HDB hand guards

[Bionicman]

Anyone mounted these? I have a spare set laying around...

HDB Ultimate Handguards

 

[ChrisG]

I put them on my SM on Sunday, and am pretty happy with them. Quality is very good and they are solid. I got the mirrors too, which work well despite the small size, and help clean up the front end. The handlebar top clamp is a pretty close fit with the dash, and partially obscures the view of the dash (specifically the warning light that cuts max power for heat management). A couple of installation notes: HDB says you can drive the tap for threading the inside of the bars with an 11mm 12-point socket, but I found that the socket slipped under the torque required, and ended up buying a large tap wrench that could fit the tap. Also, if you get the big bolts for the bar end, they take a 9mm allen drive, which is an uncommon size. I had to make a trip to Sears. Other than that, everything is pretty straightforward.

 

[Philip]

A 9mm Allen bolt? I do not think such bolts exist in nature. Could it be a 3/8" Standard, which is 9.53 mm?

 

[ChrisG]

You could be right. I'm in the process of moving, and only have a small metric-only toolkit handy. All my SAE stuff is somewhere on the way across the Pacific. I assumed since the rest of the kit hardware is metric the big bolts would be too, but they could be 3/8".

 

[Philip]

American machine shops sometimes do that -- try to save $0.25 on an "the best ultimate" accessory that costs $150 by using cheaper Standard bolts.

They do not realize that none of the auto or moto owners or mechanics use any Standard bolts or tools nowadays.