Outback motortek protection combo instal and thoughts

Johnwesley

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Aug 2, 2020
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233
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Mena, Ar
Got my outback motortek protection combo in the mail today. Decided I needed a half day off of work and install it.





One thing of note is the kit doesn’t come with a radiator lower mount. The radiator moves around easily without it so I fabbed one up which was easily done. Just flat bar bent with a hole drilled to mount to the crash bar and a large hole for the rubber radiator mount. In the pic below you can see it.




Other than that it’s a fairly well built kit. The bends have wrinkles like what happens in a exhaust pipe bender. The mounts on it work well, but I did have to apply some force to get the holes lined up on the left crash bar. The skid plate was easy to install just leave everything really loose and the bolts were easy to start with the exception of the last one. Even that didn’t take much force to align it. I will say the powder coat is not a smooth finish its gritty like sand paper. Almost like that traction paint. Over all I like the looks and it is a very beefy setup. I bought it for protection and I believe it will do a great job at that. For $535 for the complete setup is hard to beat.



 

JTS603

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Oct 29, 2020
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Massachussetts
I just got mine but haven’t installed it yet. So, after the installation, the radiator isn’t attached at the bottom? I can’t really tell from the pictures the exact issue.
 

bimota

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bridgend, Wales, UK
I just got mine but haven’t installed it yet. So, after the installation, the radiator isn’t attached at the bottom? I can’t really tell from the pictures the exact issue.
jts603,

have you got at the moment the standard little black plastic crash protector in stalled, if so the one on the left side, radiator side has a little cup in it so the botton edge of the radiator sits with a rubber grommet in that cup, so its supported, if you take that protector off the radiator is not supported on that bottom edge so its loose, the crash bars the op has fitted has not taken this into consideration,
below is a picture of the crash bar protector that yamaha fitted you can see the round circle that the rad sits in on the left for support.IMG_20200717_142215997_HDR.jpg
 

Kelvinator

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Dec 22, 2020
Messages
15
Location
So Cal
I've been curious about this setup. I just bought a 2017 that came with the OEM skid plate which I know is mostly just a gravel guard. How does the Outback plate look as far as removing for oil changes?

Sent from my SM-P610 using Tapatalk
 

Johnwesley

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Joined
Aug 2, 2020
Messages
233
Location
Mena, Ar
I've been curious about this setup. I just bought a 2017 that came with the OEM skid plate which I know is mostly just a gravel guard. How does the Outback plate look as far as removing for oil changes?

Sent from my SM-P610 using Tapatalk
I’m not sure on this but worse case is removing 7 bolts 4 of which are very easy since they are on the front of the plate easy to get to. My hope is I can leave two bolts in the back and rotate the back portion enough to get the oil filter off. Truthfully that only saves one bolt though. So two bolts that will be the more difficult ones are the two that holds the left side peg mount on. Depending on how picky you are about oil on the skid the drain bolts are fairly accessible with the plate on.

Of course all of this is speculation since I haven’t done an oil change since putting the plate on.
 

Johnwesley

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Aug 2, 2020
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233
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Mena, Ar
One other thing of note the skid plate requires the crash bars to be able to mount
 
Last edited:

Scrambler007

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Feb 13, 2022
Messages
114
Location
Canada


One thing of note is the kit doesn’t come with a radiator lower mount. The radiator moves around easily without it so I fabbed one up which was easily done. Just flat bar bent with a hole drilled to mount to the crash bar and a large hole for the rubber radiator mount. In the pic below you can see it.
I should receive mine soon, would you have a picture of the bracket you made for the radiator? Thanks!
 

Scrambler007

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Feb 13, 2022
Messages
114
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Canada
It looks like the lower front mount goes to an aluminum ear on the engine case?
Based on a comment Outback made on their install video, they confirm that the lower portion of the radiator is floating and that they haven't seen any issues from anyone yet. I still think they should include a bracket for it, but the other option was Altriders which here would have cost me like 250$ more...already these crashbars aren't exactly cheap compared to the lower crashbars on my Africa Twin.
 

hulkss

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Feb 22, 2022
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Wisconsin
If the crash bars are attached to the engine (not the chassis) they could break that aluminum ear in a fall.
 

Scrambler007

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Feb 13, 2022
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Canada
+1 on the left side...I've been swearing non-stop for 45 minutes trying to get the holes aligned, I tried starting with the top bolt as per instructions, starting with the lower one, then the side ones, tried all combinations and nearly stripped a side bolt in the process. Can't say I'm too impressed with their quality control. I get that a bit of force might be required like on most crashbars...but here I'd either have to redrill one of the holes or hope if they send me another one that it fits better.

1647102089323.png

As for the wrinkles inside the bends, it's a bit strange, but once on the bike (at least in black nobody would notice. It does look like quite a solid piece of crashbars, but an installation that should have been super easy and fast turned out to be a wrestling session.

I'm so unlucky with these things. On my Africa the luggage rack from SW-Motech didn't fit, they sent me another one, still didn't fit. My friend ended up cutting, bending and welding for it to fit properly....

On my RNineT, the SW motech crash bars snapped while bike was parked...not even on a weld, there was a weak point in the metal and I guess with the vibration is just snapped while riding, at least they sent me another bar quickly.
 

Scrambler007

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Feb 13, 2022
Messages
114
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Canada
If anyone else is installing these, if you run in to the same problem, just file the one hole that doesn't want to align (after using all the flex and play in the crashbars). Now that they are installed quite happy with the kit, it feels very sturdy, it's just hard to believe companies ship parts like this to their customers...we're in 2022 and the bike was designed in 2010.

1647107548770.png
1647107557990.png
1647107567096.png
 

Scrambler007

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Joined
Feb 13, 2022
Messages
114
Location
Canada
If the crash bars are attached to the engine (not the chassis) they could break that aluminum ear in a fall.
Looks like it should do fine for the typical drop (the force is spread across 4 attachment points:

If bike is in a serious crash, the bike will be the least of my concerns and it will probably be totaled anyways :) Not having the crashbars though could damage the radiator in one small drop.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jun 23, 2021
Messages
37
Location
Quebec
Hello everyone !

i do get a white crash bar from motek
Got my outback motortek protection combo in the mail today. Decided I needed a half day off of work and install it.





One thing of note is the kit doesn’t come with a radiator lower mount. The radiator moves around easily without it so I fabbed one up which was easily done. Just flat bar bent with a hole drilled to mount to the crash bar and a large hole for the rubber radiator mount. In the pic below you can see it.




Other than that it’s a fairly well built kit. The bends have wrinkles like what happens in a exhaust pipe bender. The mounts on it work well, but I did have to apply some force to get the holes lined up on the left crash bar. The skid plate was easy to install just leave everything really loose and the bolts were easy to start with the exception of the last one. Even that didn’t take much force to align it. I will say the powder coat is not a smooth finish its gritty like sand paper. Almost like that traction paint. Over all I like the looks and it is a very beefy setup. I bought it for protection and I believe it will do a great job at that. For $535 for the complete setup is hard to beat.



hell there !
how do order a silver one !
they just sale black coated crashbar from ourback motortek ?
 

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