Hand Guards

[Bob K]

This is the first bike I have had with hand guards . Does anybody remove them for summer riding ? I wounder if they cause extra turbulence ? I kinda like them for keeping the sticky bugs off the hands when riding with no gloves .

[Wintersdark]

I never ride without gloves, on account of being in a few accidents and tearing apart armoured gloves.  Couple that with googling "degloved hands".  Gloves for me are the step below helmets. 

But, that's all for my preachiness - I'm the last person who should be preachy anyways - No.  I don't remove mine.  On the newer Tracer 900 and Tracer 9, the hand guards don't cause any appreciable turbulence.  I can't speak for the older FJ, but for us?  

I tend to just set cruise control and ride home hands-free more often than not when commuting to/from work, and even down windy streets at speed there's no problem at all to have smooth control without hands on the bars - and Calgary is a windy town. 

With that said, the flip side is that the hand guards aren't very good as far as hand guards go.  They'll reduce the amount of bugs splattered (which is a huge deal for me, we've got LOTS of bugs at dawn and dusk, and that's where my daily riding happens), *almost* always protect from rocks and hard hurty things, but only kind of protect from the elements.  Aftermarket handguards are much better if you're riding in cold conditions.  

Basically, the stock guards are kind of mid-way between full, "good" handguards, and no guards at all.  Which is either great if you don't want big wind-grabby things on your bars and only want moderate protection.... or garbage if you want actually good protection.

[Bob K]

9 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

I never ride without gloves, on account of being in a few accidents and tearing apart armoured gloves.  Couple that with googling "degloved hands".  Gloves for me are the step below helmets. 

But, that's all for my preachiness - I'm the last person who should be preachy anyways - No.  I don't remove mine.  On the newer Tracer 900 and Tracer 9, the hand guards don't cause any appreciable turbulence.  I can't speak for the older FJ, but for us?  

I tend to just set cruise control and ride home hands-free more often than not when commuting to/from work, and even down windy streets at speed there's no problem at all to have smooth control without hands on the bars - and Calgary is a windy town. 

With that said, the flip side is that the hand guards aren't very good as far as hand guards go.  They'll reduce the amount of bugs splattered (which is a huge deal for me, we've got LOTS of bugs at dawn and dusk, and that's where my daily riding happens), *almost* always protect from rocks and hard hurty things, but only kind of protect from the elements.  Aftermarket handguards are much better if you're riding in cold conditions.  

Basically, the stock guards are kind of mid-way between full, "good" handguards, and no guards at all.  Which is either great if you don't want big wind-grabby things on your bars and only want moderate protection.... or garbage if you want actually good protection.

I agree with the protection of gloves , I had a bad high side crash in 2019 with gloves & cold weather gear on & had no skin abrasions just lots of broken bones . I been having trouble with elastic cuff cutting off circulation in my throttle hand , I may try to remove the elastic around the cuff . For now then the hand guards stay , thinks for your input .

[betoney]

10 hours ago, Bob K said:

This is the first bike I have had with hand guards . Does anybody remove them for summer riding ?

Yes.  I use the Suzuki DL650 plastic hand guards for wind protection, which actually work very well at blocking cold air flow.  In the warmer weather I remove them so I can get air flow to my vented summer gloves. 

I'm not sure about the Tracer hand guards but the FJ09 guards were effectively useless for me at blocking wind.

[cwjb]

I took them off for the summer. I don't like the wind being blocked and they're worthless for crash protection. One of the first things I do to a new bike is put on the 2 point barkbusters. This gives you a big thick metal bar for protection and a selection of plastic covers that you can use or not. I leave them off in the summer. Unfortunately they're not available for the tracer. I'm looking for something else. 

[fddriver2]

I live in South Florida weather is pretty mild year round, only a couple cool days a year. I didn't like the wind input on them at highway speeds. My opinion was the turbulence from surrounding vehicles (and there are a lot of them here) induced a bit of a weave, not a wobble, jus a small bit of steering input. 

So I ditched them and put some Sato Racing SS bar ends on. Happy as a clam since. YMMV

[draco_1967]

2 minutes ago, cwjb said:

I took them off for the summer. I don't like the wind being blocked and they're worthless for crash protection. One of the first things I do to a new bike is put on the 2 point barkbusters. This gives you a big thick metal bar for protection and a selection of plastic covers that you can use or not. I leave them off in the summer. Unfortunately they're not available for the tracer. I'm looking for something else. 

I bought the kit for the XSR900 and it fit perfectly on my Tracer. I don't know why the Tracer isn't on the compatibility list. The instructions even say that the bar end inserts aren't needed on the Tracer. 

Barkbusters Aluminum Handguard Kit Yamaha FJ-09 / FZ-09 / MT-09 / XSR900

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As the structural foundation of hand and controls protection, the...

 

[betoney]

5 minutes ago, draco_1967 said:

I bought the kit for the XSR900 and it fit perfectly on my Tracer. I don't know why the Tracer isn't on the compatibility list. The instructions even say that the bar end inserts aren't needed on the Tracer. 

Barkbusters Aluminum Handguard Kit Yamaha FJ-09 / FZ-09 / MT-09 / XSR900

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As the structural foundation of hand and controls protection, the...

 

I like the white  with red accents.  👍

[cwjb]

Wow.  Thanks for that Draco. I was hoping to find one for another bike that I could adapt. What year is your tracer? Looks great.  What kind of mirrors are those?

Edited June 18, 2021 by cwjb

[andz]

I took mine off shortly after getting it because after riding a Fazer the bars were too wide to lane split comfortably, plus they look shit.

I fitted naked MT-09 bar end weights and all is good!

And, I never ride without gloves.

[draco_1967]

2 hours ago, cwjb said:

Wow.  Thanks for that Draco. I was hoping to find one for another bike that I could adapt. What year is your tracer? Looks great.  What kind of mirrors are those?

Mine is a 2019. I wrapped it in white, because I hate the gray color. The mirrors are CRG Arrows with Rottweiler mirror mounts. A spendy package, but I scored this set used for about half price. They work really well for me.