic fairing side it finds its entire weight spinning round one tiny spot and can cause a heck of a lot more damage.
So the circle has closed in a way. Because we are now able go back to not having bits sticking out of our bikes and using case protectors AND fork top protectors (to stop all your adjusters getting munched)
I've got a set of these protectors fitted to my bike and the potential protection and lack of damage to the rest of the bike is really clear.
I genuinely believe they are a much better form of protection than oggies