Tiger Sport Tiger 900 Gt Pro Question

Hi and welcome to the forum
I think there have been issues with Triumph upper crash bars causing more damage than they prevent.
My lower ones are Hepco and Becker

 

Hi have the lower engine bars which seem of good quality, it's just a pity the silver colour does not match the frame of the bike.

 

I don't have them on mine, partly because I haven't heard a single good word about them. I had a set of HEED Bunker bars on my 800, which were excellent.

 

This was on the Tiger 900 Facebook page last week.
Apparently the factory upper bars bend into the tank if you drop the bike.

 

Absolutely avoid the Outback Motorteck bars. I have them and like many others, I had a bolt break on the upper engine / frame mounting point. Look at ADV rider or the Triumphrat forum for many stories of OM issues. Hepco even worse, from the reports.

Note that OM bars are well regarded for other bikes, but I would absolutely avoid them on the Tiger 900 series bikes. I kept the OM lower bars, and the skid plate, but removed the uppers. I'm going to add the Puig uppers as they attach differently.

 

One critical thing to watch out for is bars that attache to the little subframe under the beak. The OEM bars do that, as do H & B. This is a very weak element (in terms of crash impacts) and is easily broken.

There are few reports of problems with the SW Motech bars, and at least one other member on the other site has the Akurat system. It is expensive but seems robust.

We haven't seen much commentary on the Heed bars.

Again, the Outback Mototeck bars may be excellent for other bikes but there seems to be a real issue with the mounting at the front of the engine, above the radiator. Some feel that it interferes with an intended flexibility of the frame. Could be, but that is way beyond me. I do know that when I went to my dealer for an annual service, I told them that I had pulled the OM upper bars. He smiled and said, 'thank you for doing that'. And I don't think he meant I was saving them time; it is my opinion that he was acknowledging the bolt and frame breakage issue. My impression only.

BTW, one final bitch about OM; more than one of us has had dismal support and response behaviour from the owner of the company, ranging from blaming the rider, blaming the installation, drastically minimizing the cost and time to remove a broken mounting bolt, to plain old radio silence. That is as disappointing as anything.

As I say, I'm a spectator more than any sort of expert, but I am one of the crowd who has had the problems on my bike.

Cheers

 

Has anyone tried T Rex racing bars?

https://www.t-rex-racing.com/Tiger-850-Sport-Tiger-900-Top-Engine-Guards-p/n12-9eg-top.htm

Just curious if these would be better than those already listed. I watched the video and they don't seem to attach to the frame under the beak. Looks like they use a bracket and attach lower on the frame near the engine.

 

Hi Brad,
Look at that video. At 1:10, they show the attachment to the upper cylinder and frame mounting point: that is the key location for bolt breakage.

Personally, the T Rex bars for the Tiger are an absolute no-go for this reason alone. IMHO, of course.

 

Ok. I just didn't know if the other bars using this mounting point to directly attach the bars to and these only attaching a bracket for the bar to mount at a lower point would change anything.

Are there any bars that will prevent damage to the tank area of the bike without placing the engine mount bolts in jeopardy?

 

I think there are two options. Akurat bars and skid plate, which come from Costa Rica have been getting very positive comments from a few owners on TRat. They are fairly costly, depending on where you live, but seem well designed.

I'm now using Puig upper engine bars along with the Outback Motortech lower bars and skid plate. I have a friend here who also uses the Puig bars with his OEM lowers on his RP. Critically, they do not use the front engine/ upper frame forward mount. That one is the real problem point.

Puig bars product number is 20384N.

 

I had ordered Triumph lower, upper, and fog light relocation kit for my new 900 GT Pro. Stuff came into the dealership but I decided not to take them. Got a $609 refund.
Did a lot of research and decided the Triumph crash bars were prone to failure, overkill, a pain to install, and just plain ugly (silver only?). Went with the SW-Motech ‘mid’ bars. Just arrived and will install tomorrow. Black powder coat looks great. They feel very solid! I think they will provide the protection I need given I’m not doing overly aggressive off road riding. $317.95 delivered.