It’s been a bit of a chilly spring so far, although it is getting warmer. But I don’t like cold hands, especially my cold hands, so I have been thinking about hand guards. There are loads to be had, very expensive ones from Honda, expensive ones from Givi and medium priced generic ones like BarkBusters. But I don’t want to protect myself from undergrowth, trees and kamikaze pheasants, just keep the wind off. The bike already has heated hand grips, so just keeping the blast off is all I need. And when a pair popped up on eBay for the princely sum of £7.39 (including P&P) I found it hard to refuse, especially as they are in the same colours as the bike. OK, they have some ‘airflow’ slots in them, but at this price it’s worth a chance to see if they work. Not a lot to lose if they don’t work.

I ordered a set off eBay and they arrived quickly – Chinese items, but sourced in the uk to speed things up. Installation was straightforward, although removal of the original anti-vibration bar end weights was more difficult that I imagined. Undoing the bolt holding the weights was easy, although quite tight. Then I expected simple expansion bolts to fall out, but instead I found rubber mounted press-in inserts. So I created a slide hammer from some nuts, 6mm threaded rod, washers and an old flywheel that was hanging around. They came out easily with that make shift tool. (I must get a workshop manual sometime soon…)

The new ones are held on with straight-forward expansion bolts, just had to get the depth right so the throttle side wasn’t jammed up. Also, had to make sure that the slotted ends were near vertical as they lock the hand guards in position, but later fine tuning by easing off the bolt and adjusting is possible, as I had to do that, of course.

The new ones went in ok and tightened up well. This was all a surprise as my expectations were very low – I mean, £7.39? Come on….

Despite the appearance in the picture, they add no extra width to the bike.

So I took the newly adorned bike out for a test ride today – sunny, but still a bit chilly, so I would have felt the cold nip on my hands. But, after a trip of about 15 miles with a couple of long runs at about 70mph included, my hands did not feel the chill at all! The gaps in them don’t seem to allow much through, which is surprising, but welcome.

I suspect that they won’t help much in collision events, but better than nothing. They look kinda smart and did the job, so I’m happy with them (and a few quid better off than otherwise, too!). As a little bonus they do also have built-in running lights (or extra indicators?), but I’ve not yet worked out how to do electrical add-ones yet. More on that later.

For the price, highly recommended.

Next, installing a Constands centre stand.