Made my own crash bars.

[mattness]

My dad has a bad leg, so he cant ride my vmax without something to lay his leg on. well... without a steel tube frame like the gen 1, there was nothing to mount the universal foot pegs to.

so out of necessity, we got with a local engineering company, and made our own.

We went with some type of chrome alloy (i'll have to get back with them on the specifics) that won't rust or corrode easily, and be strong enough to protect the bike in a tip over, yet not so strong that it breaks off a bike component. It's the weakest link, so-to-speak.

there are 3 main pieces, so if you trash one side, it can be easily unbolted and replaced. we have all the gauges made to insure that every one made is identical.

they don't block the oil filter, completely clear the monster radiators and tuck in nice and clean behind them. they mount on the engine brace and use the existing bolts. We had a local powder coating company powder coat them a shade of matte black that matches the bike perfectly.

 

[88vmx12]

very very very nice quality! you will be in business before you know it LOL

G

 

[Diablotin]

Pretty neat, doesn't change the look of the bike too much which is good.

 

[spursmech]

unk: Nice clean looking lines. Good Job, Spurs

 

[SpecOps13]

Great Idea, You could market them....

 

[Miles Long]

EXCELLENT job, Sir. As stated previously - unobtrusive, and blends in nicely with the lines of the bike. The matt-black powder coat finish was a wise choice.
I personally dislike tip-over protection on ANY bike, especially the large-diameter chrome plated variety. Really distracts from the wind-piercing, aerodynamic look that most manufacturers strive for - in particular for models using full fairings up front .
HOWEVER...unfortunately....the harsh reality is that the vast majority of motorcycles will see the 90 degree lean at least once in their lifetime, probably many times, for a variety of reasons. If the owner is lucky, these will be no or low-speed tip overs - no rider injuries, but enough to cause major hurt($$$$$) to the bike itself. Consequently, tip-over protection makes a lot of sense, imho.
The Victory Motorcycle Corp. has come up with the perfect compromise, for large touring bikes. Check it out on their website. The Victory "Vision" has integrated roll bars under the floorboards, that are hardly visible. However, when the bike goes over, these stop the machine from landing on it's side - it stops at about 45% - preventing any damage and making it easy to upright. The website video shows both a Vision and a Goldwing being purposely upended - the Vision suffering no damage, while the Goldwing is a cornicopia of shattered plastic, mirrors, etc.
On my own first-gen, I have the O.E.M. "case-savers" installed, front and rear. Last winter, I fabricated bolt-on extensions for the front case-savers, the original intent being to use them only when I had the fairing installed. As luck would have it, the bike went over twice last summer,once on each side, because of soft ground at a campsite, and getting hung up in mud at a photo stop. In both cases, the extensions saved the day. They are wide enough to prevent any contact of the fairing, but more importantly, the levers and handlebar ends did not hit the ground- something that could have disabled the bike. The crash bars themselves suffered no damage, even the powdercoat was not scratched! The extensions are there to stay now, fairing in place or not. Call it a "function over form" discision.
The rear case-savers have prevented damage to the exhaust pipes during previous tips. This winter, I'm going to make extensions for those as well, to prevent the saddlebags(when installed) from contacting the ground. The present bags are soft,so don't suffer when the bike goes over,(although my lunch sandwiches got flattened), but eventually I plan on making rigid fibreglass replacements.
Once again, excellent job on your own fabrication. You should consider going commercial with your idea.
Cheers, Miles

 

[one2dmax]

Looks to me like it's going to hit the lower corners of the braces. When one side hits it will push the force into the other side bending both. Great idea but not sure how well the function will work. Bad part is testing is going to be very hard and if they hit will cost you a ton of money to find out how well they work. Almost need to find a crashed gen 2 and put them on and rechrash them.

Sean

 

[mattness]

yep thats what i was thinking lol. the frame brace we bolted them too seems very strong. i really dont think this tubing is gonna snap or break off. it flexes to an extent. but i just dont really wanna knock my bike over for a test, EEK lol. the mounting piece onto the frame brace is steel that also reinforces the frame brace. i dont think that is going anywhere. in a high speed wreck i think the tubing will rip off before it brakes the frame brace there. but, if you wreck at 150 miles per hour, you ave bigger bills to pay than your bike... LOL

 

[one2dmax]

You'd be surprised at how much force is applied at a low speed crash. At 40 mph with 650+lbs of bike behind it is an enourmous amount of force. What is the bar bolted too? The bar may end up ripping out the mounts.

I know the gen 1 works well since they fold in when crashed. They still can cause damage to the frame though. Also, adding 1" to the length of the OEM crash bars makes them hit when doing aggressive cornering (trust me - you'll shit your pants if you manage to keep it up).

 

[mattness]

ya, me and my dad were goofing off on a roundabout and got some highway pegs to scrape. so i wouldnt recommend putting highway pegs at the bottom. it is going to limit ground clearance, but not by much without pegs attached.

if youre going to ride your bike like "cruisemissile" and scrape your mirrors in a turn, youre not gonna want these on your bike, LOL.


the tubing actually flexes. if you stand on one side, it will flex over to the other side, and vice versa. the bars clear everything under the engine. but in a wreck especially a 40 mph wreck, there are so many variables i just dont know, i would think the tubing would break off or flex and bend. but i think you can count on the frame brace/engine block/steel bracket, to not be compromised. it may just be the strongest point on the bike.

 

[Redbone]

yep thats what i was thinking lol. the frame brace we bolted them too seems very strong. i really dont think this tubing is gonna snap or break off. it flexes to an extent. but i just dont really wanna knock my bike over for a test, EEK lol. the mounting piece onto the frame brace is steel that also reinforces the frame brace. i dont think that is going anywhere. in a high speed wreck i think the tubing will rip off before it brakes the frame brace there. but, if you wreck at 150 miles per hour, you ave bigger bills to pay than your bike... LOL

I think what Sean is wondering about is how is the lower mounting point is secured. If I'm following his line of thinking if the lower mount points (if there is one) are connected a hit on one side is going to bend the other side as well even in a tip over scenario. 680 lbs is a lot to hold up. Having it fold back against the bike in a wreck would be a good thing rather than having it rip off and hit the rider or leave a half ripped off pipe sticking out as you're wrecking.
I like the looks of the brace and anything is better than having the bike on it's side scraping up the engine cases.

 

[mattness]

I think what Sean is wondering about is how is the lower mounting point is secured. If I'm following his line of thinking if the lower mount points (if there is one) are connected a hit on one side is going to bend the other side as well even in a tip over scenario. 680 lbs is a lot to hold up. Having it fold back against the bike in a wreck would be a good thing rather than having it rip off and hit the rider or leave a half ripped off pipe sticking out as you're wrecking.
I like the looks of the brace and anything is better than having the bike on it's side scraping up the engine cases.

i think its tight enough to the bike that you wouldnt have to worry about the other side getting you. the crash bars ripping off are really a worst case high speed scenario, and even then they are underneath the bike, i dont think youd have to worry about it any worse than worrying about getting stabbed by your handlebars

oops i didnt get a picture of the bottom, let me get one uploaded.

i didnt want to mount to the radiator or oil pan at the bottom of the engine because there were no good mounting points, and in the event that the mount broke under there, youd be leaking fluids all over the place and walking home. keep in mind the gen 2 has no frame undercarriage, the engine is it.

if i didnt think it worked, i wouldnt be selling it. which is why im redesigning a few other things now >.<

we had a lot of people involved with this project and ive overseen it all from day 1. i'm completely satisifed with these crashbars and its something im gonna keep and use on my bike.

 

[hammer]

Good job! High quality.
Hammer

 

[Caddymax]

Looks good to me and if you like what you did, that's all that matters. If there are any issues with it, in time you will correct those too. Gotta love people that can help themselves and overcome issues.:clapping:

 

[Slacker]

So far, this appears to be one of the few areas where to anchor. Does look good. I just need a way some foot pegs. I had saved where a guy used long bolts coming out, more forward, then going down low. (Hard to explain.) My computer crashed with the pics on it. The guy gave me a list of hardware he used.

 

[mattness]

had a few compliments today that they looked OEM

$250 SHIPPED! til march 1st

the pegs work great, no problem keeping my feet on even on the interstate

 

[mattness]

if we have a vmax meet someday i can let people demo it

 

[vmax2011richard]

I am interested. How do we proceed?

 

[Rollie]

So far, this appears to be one of the few areas where to anchor. Does look good. I just need a way some foot pegs. I had saved where a guy used long bolts coming out, more forward, then going down low. (Hard to explain.) My computer crashed with the pics on it. The guy gave me a list of hardware he used.

What the ............ I'm looking into Carbonite. ( any other suggestions ? )Should be worth $ 70 to keep my documents & pics safe / retrievable . I've dumped 2 p.c.s & only able to retrieve minimul amounts of pics / documents.

 

[KJShover]

What the ............ I'm looking into Carbonite. ( any other suggestions ? )Should be worth $ 70 to keep my documents & pics safe / retrievable . I've dumped 2 p.c.s & only able to retrieve minimul amounts of pics / documents.

I thought about carbonite. Then I started thinking I really don't want other people handling my info. There has been several cases where Computer shops and such stole information from other's computer and either sold it, or compromised the owner's identity.

I have a nice wireless network in my home, (Printers, my PC and laptop, Dad's and the Garage computer)
I use one of these to do the "Live" back up. and DVD's to back up the things that don't change. A Terabite holds alot of info, they have them out there for over a terabite too.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...CODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE