your thoughts on case savers?

[Lowen]

The bars I removed.
http://suraklyn.com/yabb/Attachments/112236469765_3300.jpg

[msbuck]

How's about these, some serious guards, uprights front & back, as favored by the CHP?

Those are actually used for mounting some of their lights and sirens. They really look strange with them removed.  We sold 10 of these to the NC State Highway Patrol back in the '90s, again in 2004 and just this year we leased the new R1200RTs to them.  We actually have a couple of the CHP used bikes down at Capitol for sale.  We usually have several around as we sell to many municipalities including RTs and F650s.  If you want to see one up close, come on by the shop!

Personlly, I don't have any crash bars and don't plan on getting any.  I don't have strong feelings about them, but the valve covers actually would cost less to replace than a crash bar if it was damaged.  You would have to slide a LLOONNGG way to grind through a cover.  We saw an airhead come into a rally a few years back that had done just that and he was still able to ride it in.  Go figure!  Graham went down in a hairpin a couple of years ago and between the heads and saddlebags, his legs were pretty well protected.

[Justin B.]

I have a pair like Lowen's on my R100 and there is a pair on the Junkyard LS.  I think the radius of the bend is greater then that of the valve cover so the arguements about the bars with the "edge" to catch and high-side don't apply.  The bars on my wife's '84 are Luftmeisters and they have an even larger/gentler radius.

[Semper Gumby]

Ho Humm.  What ever floats your boat.  They make great mounts for a set of PIAAs or an oil cooler though.

Howszat for a shot across the bow...zzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Bob_Roller]

You really can't predict the dynamics of an incident, so I personally have a set of Luftmeister guards installed, had them from the day I bought the bike . I have mounted a set of PIAA 40 driving lights, and I think that being visible to the brain dead, crack head idiots out there on the roads, is more of an asset than possibly preventing an ugly scenario if the bike goes down. I have come to the realization that I ride a 26 year old motorcycle that at best is worth $2000, I carry only liability insurance, and I have saved almost enough in insurance costs in the last 3 years, to pay for the bike. So if the bike is gone when I get out of work or missing when I come out of a store, or is destroyed in an incident that was my fault, I won't get upset, it's expendable, I've come to terms with it.

[drewboid]

I have guards on both my R65 and R75/6 - see the attached.  The top bar on the R75 is level, the top bar on the R65 slopes down and the lower one is close to level.  they have given me places to mount airhorns and driving lights (not in the pic) and saved the heads in several tipovers.  Yes, there is an inch or two less ground clearance but I don't usually scrape them anyway.  I guess I have slowed down since when I was riding a new R69s.  Come to think of it, that one had engine guards also.  

I do have a spare set of heads for the R65 that I picked up on Ebay - on both of them the foward hole for the valve cover is cracked and elongated where the valve cover stud was pushed back - I assume from a crash without engine guards.  

For me, I'll keep them on - YMMV
Drew
R60/2 - LS200
R75/6
R65