Fitting KTM handguards to a MK I FZS Fazer 600

My daily commute covers a fraction less than 100 miles a day. Now that winter is here with a vengeance and despite brand new lined gortex clothing, my hands have suffered even when wearing the highly rated Heine Gericke Panthans.

I have a MK 1 Fazer and clearly they don't come with handguards. Poking around the Fazer Owners Forum (Unofficial) or FOC-U as it's know, I came across a thread suggesting handguards as a winter upgrade. On the strength of that I went and ordered in a set of KTM handguards from Trevor Pope - £36 delivered.

A quick test fit revealed the first issue -I have dual-line braided brake hoses - i.e. Double banjo bolts on the handlebar reservoir instead of the OEM single one and the extra length fouled the right handguard.

The set comes with a liner for the handle bars and M8 allen bolts. The fazer already has liners fitted and they are M6. Additionally, the M6 allen bolts that hold on the bar end weights weren't long enough once the handguards were fitted, so I bought some 6mm bolts (50mm long) at B&Q and used my dremel with a diamond head (thanks Joker) to cut a slot for a screwdriver. The slot is needed as the bolt head fits inside the recess on the bar ends and obviously you can't get a spanner in there Doh!

The right hand bracket would not pass behind the brake lines without a ridiculous amount of bending; so I heat gunned the right handguard at the 'elbow' and bent it to a more acute angle to pass behind the double sized banjos at the rear of the brake reservoir.

The spacers supplied for the bar clamps are no use on the Fazer as they don't meet the handlebars at 90 degrees. I used some foam bicycle handlebar grips that were lying around in my shed. I simply cut out two 1" lengths and wrapped them around the bars where the brackets bolt on.

ISSUES

Both handguards foul inner fairing on full lock, they are about 1cm too deep.

Both levers touch the sides of the handguards during their last couple of centimetres travel, but not enough to stop them.

Both guards are a bit loose even with the handlebar clamp bolts fully done up.

PLAN

Ride to work tomorrow & see how things pan out.

Play with there positions and see if I can make them clear the fairing.

More surgery with heat gun to clear lever ends or possibly dremel out a slot?

Probably add a double layer of foam to stop them turning, they are fairly easy to twist ATM.

TEST RESULTS

First drama was the right handguard acted as a friction plate on the throttle. OK, the free cruise control was nice, but not being able to shut the throttle off was more excitement than I need on wet winter roads yesterday. Having the throttle effectively locked was nasty. The guards also gradually rotaded 'downhill' as it were. On the brighter side, they do keep pretty much all the wind off your hands so a big improvement there. It was -2 centigrade on the way in to work - 50 miles - and although my pinkies were cold, they were neither blue, painful or took more than a minute to warm up on arrival.

CHANGES

I went back to the bag of bits which came with the handguards and fitted the until now, unused metal spacer facing inwards - the wrong way round I am guessing, but hey, there's no instructions included. The thinking being, their conical shape will pushed against the thread inside the handlebar and keep them off the throttle & levers. I bolted this on, did it up and still had throttle sticking issues.

Mr Washer cured this, as a bonus, both levers now have 100% travel without touching the handguards at all.

Oh, here's the B&Q 6mm x 50mm bolt showing the slot I cut in it for the screwdriver. It happily fits inside the recess on the weight:

To reduce the turning of the guards when mounted issue, I removed the left side clamp first and added a second layer of handlebar foam. I found that two full sizes pieces was too much, and bolting it back up was difficult. By cutting an inch off the second layer I achieved a much better fit. Repeated on the right:

Here's a couple of fully bolted up shots including the most important one last...

Obviously I then cleaned the bike as she was filthy!

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Update:

Following my bike being knocked off it's stand in a car park' she gained new handlebars, fairing, tank, heated grips, scottoiler, indicators and so on. The garage also added a blob of weld to the lockstop so that the handguards no longer hit the fairing. They mounted them differntly to me and I bow down to their superior technical skills! Here's a couple of shots showing the new mountings. The first is the move to outside the bar weight, the second has the handguards going under the front brake lines (they went round the back before):