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Aluminum Hand Guard Questions
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Posted by: PowerJoe
I work for a company called PowerMadd and I am working on an attachment to our new hand guard which will conect the end of the guard to the end of the handlebar.
One of the things I noticed about all of the full aluminum type guards on the market, like Hand Savers and Pro Bend, is that the mount that gets inserted into the end of the handlebar can easily be loosened and the whole guard will rotate during a crash. Stopping this action mostly depends on the strength of the mount in by the tripple clamp. If I had a design that greatly resisted this rotational movement, wouldn't that be better? Or does this cause other problems?
One thing I did notice with the Hand Savers is they angle in quite a bit so they won't increase the width of the handle bars, but then the ends of the levers need to be cut off. The Pro Bends don't angle in at all and actually increase the width of your handlebar setup by almost 2 inches. What if you had a design that was in between these two? Where it increase the width less than an inch and you didn't have to cut the end off the levers? Doesn't that make sense? Am I missing something here?
The one difficulty I have is designing an insert type mount that fits all of the aluminum handle bars out there, since they all seem to have different inside diameters. I think I have a design to solve this problem and limit the amount of rotation in a crash, but I am trying to gather the dimensions on the inside diameters of all the different handle bars out there. Which brand of bars has the smallest ID? Which brand of bars has the largest ID?
Thanks for putting up with the lenghty post. I greatly appreciate any input. :thumb:
Posted by: dirt bike dave
Many of the problems you are trying to solve can be fixed by attaching the inner part of the guards to the bike's triple clamp instead of to the handlebars. This can be easily done with most bikes and most existing hand guards by using some longer fork pinch bolts and some 1/4" x 1" aluminum stock. Drill holes in the aluminum for your fork pinch bolts and one for the hand guard. Bend the aluminum to give the best fit.
Attaching the guard to the triple clamp gives more room for levers and prevents it from spinning on the bar.
If hand guard companies would include longer fork pinch bolts and pre-drilled aluminum pieces to mount the guard to the triple clamp, I would be interested.
Posted by: Jaybird
SRC
Posted by: PowerJoe
Dirt Bike Dave,
Thanks for the info. I see many companies offer an option to mount to the tripple clamp. Unfortunately I am not able to do this with our design, infact we are chosing to do all of the mounting on the 7/8" part of the handlebar. Just on the other side of the clutch perch and brake resevoir. By mounting this way before the first bend, we will eliminate the problems with mounting to over sized bars and odd bends.
I have talked with a few people that say by mounting to the tripple clamp it won't let the handle bars flex as much as they should. It also increases vibration.
I don't think our design will be as strong as mounting to the tripple clamp, but I am trying to make it as strong as the conventional style.
I am still looking for more input and opinions.
Posted by: Jaybird
Doesn't bar flex add more integrity to the bars so they can better handle a crash situation?
And wouldn't the added stability of the guard make the unit stronger, even though flex was gone?
Posted by: Patman
So Jaybird are you trying to convince us that triagulation is stronger than a single side (i.e. bar alone)? 
Posted by: Jaybird
I'm not trying to convince, I'm asking questions. ( a needed process with any R&D)
When I thought about the statement about the clamp mounted bars reducing flex, I thought to myself..."why do we have flex bars anyway?"
And yes, I do think that the triangulated configuration would be much stronger than the bar side alone.
Actually just thinking about it, I bet that a bar-only mounted guard would also reduce the flex of the bar every bit as much as the clamp mounted guard.
Mounting an apparatus anywhere on the bar will create a moment that would change the original integrity of the bar.
I'm definately not trying to trash your idea, simply asking questions. Besides, I've listened to Wade Summers go through a bit of this same discussion and it really got my cogs turning.
Posted by: dkmccarty5
www.erider.ws Stainless Steel "knurled" bar ends. (440) 286-6273
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