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Happy Trails F 650 GS crashbar and skidplate
By Reid Dalland #69187
ONE OF THE MAIN CONCERNS any off-road rider has is the inevita- bility of damage to the motorcycle due to falls and crashes while riding rough terrain. The further you go off the road, the more important higher ground clearance and serious engine and fairing pro- tection becomes. If you have been to the GS Giant track at the BMW MOA Rally in recent years, it is likely that you have seen a brand new 1200 GS (and rider) launched into the air, returning to the ground in a spec- tacular smashing of plastic, metal and glass. While I have never launched my F 650 GS Dakar so dramatically, I have had my share of get-offs and am fortunate to have only suffered minor damage to my motorcycle. Shortly after buying my Dakar, I
bought a BMW Engine Protection Bar which fits their single cylinder 650cc GS motorcycles. The engine protection bar provides a lot of pro- tection and works with their skid plate. The factory skid plate does not provide a lot of coverage to the under- side of the motorcycle, so I added a Touratech (TT) Motor Guard Exten- sion which extends the factory skid plate to the center stand and provides additional protection to the
20 BMW OWNERS NEWS October 2015
underside of the motorcycle. I also added the TT fairing crash bars. This combination served me well for a few years. New York State has its share of rocky ter-
rain; in fact, the town I live in is called Stone Ridge. Much of my off-pavement riding is done on Class 4 roads (little or no seasonal
bars, I began researching the offerings from the various companies making after market protective products for the BMW singles. The company that stood out for me was Happy Trails, located in Boise, Idaho. Com- paring their skid plate to the competition, they had the features I was looking for at a very reasonable price. The HT skid plate pro- vides more engine pro- tection than the competition and has the most secure mount- ing system of any of the products that I have seen. I like the addi- tional protection that the “wings” of the skid plate provide, as they wrap around the lower engine. What is turning out to be one of my favorite features is that the skid plate is pre- drilled so that the oil drain plug can be removed with the skid plate in place.
maintenance), logging roads through the forest, and rocky woods trails. The BMW engine protection bars, by design, do not readily slide over obstacles like large rocks the way the smooth surface of a skid plate does. I have gotten caught up on sharp rocks a number of times because of the bars and fallen as a result. The engine protection bars also reduce the ground clearance of the motorcycle by one inch, which has always bothered me. One of the reasons I bought a Dakar was because of the additional ground clearance it provides compared to the “stan- dard” F 650 GS single. When I decided that it was time to make a change from the BMW engine protection
In addition to the HT Skid Plate, I
replaced the TT Fairing Protection Bars with the Happy Trails Nerf Bars “engine guard system.” I was never happy with the TT fairing protection bars; they are just too small and flexible to provide real protection for the fairing. According to HT, the Nerf Bar system “provides the highest level of protection to keep the bike off ground.” Out of the box, the Happy Trails Skid
Plate and Nerf Bars impress with their qual- ity of construction, craftsmanship and attention to detail. They are obviously a quality product with no shortcuts taken in manufacturing and finish. These are meant to provide serious protection. Installation
member tested
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