Need Some Hand Guards

I have never been a fan of hand guards and have never had a need for them. Until Saturday, I was on a nice single track that I have been on maybe once or twice. I was going at a pretty good clip for me just enjoying life and then all of a sudden WACK!. I hit something and didn't even see it, but I sure felt it! I continue riding and get to a nice point to take a break and get some water and I notice my hand is starting to get numb. So I look down and see some Cactus needles sticking out. I take the glove off and I have one needle right in the cuticle of my left pinky finger. Now I have a previous injury to my left hand that has left me with no feeling in the tips of my ring finger and pinky finger. So this one wasn't to bad. I check myself over make sure I got them all and then put my glove on and continue riding. I ride for another half hour to 45 minutes and then start heading back to the truck.

About half way back to the truck the outside of my palm on my left hand starts to become numb and my wrist is starting to get tight and numb. I get back to the truck and I know I have some more cactus in my hand because of the numbness. For those of you that don't know cactus are poisonous and can cause some serious infection. So we get back to the truck and we get undressed and we get the bikes loaded and I snap this pic.

cactus.JPG

As you can see there is something in there and it is broke off flush with the skin. It is a little swollen as well. On the way back to the house the swelling started getting worse. you can see the out side of the finger there is a bump, I think the needle is trying to come out.

After about a half hour of "emergency surgery" on the counter at my in-laws house we got this out.

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here is another pic of needle.

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Note to self install hand guards...
 
Happens here with blackberry bushes. I used to run handguards, but really grew to hate them. Now I'm running asv's, I get the occasional thorns, but overall, its a better riding experience.
 

SRAD97750

Moderator
Staff member
Looks gnarly! Glad you got it out yourself. Nothing worse than paying a doctor to dig around in your flesh...

Brush guards may be a good idea! -BIG DAN
 
Im pretty sure my "bark" busters are "hand" busters. It least that is what happened to my hand when hitting a tree. I guess it may have saved my hand from worse damage, who knows for sure. Lever saver or hand saver? Sometimes neither.

I have the Acerbis metal ones. No complaints other then they broke my hand:smirk:

I saw some nice hand guards recently. They were the Cycra bars with the Zeta hand/bark guards on them. They had built in blinkers and were streamline looking. I'd like to have them on a new 690 or Duke:drool:
 
I use the cheap ones off ebay.. Like 35 bucks... There super small... I like them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-guards...Parts_Accessories&hash=item23222cfc9e&vxp=mtr

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Personally I like the metal guards like Cycra as they have saved my son's bike once when it fell off the trailer on the freeway and another save for my bike on a fast dirt tasting experience on a dirt road. With out the metal we would be looking at broken levers, grips and some more carnage.
 
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