I know it's been the law of the land in Europe for a long time. It seemed like nobody over there uses full wrap hand guards and I could never figure out why not? I know the pros don't fall often, but for me they save the levers in simple tip overs and keep your fingers safe when pinballing off the trees. now I notice more and more Americans riding with naked bars and I just can't figure out why? I mean it seems like cheap insurance for your levers, especially if you have expensive setups such as Clake. For me I'll always run full wrap aluminum guards to protect my hands and my levers maybe it has to do with weight, or fear of breaking your wrists if you go over the bars and don't let go? In my travels searching the subject I found this FIM rule, which might explain the European "law of the land" I mentioned earlier FIM Technical Rules, Enduro section 33.10If hand protectors are used they must be of a shatter-resistant material and have a permanent opening for the hand.
Weird.. never heard of that FIM rule. Thanks! learned something ..even if it doesn't make sense to me.
That seem dumb but rules are rules. I guess the ability to have your hands fly out is what they are after.
I keep going back and forth between the flag style and wrap around guards. Currently giving these a go: https://www.reflexracing.com/photos.html
I always run full wrap. If money were no object and I never crashed, I might think about flags but I'd still want something so that I didn't endo when a branch hit my front brake lever. On the rule, it seems to me that can be fulfilled by having a standard full wrap guard, no? There is always a nice big permanent opening for your hand in the vertical. Go ahead, you can stick your whole hand through and then pull it right back out. Maybe they mean an opening to the side in which case I agree you can only run flags.
wow, those I have not seen yet. They look interesting and seem to solve the problem of the tapered mounts never lining up once you cut the bars down, although that might still be a problem with these? depending on how much cable the guard side can accept?
I haven't installed them yet should be getting my bike back this week from the dealer. The braided cable is about 1 and 3/4" so there is definitely some room for adjustability. I'll post some pictures once I get them on.
very cool. I like the innovation with the cable, it certainly solves the mounting issue for Flex bars!
Nice, innovative. What would be good too is if they had just a mount with the cable flex joint, that could be used with a standard set of EE, Moose, or Cycra guards. I rarely get through a year without breaking or bending one so I like to keep things simple and quick to fix/replace, but perhaps these wouldn't bend as easy either. Also the mounts are like the Cycra CRMs, in that the mount on the straight dia of the bar. If you don't run risers you loose a lot of access to the compression adjusters, especially with Flexxbars, which have no upward bend at all. I would certainly try these with standard bars though as I've bent everything else.
What a great idea but very $$ I guess with the wire you would save on breakages. I use cycra Stealth with the alloy brackets. I've broken a few sets of these with me Beta and bent my first folding lever, my sons (my old bike) 2014 YZ250F has done 270hrs with the same guards no breaks. I don't know about the US but here in OZ you can't ride M/X with full wrap around gaurds which is cool as I'm worried about going through them and breaking my arms.
A trick I have done for years is to use brass M6 bolts to mount the guard to the mount/bracket. This way the bolt bends before bending the mount or tearing the threads out. Normal hits and falls are no problem, a big one will bend a bolt. I carry a few with me. Yes, most MX tracks I know of do not allow full wrap hand guards. Only exception is if the track is part of a harescramble course for a sanctioned event.
My initial impressions of the reflex racing hand guards is very good. Went racing this weekend and through numerous tip-overs the guards always bend back into position easily. Two things I can see still being an issue. The levers (and your fingers for that matter) could still be susceptible to branches or whatever because the guards will flex. Hasn't been an issue for me yet but I guess it could happen. Other than that I really like them. I think they look real sharp too.