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Crash Bars: Alt-Rider or SW-Motec?

bluejayrover

New member
I have a 2012 F650 GS. I am a new rider and looking to do combo riding. I took the 3 day combo course at the BMW Performance Center. They had the SW-Motec crash bars on the bike and they said they were very good. They did not interfere with my legs at all. I dropped the bike twice during the training and it was fine.

I see Alt-Rider has just come out with new bars for the F650 GS. Any opinions on which ones are the best? I want bars that protect the engine and the upper plastic (fake tank). The OEM ones look like they only protect the engine but not the body work.

And do they go on easy for a do-it-yourself-er??

Thanks!

Jay
 
I have a 2012 F650 GS. I am a new rider and looking to do combo riding. I took the 3 day combo course at the BMW Performance Center. They had the SW-Motec crash bars on the bike and they said they were very good. They did not interfere with my legs at all. I dropped the bike twice during the training and it was fine.

I see Alt-Rider has just come out with new bars for the F650 GS. Any opinions on which ones are the best? I want bars that protect the engine and the upper plastic (fake tank). The OEM ones look like they only protect the engine but not the body work.

And do they go on easy for a do-it-yourself-er??

Thanks!

Jay
Welcome to the forum Jay. At a recent Twisted Throttle open house, I purchased the SW Motech engine guards for my 09F800GS. I did a little write-up which can be found here- SW Motech crash-bar review
It's good to see someone else in the F-Twins dept. As you are new to the forum, you might not know that at the bottom left of the page there is a box to expand how far you can "look-back" so more pages will be displayed. Good luck. Any questions....I'm around. Gary
 
Any crash bars are better than no crash bars. :D Get the ones that look good to you.

I figure my pannier luggage is also part of the crashbar setup on my bikes.
 
I have and like the AltRider bars

I see Alt-Rider has just come out with new bars for the F650 GS. Any opinions on which ones are the best? I want bars that protect the engine and the upper plastic (fake tank). The OEM ones look like they only protect the engine but not the body work.

And do they go on easy for a do-it-yourself-er??

Thanks!

Jay

I like the Alt Rider bars. I am a total klutz mechanically but was able to easily install them myself.
 
AltRider crash bars

I have a set of AltRider crash bars on my F650GS. They have worked very well protecting the bike (and my legs/feet) in a couple of rocky-road drops. No damage to bike. I would recommend them inreservedly.
 
ordered Alt Rider

I decided to order the Alt-Riders. Thanks for all the advice! They came today but they sent me the F800 bars by mistake. Now I gotta send them back. What a PIA. Was hoping to put them on this weekend! Oh Well. Invoice has the right part but what's in the box is wrong.
 
the same

the ALt riderbars are the same for F650 and F800 so they were the right bars. Not the easiest things to install but very stout when installed. I hope I never find out how good they work! They sure look good too.
 
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