First off, I'll set some expectations. I only just installed the hand guards and have zero miles on the road with them, but...in the grand tradition of the Internet, I shall review them anyway!
The Flexx bars have been on the Tenere for darn near two years now - wow! I opted, when I installed them, to run the factory plastic hard guards - mistake. The Flexx bars are narrower overall than the factory bars, to that meant I needed to fab up some spacers to get the factory hand guards to work.
But once I was sorted I spent some quality time - on road and off road, getting a feel for the new bars. Now, to be generous, these handlebars are not inexpensive. At $359 before shipping or any accessories, you gotta really want them. I did - and frankly, I think they're worth every penny! I'm considering a set for my KTM 690 Enduro R as well!
What makes them special are those elastomer inserts that help absorb some of the bigger hits offroad. Onroad, the effect is entirely dependent on which set of elastomers you have installed. Installing different ones is a matter of a few minutes of work on the bike and you can go from stiff, to stiffer, to stiffest. I have the red units installed, and have since day one. They feel comfy, are easily stiff enough for day-to-day riding and really do work to take the edge off bigger hits offroad.
One thing you WILL notice is when you're moving the bike around - like in the garage or driveway. You will feel the handlebar move slightly and you'll swear they're loose, then you'll recall the bar ends are supposed to move just a little bit.
FasstCo makes a bend specific to the Tenere - they were early movers in making things specifically for our model. No need to overthink things - order the Tenere bend and you'll be just fine. This bend moves your hands further forward, reducing the "pinching" between your shoulder blades - big difference in comfort for me. I went form being able to ride for maybe 3 hours, to being able to pull 8 - 10 hour days. In fairness, the 1.5" Rox risers/offsets and Sargent seat help a bunch, too, to make my bike a day-long ride. But without the handlebars, I'd still have the pinched shoulder blades...
I've ridden gravel roads, double track with rock steps, babyheads and ruts and done hundreds of miles slogging on the freeways. These handlebars make riding better, help reduce fatigue (and thus increase safety) and help me maintain great control.
...so how do you make them better?
You get the proper damn hand guards! That's how! Since Gemma was stripped down waiting for her new parts to get rebuilt, I ordered the Simple Solution Hand guards from FasstCo to finally get some solid protection in place. Beyond the shipping being insanely fast from Utah - literally 3 days, I was faced with a box of parts, a receipt and mounting confusion about how the hell to assemble it all...
A quick look on the site gave me no instructions, so I stopped a moment to rethink this. Maybe it's so simple - as the name implies - that no instructions were needed?
Yup.
Two bolt types, each with an obvious location. Big, obvious spacers with only one location possible. So with a bit of blue Loctite and an allen wrench, I popped them into place in minutes. Well, that's not entirely true...as two of the three mounting holes were drilled in the plastic hand guards, but not the third. Hmmm...now I could have drilled the third hole, but I opted to heat a piece of metal and push it through, melting a perfect hole in each plastic hand guard cover as needed. Hey, what the heck else was I using my JetBoil for today?
On each end I opted to use an offset washer to create a smidge of space between the aluminum bar and the mount in the handlebar end. On the throttle side this was to ensure, as I tightened down the mounting bolt, I wasn't pinching the throttle and impeding it's motion. Tightened, installed, tested and fine.
Now, each plastic cover came with some boy-racer plastic decals already plastered on the fronts. Those took exactly 30 seconds a side to remove, leaving clean, black plastic. Nice.
I obviously haven't been able to ride with the new hand guards yet, but it's obvious that they offer less overall coverage than the factory units. Should be fine in my case as I have every pair of gloves ever manufactured for motorcycling in my garage (it seems), so getting comfortable shouldn't be an issue for me.
Still, with the solid aluminum backbone and ABS plastic cover, this should be a useful combo offroad to fend off branches and protect my hands when, not it, but when, I wipe out...
A thorough road test will need to wait a few weeks until the parts to rebuild the front end of my bike arrive and get mounted. Then I'll know if the new hand guards hit the windscreen or anything else. We'll see...
The big a$$ inserts that make mounting these to the Flexx bars stupid easy. The handle bars themselves are pre-threaded at the flex joint for these hand guards.
Backside of the plastic covers. Easy to mount once you've added the third hole - or go with just the two provided, as it'll still keep things solid.
One final note:
The Flexx bars do not come threaded at the bar ends. I bought the threading tool when I bought the bars and threaded them when they were first mounted. Regardless, when you purchase the Simple Solution Hand Guards, you'll get a threading tool, the bar end insert and all the nuts and bolts needed. Nice touch.
The Flexx bars have been on the Tenere for darn near two years now - wow! I opted, when I installed them, to run the factory plastic hard guards - mistake. The Flexx bars are narrower overall than the factory bars, to that meant I needed to fab up some spacers to get the factory hand guards to work.
But once I was sorted I spent some quality time - on road and off road, getting a feel for the new bars. Now, to be generous, these handlebars are not inexpensive. At $359 before shipping or any accessories, you gotta really want them. I did - and frankly, I think they're worth every penny! I'm considering a set for my KTM 690 Enduro R as well!
What makes them special are those elastomer inserts that help absorb some of the bigger hits offroad. Onroad, the effect is entirely dependent on which set of elastomers you have installed. Installing different ones is a matter of a few minutes of work on the bike and you can go from stiff, to stiffer, to stiffest. I have the red units installed, and have since day one. They feel comfy, are easily stiff enough for day-to-day riding and really do work to take the edge off bigger hits offroad.
One thing you WILL notice is when you're moving the bike around - like in the garage or driveway. You will feel the handlebar move slightly and you'll swear they're loose, then you'll recall the bar ends are supposed to move just a little bit.
FasstCo makes a bend specific to the Tenere - they were early movers in making things specifically for our model. No need to overthink things - order the Tenere bend and you'll be just fine. This bend moves your hands further forward, reducing the "pinching" between your shoulder blades - big difference in comfort for me. I went form being able to ride for maybe 3 hours, to being able to pull 8 - 10 hour days. In fairness, the 1.5" Rox risers/offsets and Sargent seat help a bunch, too, to make my bike a day-long ride. But without the handlebars, I'd still have the pinched shoulder blades...
I've ridden gravel roads, double track with rock steps, babyheads and ruts and done hundreds of miles slogging on the freeways. These handlebars make riding better, help reduce fatigue (and thus increase safety) and help me maintain great control.
...so how do you make them better?
You get the proper damn hand guards! That's how! Since Gemma was stripped down waiting for her new parts to get rebuilt, I ordered the Simple Solution Hand guards from FasstCo to finally get some solid protection in place. Beyond the shipping being insanely fast from Utah - literally 3 days, I was faced with a box of parts, a receipt and mounting confusion about how the hell to assemble it all...
A quick look on the site gave me no instructions, so I stopped a moment to rethink this. Maybe it's so simple - as the name implies - that no instructions were needed?
Yup.
Two bolt types, each with an obvious location. Big, obvious spacers with only one location possible. So with a bit of blue Loctite and an allen wrench, I popped them into place in minutes. Well, that's not entirely true...as two of the three mounting holes were drilled in the plastic hand guards, but not the third. Hmmm...now I could have drilled the third hole, but I opted to heat a piece of metal and push it through, melting a perfect hole in each plastic hand guard cover as needed. Hey, what the heck else was I using my JetBoil for today?
On each end I opted to use an offset washer to create a smidge of space between the aluminum bar and the mount in the handlebar end. On the throttle side this was to ensure, as I tightened down the mounting bolt, I wasn't pinching the throttle and impeding it's motion. Tightened, installed, tested and fine.
Now, each plastic cover came with some boy-racer plastic decals already plastered on the fronts. Those took exactly 30 seconds a side to remove, leaving clean, black plastic. Nice.
I obviously haven't been able to ride with the new hand guards yet, but it's obvious that they offer less overall coverage than the factory units. Should be fine in my case as I have every pair of gloves ever manufactured for motorcycling in my garage (it seems), so getting comfortable shouldn't be an issue for me.
Still, with the solid aluminum backbone and ABS plastic cover, this should be a useful combo offroad to fend off branches and protect my hands when, not it, but when, I wipe out...
A thorough road test will need to wait a few weeks until the parts to rebuild the front end of my bike arrive and get mounted. Then I'll know if the new hand guards hit the windscreen or anything else. We'll see...
The big a$$ inserts that make mounting these to the Flexx bars stupid easy. The handle bars themselves are pre-threaded at the flex joint for these hand guards.
Backside of the plastic covers. Easy to mount once you've added the third hole - or go with just the two provided, as it'll still keep things solid.
One final note:
The Flexx bars do not come threaded at the bar ends. I bought the threading tool when I bought the bars and threaded them when they were first mounted. Regardless, when you purchase the Simple Solution Hand Guards, you'll get a threading tool, the bar end insert and all the nuts and bolts needed. Nice touch.
