Can someone suggest some durable (and reasonably priced) handguards? 300 miles and i have already split both of the stock guards. I guess I should work on keeping it upright . . . but thats no fun.

 

I changed mine out to the Acerbis with the intergrated turn signals. They're probably pricey by normal standards, but I wanted to lose the stock turn signals. I'm sure Acerbis makes some that are just plain. http://www.acerbis.com/p001_frontpage/frontpage.html

 

I did the same. I was happy to get rid of the stock signals.

 

Me too, I love the new look and they are holding up really nice. Speaking of the Acerbis Hand Guards, I was at a friends house yesterday, he's 70 and builds hot rods, anyway I was visiting him during my hour lunch and he asked me if I wanted to drive his 32 Ford Roadster and I said YES!!!!! So we went for a drive with the top off, anyway when we got back we were standing there talking and all of the sudden my bike fell over in his driveway. I guess the blacktop was so hot that the kick stand sunk in about 3-4 inches and the bike fell. Man was I mad, and I felt bad because now he had a hole on his new blacktop the size of a silver dollar and 4 inches deep. Well we quickly picked up the bike and to my surprise there was only a couple of small scratches. But that sucks, 2200 miles and not a mark or a drop and then this happens. I bet 5-600 of those miles were on trails and roads, and not a drop but what can you do right? And the folding mirrors are really nice too.

 

Not to hijack but Deej, what's that gauge on your left (when seated) side of the bars?

 

I chose to go with a more traditional style of handguards - Moose Barkbusters.

I've laid the bike down quite a few times, a couple of them pretty hard in deep sand. The stock levers are doing just fine. A couple of scratches on the Barkbusters.

 

It's a water proof Bike clock. When I'm out and about I need to know what time it is without taking one hand off the bars all the time. $20.00 at the bike shop when I bought the bike. Man I'm getting excited about the Yamaha for the wife. And a friend of mine that works at Bank of America was given an old dual sport bike from a lady that works with him and her and her husband are going to completely fix it up since they are ex bikers (Hells Angeles) and bike mechanics. Man he's excited too. And now his wife wants a bike, well that is until I told her that there is a clutch. LOL So maybe before too long we will be hitting the trails with them, or them with us. Now where was it on line where you can take practice motorcycle written tests? I need to get my wife started. And yes it would be nice to take the Motorcycle safety class, but I need to teach her how to ride first.

 

Those bark busters are nice, but here in the Great Northwest we have a lot of brushy trails, and those don't look like they offer much in the way of branches hitting you.
Here's one with the spoilers added, really nice for brush and that 1.8 mile ride to work in the cold months.

 

deej,

I am not blowing smoke, but are you sure you want to teach your wife to ride?

Kind of sounds counterproductive to me. But hey, she is your wife.

 

You know all deej is gonna do is teach her how to properly wash a bike for a month.