2021 Tiger 900 Rally - Crash Bars??

Hey fellow ADV'ers, I purchased a new Tiger 900 Rally (LOVE THIS BIKE) and I'm on the fence about the lower crash bars. I want some protection but am leery of the fact they mount to the engine case and not the frame. Are the mounting points strong enough to withstand an impact? Are they worth the $ ?
Mike

Can't really answer your question, but this looks promising.

Well, it's kind of hard for the lower crash bars to mount to the frame seeing as it's not a cradle frame. There is nothing down low for the bars to mount to besides the motor.

--mark

Understood. Just trying to determine if mounting to the engine is worth the risk.

From what I've seen, low speed drops are not likely to break the mounts. Low speed drops without crash bars are pretty much guaranteed to break/damage something. The Outback Motortek bars at least won't cave the tank (like the OEM bars). I'm going to take my chances with the bars. Because I'm absolutely going to drop this bike. Probably a lot. If I'm in a crash bad enough to break the mounts then the broken mounts might be way down the list of things I have to worry about. :)

That is some righteous redneck testing right there!

I would go for either no bars at all, or a full upper and lower. And if you go from nothing to a full set, I would go for the Outback ones. My RP already comes with OEM lowers, I definately did not want the OEM uppers because I saw several people with dented tanks caused by the pivotting mounting system. So OEM lowers with H&B uppers, and pray.

Yeah I have no idea what the mindset was for whoever signed off on the OEM uppers.

I looked on the prizes in Europe and Outback crash bars and the H&P upper bars are nearly the same prize:
- Outback ones (~250 Eur and they fully replace the OEM low and OEM high
- H&B high bars (~215-250 Eur depending on colour, need to keep the OEM low bars).
These are official website prizes so maybe some local resellers might be different.

Actually the cheapest option is to install Outback, remove the OEM lower bars and try to resell them.
Triumph official prize is 258 Eur so event taking half the prize for used ones is still a good deal.

True, availability of outbacks in Belgium is an issue though...only one local distributor and it's 305EUR for Outback bars, never saw them in stock (just checked still backordered), I paid 260EUR for the H&B stainless uppers. And Triumph is not a super popular brand in Belgium, realistically reselling the OEM lowers for me will take a while, I saw the 2019 sales figures and 75% of all models are PRO models with the lower bars...and at what price can you sell the OEM lowers...local FB marketplace has 3 sets of them for sale, they have been online for about 3 months now...

We had Outbacks ordered for my wifes 900 GT and when they showed up we were told they couldn't sell them to us. Apparently the GT's footpegs are further forward then the Rally Pros. This puts the Shifter on the GT dangerously close to the Outback bar. Outback supposedly will make an update for the GT version.

Jury is out on Hepco and Becker bars until I see a response from them on my broken bolts.

Saga begins here. https://advrider.com/f/threads/2020-tiger-900.1385044/page-106#post-41853063

Another strike against the H&B ones. They now list a new version on their website, 'solid' in the name. Basically the same bars with an added brace in front of the radiator. Ofcourse if you bought the original ones, you don't have that brace.

Based on this and the bolt issue I returned my original set today, going to order Outback ones...

Did you have your H and Bs installed....how long did you have them? Returned for full price? At this point, I'd be happy returning mine....but I've had them since Oct.

Not installed, full refund.

I still think that every crash is different and you can have good results with any system (even OEM) but the fact that they have a newer version doesn't fill me with confidence about the original one...

Agreed...bet the first design goes bye bye when all are sold. Rushed to market/poor design?

....and still NO torque specs for the new version.

https://www.hepco-becker.de/en/mein...-for-triumph-tiger-900-rally-gt-pro-2020.html

https://www.hepco-becker.de/download/product/5097605_00_03.pdf

I'm waiting for the US east vendor to restock, and already have an order in for a set of bars, and skid plate from them.

Did they charge you already? Or do they charge you when they ship? I'm hesitant to pay up front for something that *might* come back in stock in 4-5 weeks, maybe. lol.

They charged my card up front.

Well I emailed H&B to ask one simple question & they didn't answer the question so after trading 3 more emails they addressed the question and the response was NFG.
I simply asked them if they did any engineering on them changing the bolt design for a critical engine to frame connection or did they just wing it and made the spacer long enough to hold up the guards ?
There response was "we have used this spacer & bolt on several bikes and never had a problem"
In other words they winged it. Simple physics tell you a longer fulcrum (bolt) will add leverage/force to said point in this case it's your frame ! I looked at other guards and the one that mounts at that point doesn't use a spacer the guard is long enough to seat up tight to frame. OEM & Tourtech do not use that frame/engine point for attachment. I took mine off as soon as I saw FBB post I'm going to try & get a refund or if anybody wants some brand new white engine guards cheap let me know.