IF - big IF - You never are off nice flat pavement then the stock guard actually do surprisingly well. Lay your new bike on its side and it'll rest on those and the hand guards, not the side covers. There are a lot of owners with no added protection.
That said, te bike has two Achiles Heels to be aware of. One is the fragile sump plate that even throwing up a rock from a gravel road has broken. The other is the radiator on the left side of the bike. If the bike goes down on the left and things are not smooth, we've had a number of owners lock up the fan or push the fan into the radiator and create a leak.
The two mounting points for the stock guards are basically flat steel welded to the frame. You could simply use some spacers to hold the left guard out a bit farther, but it would increase the risk of bending these frame tabs. Or do like a lot of folks and get a light set of bars, such as the Happy Trail, Puig, or Givis.