Camhead Engine Guards via EBay

[pappy35]

Anyone on here buy these, or similar, engine guards?

Engine Guards

I tend not to want to buy large/expensive items from Ebay but, as these appear to be identical to Wunderlich bars and almost 1/3 the cost (and given that they most likely source theirs from Chinese manufacturers anyway) I find myself severely tempted.

 

[akbeemer]

No way of knowing how good they are until you check the wall thickness of the tubing, quality of the welds and fit/finish.

 

[05biggray]

Gards

Anyone on here buy these, or similar, engine guards?

Engine Guards

I tend not to want to buy large/expensive items from Ebay but, as these appear to be identical to Wunderlich bars and almost 1/3 the cost (and given that they most likely source theirs from Chinese manufacturers anyway) I find myself severely tempted.

You get what you pay for. Judging other Chinese products made from metal chain sprockets ect.I would Pay for the American built.
FWIW

 

[beemerchuck]

Anyone on here buy these, or similar, engine guards?

Engine Guards

I tend not to want to buy large/expensive items from Ebay but, as these appear to be identical to Wunderlich bars and almost 1/3 the cost (and given that they most likely source theirs from Chinese manufacturers anyway) I find myself severely tempted.

I have a set on my RT. Welds and paint not as nice as Wunderlich, but paint job is cheap and easy to do.
Hard to tell them from my friends Wunderlich set.

 

[pappy35]

You get what you pay for. Judging other Chinese products made from metal chain sprockets ect.I would Pay for the American built.
FWIW

Do you know for a fact that they are made in the USA? By this don't think that I'm calling you out; it's a sincere question. I mean, let's face it, 90% of anything manufactured these days day is coming out of that part of the world. I don't like it (that's why I bought pants from Aerostitch for example), but that's just how it is. Do you use a cell phone? Guess where that was made.

I get that quality standards might be better controlled, again look at Apple, but I'd almost be willing to bet you that all these name-brand bars are coming out of two or three of the same factories in China.

I have a set on my RT. Welds and paint not as nice as Wunderlich, but paint job is cheap and easy to do.
Hard to tell them from my friends Wunderlich set.

That's because I'd be you they came out of the same factory!

I went ahead and bought them. For one-third the cost, I'll go buy a few cans of Krylon. We're talking about mild steel here too so how bad could the welds be? Three times the price does not mean three times the quality. That stuff is so easy to weld, might not be pretty but they'll be good enough for a low (very low) speed get-off. Besides, they aren't so much money ($171 delivered to my door) that I'd miss a mortgage payment if they turned out to be junk. Either way I'll be able to add my data point to the hive mind.

 

[jandhumphreyme]

I purchased a set of "never installed" SW Motech bars from someone on another forum, he said he never got around to installing them and just wanted to get rid of them, I got a great deal, for some very expensive bars. Well two hours of marking, grinding and fitting I finally got them installed correctly, seems that price is no indicator of quality. A few google searches showed a couple of people had the same issue with the SW Motech bars, seemed some bars warped slightly on the welding jig and no one caught it before shipping.

Hard to say who makes a good crash bar, most never advertise the wall thickness of the tubing they use or the thickness of the engine attachments, good luck with them post a couple pictures if you can.

 

[keithlt]

i put a set of ebay guards engine and bags on my 2010 r1200rt a few weeks back, last week the bike tipped over and no damage to anything important. sure a small scratch to the bottom of new guards but thats what i put them on for. btw missed my wife car by 6". stationary tip over my fault went to move it in slippers.

 

[lgb]

Crash Crash Crash Bars

Anyone on here buy these, or similar, engine guards?

Engine Guards

I tend not to want to buy large/expensive items from Ebay but, as these appear to be identical to Wunderlich bars and almost 1/3 the cost (and given that they most likely source theirs from Chinese manufacturers anyway) I find myself severely tempted.

At 1/3rd the cost you should buy several and have one on the shelf ready to go.

If you do purchase; please cut one of the tubes in half and measure the tubing wall thickness... it's very important to the readers and the general internet searchers of 'stuff'.

If the quality control is there... who really cares when you're going 80mph down the road? Oh, wait I just saw that bike wizz by so fast... I sure hope it has some Wunderlich crash bars installed.

You and I pay for marketing (and some quality control) maybe...

Enjoy...! which everway you'll go... we'll all still lOvE you.

And some will rEally care...

 

[pappy35]

I'll measure what I can and post pictures but think 'll skip sawing one in half. Me thinks that would void the warranty.

 

[williambrown]

My story relates to fitting Wunderlich engine bars to an 05 RT. In 2010, when I purchased the bike, BMW suddenly stopped offering its factory engine guards. But the Wunderlich bars seemed very similar, if not a copy. There was a rumour that BMW bars were sourced from Wunderlich. My BMW dealer was NOT helpful in explaining why BMW droped their bars from the accessories catalogue.

I soon found out. I dropped the bike at around 10 kph on a dirt road which had been watered for dust control- bloody slippery on street tyres. A few days later I noticed oil on the garage floor. The design of those bars put DIRECT STRESS on the vertically split engine cases. There was a significant crack in the cases. Fortunately, because the crack had been inflicted in an accident, my insurer paid up for new cases and the necessary engine rebuild.

BMW had obviously learnt their design was faulty in the years after 2005, and pulled their endorsement. As you do, I then noticed I never saw an RT with engine bars.

BTW, those Wunderlich bars were not well fitting-again lots of filing of chrome fittings, cursing etc.

And, as some would say, I changed protection. Machine Art Moto x-guards. Does the job, looks good. job done ! Oh, and consumer tested with a few minor topples

Dabdab

Downunder

 

[jandhumphreyme]

Dabdab,
Thanks for posting that heads up mate, something to keep an eye open for after a spill with guards installed.

 

[Gillie Dog]

I'll measure what I can and post pictures but think 'll skip sawing one in half. Me thinks that would void the warranty.

If you are really curious. Run down to your local steel distributor, or next time in a big city go by one, and ask them to use their ultrasonic gauge on the tube to tell you how thick it is. In my previous life, working for a living, I had one to test material we purchased a lot of to be sure it was specified thickness. Used it on tank walls also and insurance companies use them on compressed air tanks. Ours worked at 14 gauge but might have gone thinner. No need to cut it apart.

GD

 

[pappy35]

OK but does anyone know what the wall thickness of the name-brand guards is so we have something to compare it to?

I think we're getting a little deep into the weeds here proposing any kind of engineering strength analysis of these Chinese-sourced guards (and I'm AM an aerospace engineer...haha).

In my mind, these things are for tip over protection or very low speed events at best. In fact, I think they are used more for footpeg and light mounts than any real protective device. I don't care if one pays $500 for the gold plated wonder-guards or not, it's unreasonable to expect they are going to prevent serious damage in anything more than that kind of situation regardless what the wall thickness of the tubing is. In fact, in this regard, thinner is probably better as it will deform rather than transfer those loads to the aluminum case castings. I think all these designs mount to the engine castings at some point?

In my case, I expect them to to be sacrificial lambs for me dropping the thing during a training class or two at the rally. That and I can also use them to mount the Denali's I'm getting soon.

 

[lgb]

Engine Guards form Poland

Pappy35,

Have you come across these...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CRASH-BARS-ENGINE-GUARD-HEED-BMW-R-1200-RT-2005-2013-silver/173813385981?fits=Model%3AR1200RT%7CMake%3ABMW&epid=706843431&hash=item287815cafd:g:ZcEAAOSwhpZZ8IIb

Looks to be a decent quality bar that will probably protect the jugs and easily handle the forthcoming Denali's.
What do you think... will they solve the problem at hand at half the price? Go for them pappy!

 

[pappy35]

I didn't get this style because you have to remove them to get the valve covers off for maintenance. The ones I ordered are exactly like these:

 

[pappy35]

Well, they showed up this evening after taking only eight days to get here from Guangzhou (near Hong Kong) and were very well packaged. The hardware, which I was expecting to have to replace, looks like really high-quality stainless. My micrometer battery died so I can't accurately measure wall thickness but they feel extremely sturdy. The painted finish is excellent and uniformly applied over what appears to be a bead or grit blasted surface. The welds aren't the prettiest I've ever seen but they look as good as those $500 units with no voids or any other signs of poor quality. So far so good. I'll post more pictures after I get them installed tomorrow. There were no instructions at all so I'll have to get creative but it's pretty straight-forward.

 

[lgb]

Seems like you have a decently made set of protective crash bars. I wonder if Wunderlich uses the same fabricator...
Look forward to the install photographs!

 

[pappy35]

Yeah. We'll see how installation goes. The common narrative though is that anything made in China is crap. All I'm willing to say at this point is that they appear to be of quite good quality.

 

[lgb]

Hopefully you won't need a come along!

 

[pglaves]

In the 1970s we said that all Japanese stuff was crap until I bought an 1974 Subaru that I put about 200K miles on, and then gave to my nepheu. At that point is was obvious that Detroit stuff was the crap.