Installing GIVI Engine\Crash bars on my KLR650

Installing GIVI Engine\Crash bars


So you have a very nice and shine KLR650 and you love her to bits, but what happens hen you lay her down? Scratches, scuffs, broken fairing, busted radiator, stranded? Well the simple answer is don't lay her down but this will inevitably happen sooner or later especially if you decide to go off the beaten path sometimes. You can add a Engine\Crash bar to prevent damage to your machine and rather put some scuff marks on the bars than your fairing.

I went with the GIVI above the Motetch ones simply because they look better and because they will provide sufficient protection on the off chance that I do lay her down.

They came neatly bubble rapped and came with all the longer replacement screws that I would need. I started on the right hand side and it went on pretty smoothly. I struggled a little to get the left side bars lined up with the holes but found it easier to do when you loosen up all the bolts on the right side and also on the front engine mount bracket. The center bar was a very tight fit and you might require some extra patience here.

All in all it took me bout an 1:30h to labor through this ordeal but that's because I wanted to make sure that I do it by the book as I have heard many a tale of increased vibrations after installing engine guards.

Pic with GIVI crash bars installed installed

Review

After taking the girl out for a test drive, I was delighted to find that there is no increase in vibration.When touching the bars at speed there is some vibration but this is localized to the bars themselves an does not filter through to the rider at all. The bike seems a lot more bulkier when being viewed and gives a very "big bike" appearance and this is also due to the large fairing but still she handles lane splitting very comfortably and the crash bars have no effect on this whatsoever.




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