I'm thinking of getting a set of crash bars / skid plate for a DL650 and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions (or even ones to avoid).

I was looking at the Pat Walsh set as I have seen a few good comments about them.

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The Wonderful Wander To Oz

The Pat Walsh set up is fine, it is the least expensive, the skid plate and crash bars come as one unit and IMHO that they will meet the needs of most riders of the Stroms. If you will be pushing your Wee to it's offroading limits and will be riding trails instead of just gravel roads and expect to bottom out on rocks, logs, or ruts, then you may want to consider the other skid plate options.

SWMotech and Amotostuff skid plates looks pretty much the same, are more robust than PW, but also more expensive. The pain about the SW plates is that you have to get an adapter to fit them to crash bars other than their own. That's adds another $40 or so.

The other crash bars include Givi, Hepco and Becker, SWMotech and some others in Europe that are less accessible here in the hinterlands such as Fehling. Not too much to pick between them, here the Givi is a few bucks cheaper and for overall protection the Hepco and Becker and the Fehling probably look a little better, although no one has yet volunteered to crash their Strom repeatedly under controlled conditions using the various set ups to provide the definitive answer

I thought about crash bars and skid plate, but in the i went for skid plate only here My V-Strom Accessories and Motorcycle Memories.
This may give you another option, Dan is good guy do deal with.








Ride safe & enjoy.

Stay away from the SW Motech Skid plate!!! Run away! I had to go with a SW motech as the Amotostuff was in development and its release date kept getting pushed further and further into the future. Pat walsh, had a back order. Departure time to South America was looming. So I went with the only option I had.

The front mounts to the crash bars are very weak small bolts. The rear mounts bend easily and with the cutouts on the bottom for the exhaust (to give it more ground clearance) only start to rub on the exhaust! Very stupid idea. Cutouts? Come on!

Amotostuff's skid plate looks the same but is made from thicker material and has no cut out for the exhaust. It actually protects it! The mounts are better as well.

I have heard good things about Pat Walsh for its sturdiness. Another weestromer nearby has beat the crap out of his and it still doing well. It doesn't have the flowing lines to match the bikes but it does well for protection.

Crashbars, go with ones that rap up over the farings. Again, SW Motech lacks in this department. I had two accidents and really wished I had the Givi or HB's.

Oh, well hindsight is 20/20. Hope this helps. In the end, just stay away from either SW Motechs and go for Pat Walsh.

Ryan

ps - don't forget to get something to protect the radiator! I lost count of how many big dings I got on my guard. If it wasn't there, i would have lost the radiator more than once!

Just for your info. I purchased the touratech crash bars and the opportunity to test them out on a logging road here on Vancouver Island in B.C. a few weeks back.

I also had on my jesse bags at the same time, which did help alleviate damage to the rear, and probably also helped at the front end.

It was a slow speed drop on a steep up hill section after stopping to let a vehicle by.

The touratech bars fit up quite high on the fairing, thus the only damage was a bit of a scratch on the jesse bag, and the same on the crash bars.

The right signal light did crack, but was usable with a bit of tape. Have since put on a smaller set of front signal lights so they no sit recessed inside the crash bars.

The brake lever also took a hit, but not enough snapped off that it was unusable. Am looking at a set of protectors for those, or as on off road rider suggested, drill a small hole in the leading edge of the handle at the knob, and that will create a weak point for future snappage.

Long and short, the touratech crash bars did an excellent job.

I also have the touratech bash plate. It is a bit of a pain to remove for an oil change, so if I had to buy that over again would probably buy something else. It does the job though.

Ian


The bars did get

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