tibork
Member
Wow! As an owner of an '94 R1100RS for several years (first BMW bike) I always envied the RT owners with the rear crash bars as I thought if you go down you have your side cases and probably your motorcycle as a whole better protected. For years I searched for something like those for the RSs, even asked other RS owners but my searches turned up with no results at all. I was disappointed about it until just recently when my wife and I started to watch the old CHiPs shows (TV show from the 1970s) as a relaxation in the evenings and witnessed the downfall of those crash bars. In these shows they use the Kawasaki KZ 900s and 1000s with full police dress up including front and rear crash bars (image below). The first incident came in a scene where a stunt man had to drop one of these bikes, he properly turned 90 degrees and quick put the bike down on its side and let it go. To my surprise the bike only slid for a second, then due to most of the weight on the bottom started to stand back up but only till the wheels hit the pavement again which sent the bike into a complete tumble, flipping over and over until coming to a stop and completely destroyed. Then a few episodes later same scenario happened, stunt man drops the bike, however this time even he was on the pavement already his lower leg was still over the seat when the wheels again hit the pavement, the bike flipped again this time sending the stuntman into the air and a couple of seconds later he landed in and awkward upside down position. Lucky for him he was kind of thrown to the side because again this bike too went into tumbling on a straight path, flipping over and over until coming to a stop completely destroyed.
So now I am questioning the true value of those rear crash bars and at this point kind of happy not to have them, I rather scrape some parts than total my bike and possibly get hurt even worse. I do have front engine guards which protected my bike but just from a short slide when my clutch broke on the highway at 70 MPH and I was able to shift down and get off at a ramp but at the end of the ramp I just could not shift down from 2nd to neutral making me drop the bike but at a slow speed for fortunately.
Any similar experiences by anyone equipped with rear crash bars? I did read an RT owner's story a while ago where he fell with his bike but his bike stood completely back up and continued down the road until it went off and stopped and went down again in the grass.
So now I am questioning the true value of those rear crash bars and at this point kind of happy not to have them, I rather scrape some parts than total my bike and possibly get hurt even worse. I do have front engine guards which protected my bike but just from a short slide when my clutch broke on the highway at 70 MPH and I was able to shift down and get off at a ramp but at the end of the ramp I just could not shift down from 2nd to neutral making me drop the bike but at a slow speed for fortunately.
Any similar experiences by anyone equipped with rear crash bars? I did read an RT owner's story a while ago where he fell with his bike but his bike stood completely back up and continued down the road until it went off and stopped and went down again in the grass.
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