[DH Dad]

I broke my index finger last Saturday when my handlebars met a small oak tree with my finger beteen the brake lever and the tree taking 100% of the impact. I can still ride by using my middle finger to brake but my index finger is currently very vulnerable. I remember seeing some pro or semi-pro at Mt. Snow a couple years ago with Acerbis handguards on his M1. Anyone use handguards? If so what style will fit a DH riser bar?

I have handguards on my KTM but those monsters would never fit on a DH bike and each one is probably like 4 lbs.

 

[Jeremy R]

I broke my index finger last Saturday when my handlebars met a small oak tree with my finger beteen the brake lever and the tree taking 100% of the impact. I can still ride by using my middle finger to brake but my index finger is currently very vulnerable. I remember seeing some pro or semi-pro at Mt. Snow a couple years ago with Acerbis handguards on his M1. Anyone use handguards? If so what style will fit a DH riser bar?

I have handguards on my KTM but those monsters would never fit on a DH bike and each one is probably like 4 lbs.

I have those Devol metal ones on my KTM. They probaly weigh more than my whole DH bike. You can hit a wall with them though.
Some dude at the US Open was running them on a m1. Looked pretty ghey honestly. I just question what that little plastic is going to do when you hit a tree. It is kind of like Skydivers wearing helmets.
Hope your finger heals up for ya!

 

[tartosuc]

I used some acerbis rally brush for abouth a month..after some modifications, they worked fine but they are to bulky and look ugly on a dh bike!

If i would do it again,i would go with the smaller one for kids, the rally minicross...

after that i tried with some old onza bar-ends, it worked fine too.

check acerbis .:http://www.acerbis.com/p106_handguard/p106.html

 

[DH Dad]

Some dude at the US Open was running them on a m1. Looked pretty ghey honestly.

I thought the same thing two years ago when I saw that at Mt. Snow. The Moose handguards on my KTM would probably outlast the handlebars themselves in an impact but you're right, they probably weigh as much as the entire front end of my DH bike.

 

[Matt D]

Hopey makes some I think. Some guys had them at Snowshoe last weekend.

 

[Bldr_DH]

I don't know if they'd help in your case, but carbon knuckled gloves may be an extra barrier for trees. I smacked a tree dead-on with my hand, ended up twisting my bars, and didn't feel a thing. Again, I don't know if they'd help in your case... just a suggestion.

 

[dromond]

I don't know if they'd help in your case, but carbon knuckled gloves may be an extra barrier for trees. I smacked a tree dead-on with my hand, ended up twisting my bars, and didn't feel a thing. Again, I don't know if they'd help in your case... just a suggestion.

I always thought those gloves were the dumbest thing ever but the trails at my local mountain have super narrow spots and my fingers are bruised and bloody. Ouch!

 

[James | Go-Ride]

It's funny you guys are talking about this. Kris, Scott, myself, and a few of our buddies rode two epic DH rides on Sunday at Bountiful (Holbrook and Parish for those in the know). Parish is about 30 - 40 minutes long, and Holbrook is about 80 right now, thanks to ridiculous trail overgrowth. I was wearing TLD SE gloves which have a good amount of knuckle padding, and I sitll found myself wishing that I had my Rally 2 guards off my WR in more than a few spots. Scott and I were talking a bit about trying to make something for DH bikes to protect your hands from impact with trees, and also to protect your brake levers during crashes but didn't want to just use MX guards (for the weight reasons mentioned above, plus they're HUGE). Just out of curiosity, if you guys feel like there would be a market for the product I know we'd be interested in doing something about it. And I promise we won't make them out of diamond plate or clear polycarbonate

Also, sorry if anybody feels like this is spam, but I'd like to know if this would be something "core" riders would actually be interested in or not.

 

[groovis]

It's funny you guys are talking about this. Kris, Scott, myself, and a few of our buddies rode two epic DH rides on Sunday at Bountiful (Holbrook and Parish for those in the know). Parish is about 30 - 40 minutes long, and Holbrook is about 80 right now, thanks to ridiculous trail overgrowth. I was wearing TLD SE gloves which have a good amount of knuckle padding, and I sitll found myself wishing that I had my Rally 2 guards off my WR in more than a few spots. Scott and I were talking a bit about trying to make something for DH bikes to protect your hands from impact with trees, and also to protect your brake levers during crashes but didn't want to just use MX guards (for the weight reasons mentioned above, plus they're HUGE). Just out of curiosity, if you guys feel like there would be a market for the product I know we'd be interested in doing something about it. And I promise we won't make them out of diamond plate or clear polycarbonate

Also, sorry if anybody feels like this is spam, but I'd like to know if this would be something "core" riders would actually be interested in or not.

I would be game.

 

[Matt D]

I for one would never buy them. I have of course slammed my hands into trees. Currently one of the tendons in my finger is messed up from the US Open, but I don't see a huge demand or need for them. I've never had much of a problem with bent levers either (jinxing myself here). Plus they look really really bad :eviltongu

There are some XC trails were it would be nice at times, but it's better just to do some trail maintainence and brushing to take care of that.

 

[-BB-]

If they are low-profile, I'd take some

 

[RhinofromWA]

I'd like to know if this would be something "core" riders would actually be interested in or not.

I don't know if the MTB (DH) community would warm up to them. I don't see them as a bad idea myself.

Aluminum guards would be easy to produce. Plasic gaurds require nasty molds and such. I run Renthal bars so It would be easy to run them on my bike...remember the buldge on MTB bars could make mounting finicky. My bars are straight guage with a spacer.

Little history from memory. Aceribis made some brush gaurds(not bark busters), decades ago....back in the neon pink days of MTB and motorcycle type levers. They mounted on the perch and did not wrap around.

Has protecting your expensive levers and perch for recreational riders outweighed the need to look "cool"? Maybe not yet. Would a couple bent peices of aluminum stock for prototypes be worth it? Let us know.

 

[tartosuc]

It's funny you guys are talking about this. Kris, Scott, myself, and a few of our buddies rode two epic DH rides on Sunday at Bountiful (Holbrook and Parish for those in the know). Parish is about 30 - 40 minutes long, and Holbrook is about 80 right now, thanks to ridiculous trail overgrowth. I was wearing TLD SE gloves which have a good amount of knuckle padding, and I sitll found myself wishing that I had my Rally 2 guards off my WR in more than a few spots. Scott and I were talking a bit about trying to make something for DH bikes to protect your hands from impact with trees, and also to protect your brake levers during crashes but didn't want to just use MX guards (for the weight reasons mentioned above, plus they're HUGE). Just out of curiosity, if you guys feel like there would be a market for the product I know we'd be interested in doing something about it. And I promise we won't make them out of diamond plate or clear polycarbonate

Also, sorry if anybody feels like this is spam, but I'd like to know if this would be something "core" riders would actually be interested in or not.

I would probably be interrested, as long as they are low profile!
i'm not sure if the dh community will be up to it !

 

[Supa8]

Kevin was this before or after your bike took a ride on the lift by itself! I heard from Seth you had a bit of a wait at the top.

 

[wisc fr-rider]

Stole this off nsmb, not bad idea of ride super tight steep trails, but they look really ugly.

 

[James | Go-Ride]

Wow. Those things would never get mounted to my bike, but they probably get the job done.