Best ADV Motorcycle Protection: Handguards, Radiator & Crash Bars (2026)

Here’s a pattern I’ve watched play out more than once: someone buys a new adventure bike, drops a small fortune on the biggest, shiniest crash bars they can find, and then snaps a clutch lever in a slow tip-over on a gravel car park — because they never spent forty quid on handguards.

Protecting an adventure bike isn’t about buying the most expensive part. It’s about spending in the right order: cheap, high-probability damage first, expensive and rare last. Get that order right and you’ll prevent the failures that actually end trips for a fraction of what people waste on the wrong thing. So before the picks, the order — and a couple of myths to put down.

Spend in This Order

The whole strategy fits in one idea: match how likely the damage is to how cheap it is to prevent.

1. Handguards. Cheapest fix for the most common damage — snapped levers and knocked hands in tip-overs and from trail brush. Always first.
2. Radiator guard. Next-cheapest insurance against a genuinely trip-ending failure: a stone through the radiator means a coolant leak and a dead bike, often somewhere with no phone signal.
3. Crash bars and skid plate. More money, bike-specific, protecting bigger but rarer hits — engine cases in a real off, the sump on a hidden rock.

Most people do this backwards, starting with the dramatic expensive part. Start at the top of that list instead and your money does far more work.

Two Myths to Put Down

“Handguards are handguards.” They’re not. Wrap-around guards bolt at two points — bar end and clamp — so they protect your levers and hands when the bike goes down; that two-point mount is the whole point. Open “flag” guards mount once, weigh less, deflect wind and brush, but won’t take a real impact. For mixed road-and-trail riding you want wrap-arounds with a stiff alloy backbone — just check you’ve got open bar ends to bolt them into.

“A radiator guard makes your bike overheat.” Mostly wrong, occasionally a little true. A cheap flat mesh jammed against the core can cost you a few degrees; a well-designed guard with angled louvres channels air and changes almost nothing. Set that against the alternative — one rock through the radiator ends the trip — and the maths is obvious. Don’t skip the guard; just buy a good one.

Protection Compared — Side by Side

1. Barkbusters VPS Handguards — Buy These First

If you buy one thing off this page, make it the Barkbusters VPS handguards. They’re the wrap-around standard that everyone else is measured against: a stiff alloy backbone bolting at the bar end and the clamp, with a replaceable VPS plastic guard on top. That two-point mount is what lets them actually save a lever and shield your hands in a tip-over or off a tree branch — the damage that otherwise ends a riding day or a trip.

Barkbusters sell fitment-specific kits (a 7/8” version, a tapered-bar version, plus model mounts), so check your bar size and grab the matching one — and make sure you’ve got open bar ends to bolt the backbone into. They’re not the cheapest guards out there, but they’re the ones I’d trust on a loaded bike a long way from a parts shop. Pair them with heated grips and they double as a wind block that keeps your hands warm.

Check Barkbusters VPS on Amazon →

2. Kemimoto Handguards — Best Budget Start

Not ready to spend Barkbusters money? The Kemimoto aluminium handguards get real protection on the bars for about the price of a lever they’ll save. They’re a universal 7/8” (22 mm) wrap-around with an aluminium backbone and stainless hardware — not as refined or as proven as the Barkbusters, but a genuine step up from bare bars or flimsy plastic flags.

For a commuter, a learner, or a second bike, they’re honestly enough. They block wind, deflect brush, and give your levers a fighting chance in a parking-lot drop. Spend the saving on a radiator guard instead — that’s a better use of the next forty quid than upgrading guards you’ll rarely test.

Check Kemimoto Handguards on Amazon →

3. Motorcycle Radiator Guard — The Cheap Trip-Saver

A radiator is the most fragile expensive thing on a modern bike, sitting right at the front waiting for a stone. The fix is a mesh guard over the core — trimmed to fit, zip-tied into place, no permanent modifications. Search for one made specifically for your model if one exists (Ténéré 700, GS, Himalayan and the bigger-selling bikes all have model-specific options) — those fit cleaner and look neater. If nothing model-specific is available, a universal mesh cut to size is fine.

Either way, the point is to own one. Remember the myth from earlier: a good guard barely affects cooling, while the rock it stops would have ended your trip. Of all the “might never need it” parts, this is the one I’d never skip on a bike that sees gravel.

Shop Motorcycle Radiator Guards on Amazon →

4. Crash Bars — Buy for Your Exact Model

Crash bars are where the honest advice diverges from the marketing. They genuinely earn their keep in the crashes that happen most — slow tip-overs, parking drops, low-speed off-road get-offs — shielding the engine cases, tank and bodywork. Their benefit fades at high speed, and there’s a long-running debate that cheap or badly-fitted bars can transfer loads into the frame or tank, or even change how a crash unfolds.

The conclusion to take from that debate isn’t “don’t fit bars” — it’s that fitment quality matters more than having bars at all. There is no good universal crash bar; buy a properly engineered set made for your exact bike and year (Ténéré 700, GS, Himalayan, 890 and so on) and mount it correctly. Use the link to find the set that fits your model rather than forcing a generic hoop onto the wrong mounts.

Find crash bars for your model →

5. Skid Plate — For Anything That Sees Rocks

The last piece of the core stack is the motorcycle skid plate — the tray under the engine that takes the hit when a hidden rock comes up to meet your sump or cases. On tarmac you’ll never need it; the first time you ground out on a trail, it’s the difference between a clang and a cracked engine case and a recovery truck.

Like crash bars, skid plates are model-specific — they bolt to your bike’s frame mounts and have to clear the exhaust and oil filter — so buy the one made for your machine rather than a universal tray. If your riding is mostly road with the occasional gravel detour, this can wait; if you genuinely go off-road loaded, it belongs in the core four alongside handguards and the radiator guard.

Check skid plates on Amazon →

How to Choose: A Quick Buying Guide

• Follow the order. Handguards → radiator guard → crash bars → skid plate. Cheap and likely first, expensive and rare last.
• Wrap-around handguards for mixed riding, flags only if you just want wind and brush deflection. Check you have open bar ends.
• Buy a quality radiator guard, not the cheapest mesh — a good one barely touches cooling and saves the trip.
• Crash bars and skid plates are model-specific. Fitment quality is everything; never force a universal part.
• Match it to your bike and riding. See how each part suits the Ténéré 700, Himalayan 450 or R 1300 GS, and read our off-road tips for loaded bikes for where the damage actually happens.

FAQ

The questions riders ask most — what to buy first, wrap-around vs flag handguards, the radiator-overheating myth, whether crash bars can do more harm than good, and how bars, sliders and skid plates differ — are answered in full at the top of this page.

The short version: spend in order. Handguards first (Barkbusters, or Kemimoto on a budget), a quality radiator guard next, then model-specific crash bars and a skid plate if your riding earns them. It’s the cheap parts, fitted early, that save the most bikes.

Prices and availability change constantly — the figures here are approximate guides, not live quotes. Check the current price through any link before buying.

Disclosure: Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy gear through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.