[Redlinez]

The box came damaged some, but luckily the guard was fine. Impressed with quality. No longer rollin naked!

 

[aztrex08]

Mine came with the damaged box as well. The guard was not damaged. It is a nice unit. I put it on when I did the oil change since the fairing would already be removed.

 

[breadfan]

Looking at the guard, a good 20-25% of the area is material and the less is pass-through, so to speak. Is the extra protection worth the reduced airflow? I had many bikes with such radiators, ridden over 100k miles altogether and not once did anything happen to any of my radiators. And I tour the bikes, all over EU, every year, not just the fancy roads either. Is it worth the investment and loss of cooling?

 

[Redlinez]

Several of my buddies riding in groups at “spirited” paces have had rocks fly off the wheel from the guy in front of them and puncture their radiator. JB Weld is carried by all of us.

 

[breadfan]

Several of my buddies riding in groups at “spirited” paces have had rocks fly off the wheel from the guy in front of them and puncture their radiator. JB Weld is carried by all of us.

So it is worth it to you, but not to me. And now that I said that, I'm pretty sure I will catch a rock in my radiator tomorrow

 

[aztrex08]

My last bike got a rock in the radiator before its first oil change. I vowed to not let that happen again. As far as temps go, I live in Arizona and have had zero issues.

 

[Redlinez]

And I never just sit around idling.

 

[LanghamP]

Looking at the guard, a good 20-25% of the area is material and the less is pass-through, so to speak. Is the extra protection worth the reduced airflow? Is it worth the investment and loss of cooling?

I've had my radiator holed, and holed another person's radiator, so it does happen especially if you ride occasionally with others. I do think the radiator guard is just to stop the biggest rocks (and maybe large insects?) as smaller rocks wouldn't penetrate your radiator anyway. If you don't ever ride with others then you are unlikely to ever need it.

 

[Scrubby13]

I was on the fence about a radiator guard until I took a look at my old bike; it's only got cosmetic damage but there's a surprising amount of it. Figured the fact that one of those impacts hadn't led to real damage was just luck at this point.

 

[Kat man Dan]

I've fitted all my bikes with radiator guards/ crash bobbins. Each to their own, but I'd rather prevent an issue than have to repair or replace costly parts. I've tried other brands but evotech has been by far the best fit and quality. Had other friends bikes with damage to radiators.

 

[Supercharger]

I bought my bike in 2016 and the first thing I did was the evotech rad guard for both protection and the color. Bare aluminum rad gets nasty looking fast. Still, it started leaking from the center of the cooling area last summer....so it's not 100% insurance but its well worth it. As far as airflow it has zero impact. There are a lot of holes and there is a good 1/8in gap between the guard and rad for air to enter as well.

 

[ccanty1975]

The box came damaged some, but luckily the guard was fine. Impressed with quality. No longer rollin naked! View attachment 50558

I just looked at my radiator after just 2000kms and it has a couple of reasonable sized dents in the fins. Our roads here in NZ are littered with gravel of all sizes due to constant roadworks, so fitting a guard is now a priority for me. Roads in Europe have far less rubbish and debris on them, so I guess YMMV - better to be safe than sorry.

 

[dekker]

Also consider extenders.

 

[871JZ]

Looking at the guard, a good 20-25% of the area is material and the less is pass-through, so to speak. Is the extra protection worth the reduced airflow? I had many bikes with such radiators, ridden over 100k miles altogether and not once did anything happen to any of my radiators. And I tour the bikes, all over EU, every year, not just the fancy roads either. Is it worth the investment and loss of cooling?

I purchased my GSX-S new and after only 1k miles or so, I was already noticing small impacts to the radiator from road debris. I wanted to add a radiator guard, but had the same concerns about it reducing the the amount of airflow making it to the radiator fins. I decided to try it since there's thousands of other guys running them without issue, so I ordered an Evotech guard. After several thousand miles, I've seen no difference in the effectiveness of the cooling system. Also, there's been no additional damage to the radiator, so it's definitely working as advertised.

 

[RAS]

Also consider extenders.
View attachment 50629
View attachment 50630

I put the front extension all all my bikes and the rear on my daily.