I recently had to laydown my bike to avoid hitting a car. Caused damage to gas tank. So now i am thinking about installing Lindby Linbar highway bar to my 09 Fatbob. Wanted to get opinions on whether this will help minimize damage if i do have to lay it down again AND how you all think it would look.

 

No crash bar is going to provide much protection for anything but a low speed fall. None that I've seen have any structural integrity. I've been running the Lindby bar for a few years now and I like it. Unfortunately they only come in chrome so I had to have it powder coated. I put DK custom's triple traps on for highway pegs and they work great!

 

I have a Lindby on my Softail, and it's a nice bar. The bike will rest on the bar at about 45 degrees (my wife discovered one day). But it has rather limited cornering clearance, and I've developed a bad habit of watching how close the bar comes to the pavement, to determine my cornering limits. Haven't put one on my Dyna for that reason.

Also not terribly fond of the way any crash bar looks on a "lean" bike. But having one might have saved me some grief the last time a bike slid down the road on top of my leg. Hard to know. A bar can also put a bike in a position where the tires are back in contact with the pavement while sliding, and cause it to "high side" or flip, which might be worse.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I think i will not put them on for now. I wasn't crazy about the look to begin with.

 

No you didn't.

You just failed to make a successful emergency stop.

How can you possibly think that a couple of shiny metal points skidding on asphalt could have less grip than much larger tire patches on the same surface?

 

You're so cool...

 

linby makes some good looking bars, they are good to have for highway pegs.. I commute so the high pegs are really nice to have. ALso incase your bike falls over it will minimize the damage. Plus if you do rear end a car or get hit head on the bar might offer some protection.


to me the pluses well out weigh the minuses. I don't really care for the looks of mine, it makes my wideglide front tire look too thin, but it does add more chrome which looks good in itself.

 

No clearance issues with my Fatbob and I ride hard in the twisties, of course I'm running 13" Ricor Shocks. My stirrups rub 1st, then my highway pegs.

 

What's the next thing to rub?
Pegs will generally fold out of the way, so it's no big deal. Ground the crash bar hard enough, and it unloads the wheels and makes you crash. I've only done that once, but I'm not eager to do it again.

 

While sliding on the side won't stop you as fast as tire contact, there are a couple of scenarios you might want to consider:

Sometimes you already know that there isn't nearly enough room to stop, so you make a violent evasive maneuver instead which you know will be impossible to recover from. You end up on your side, but that's usually so much better than centerpunching a car.

Sometimes you have choices about how you'll hit something. Going in face-first probably wouldn't be my first choice. I'd probably rather go in on my side, wheels and azz first.

Edit:
When I was riding sportbikes, I mentally rehearsed jumping off the footpegs. Might be enough to have most of your body clear the car. Pretty impossible with forward controls though.