Protection for your bike What works

[ajy1w]

The big question to answer for us all is what works and what does not work.
If you are going to use the bike as and adventure touring bike and take chances in poor conditions, or off road use, what works?
I had the Ducati crash bars installed at purchase because I do ride off road and they are the best looking for the bike and the most expensive.
From my experience.  I have had 2 drops with my 950 in 6000 miles.   Both drops happened on blacktop.  The first was in NYC, #### around going around a car stopped at a crosswalk.  A pedestrian stepped off the curb in front of me .Grabbed the brake stopped short with bars turned into the down hill camber.  Just could not hold it up.  Slowly laid it down.  Hand guard got small scuff and one screw casing holding the top part of the guard broke inside the guard.  no real damage.  The crash bars kept the bike side from touching pavement.

Yesterday practicing slow maneuvers and jumping in a parking lot, I slid on leaves and mud at about 5-10mph, back tire went sideways out and down.  Crash bars took two nice scuffs and my side panel took a very light scuff in two places.  Very light but noticeable with close inspection.  Broke my shift lever, nice scrape to the passenger foot rest holder,  my mirror touched down with only a small ding, and the hand guard is now scuffed more then the right side with the same break to one screw casing. 
The Ducati crash bars scratch the same color and can polish the steel back to new. good to know you barely see it, it they where black or red they would be missing paint.
Bbiker CR makes a complete coverage cage and also for the exhaust.  ( this is a little more then I wanted in terms of looks) 

Today I ordered the bark buster bars for my hand guards.  And I think frame sliders may have prevented the shift lever, rear passenger peg holder and possibly the mirror from touching down. 

Was looking at folding gear shift lever anybody have one installed or any recommendation? 
I do not know how much the smaller sliders to the front and rear wheels would do.  They do not appear to stick out far enough to prevent the contact areas I experienced. 
I also think that the Ducati hand guards on our 950's are fairly well designed.  If you can just purchase the plastic bits it looks very simple to replace. 

Anybody else have some input or experience with laying down your bike? 

 

[ChrisS]

Unfortunately I managed to drop mine whilst putting it on the centre stand. Freak accident.  Foot slipped on the stand lever,  I lost my balance and slowly fell forward.  Bent front brake lever, scuffed front fork tip, scuff on right rear pannier and very slight scuff on front right hand guard as well as scuffed bar end.

I fitted fork, bar end and swing arm sliders and replaced brake and clutch levers with shorties designed to swing up if knocked instead of bending and distorting, will replace the front hand guard some day and should be able to buff out the scuffs on the pannier.

[Pegasus]

After unfortunately setting mine down at 0 mph, it was just the hand guard that broke its little screw plastic bit. Slight scuff to the mirror. Thankfully, that's it. I had a similar moment to ChrisS. Whilst going to put it on its centre stand in the garage, my foot slipped (which is really easy to do when wet) and it fell away from me. To my luck, the soft wheelie bins let it only go half way. Not even a slight mark.
I have now (last weekend) fitted some Heed bars. I agree the official ducati bars look better, but the heed bars still look smart, way under half the price of the ducati bars (in the UK at least) and appear to give a little more protection, especially to the fuel tank. I will get some hepco handle bars guards and front & rear wheel sliders, and I'd say it would be perfectly in a triangular bubble if dropped or, dare I say, slid. Almost tempted to take it green laning. The US looks like you have some great open trails which would be perfect. UK, is a little more.... Technical.

[ajy1w]

A little research today and ended up ordering the stock Ducati gear lever.  $82.00.  SW moto makes a folding toe gear lever $140.00, and mixed reviews some say it bends easy and breaks just the same if hit right.  Now Ducati also shows a brake & gear lever set available in Europe for $350.00. 
I will get mine back on and then on a warmer day, I plan to roll my bike on to my soft grass lawn lay it down and look closely at contact areas and clearance space.
Hopefully that will help me see what will work best.

[motorman]

I had a slow lay down on mine as well.  I was off road and stopped in an area with sandy, moist, washed out ruts.  I went to take off on a fully loaded bike with stock panniers.  When I went to take off I figured on just letting the rear wheel spin and cut thru the ruts.  OOPS! forgot to turn on Enduro mode and the bike cut off the power!  2 mph tip over!  I have Ducabike guards and the pannier on.  The Ducabike did their job and saved my clutch lever.  There are scuffs on the trim of the pannier (I just replaced the trim).  I have NO crash bars so I can say the pannier save the sides.  Plus I VERY slowly laid it down.  I was almost able to save it, but loaded up it was a bit too heavy.  I actually felt the handle bar bent slightly maybe 1-2 mm.  Not a big deal but this happened 3 weeks after I purchased the bike so I had them replace the handle bar with new (at my expense of course). 

[ajy1w]

After a close inspection of my bike today.  I noticed that the left side crash bar was up against the plastic cover.  Looked at the other side and there is about an inch between the plastic and the crash bar.   It appears that when I put the bike down the crash bar may have bent.  I will have to take then off to see if I can fix it or find where it bent.  Very disappointing considering the price of the Ducati crash bars.  I thought they would last for more then one fall especially a very slow speed impact fall barely moving. .  My fall was at maybe 5mph.   Replaced the broken gear shift lever and enjoyed a few hours riding today.   My bike is fantastic.  I would like to be more aggressive with it so protection is very important and I am very disappointed in the Ducati bars.  I may have to add frame sliders.  I am sure I cant just replace one side of the crash bars. 
 

[Moto45]

Don’t feel bad motorman, I’ve made the same mistake. TC works great except when you don’t need or want it to engage. Rider aid electronics can actually be detrimental to old school guys that have been accustomed to relying on experience and skill to compensate for changing road/ trail conditions. I manually set my abs/TC to zero unless it’s raining or wet surface conditions and only then switch to Urban mode with factory settings. The one thing I learned from the drop is it’s nearly impossible to save it due to the top heavy weight of the bike without risk of injury. Glad you came through ok. +1 on Ducabike handguards.

[ajy1w]

Put the barkbusters on today.  A bit bulky but they look like they will help.   Easy install.  I am wondering how the barswill be at highspeed.  You have to remove the stock Ducati bar weights and use the much lighter weights included.  Need to test ride this set up. 

[Pegasus]

Little update, I have just received my new bars protectors. I personally really like these as they are sturdy as anything, they are designed round the indicators, so no blocking the light and they will save the clutch, brake lever in most events as well as not damage the housing and bar ends. Allowing me to ride off, rather than be stranded without a brake or clutch. Really happy with it. Only down side is they sent the wrong one for the right side..... But, an email with a picture attached and a chat later, and they've already ordered the corrected part. At £121, I do think it's a good buy.

[YoungF]

More good looking kit from Evotech for the 950:

https://evotech-performance.com/products/ep-ducati-multistrada-950-s-hand-guard-protectors-2019-onwards