I run one made by Moose. It's one that you shape to your bike, and while it is very strong it was very hard to shape. I had to bust out a propane torch to heat the metal to bend it. But I am glad I have one. MSR makes one that looks like it's easyer to form and I've seen more people running that one, and I haven't heard any thing bad about them. the big problom that I've seen with pipe guards is that if you whack something really hard that the guard can crush the pipe. CF can be bad about that because it has very little give. the metal guards can bend taking some of the force out of teh impact. But that is if you crash the bike HARD. as far as the spills we all take frome time to time I'd say if you're riding in to woods or cross-country a pipe guard is a really good thing to have.