Highway Dirt Bikes – or, if you give a mouse a cookie

Highway Dirt Bikes – or, if you give a mouse a cookie

Is there anything wrong with the stock handlebars, clamps, grips, and mirrors? Not really, you get what you paid for. If the bike came with hand guards, I probably would have left well enough alone until I broke something and was compelled to upgrade. Curses! No hand guards. What’s a body to do?

Like a good forum flunky, I read post after post covering the wide array of hand guard offerings. There are some real bargains out there, or at least some low-price options. Do I go for the deal of the century, even the best compromise between price and quality? Nooo. Worse yet, if your give a mouse a cookie, you know what happens? Well he’ll get thirsty and want a glass of milk of course. My wife says I have expensive tastes. I say, if I had expensive tastes I would have bought a GS1200 Adventurer. Still, she says, you bought the best in class, and new from a dealer at that. But it’s about value, the best quality for the price. Well, sometimes it’s just about the best quality. Enter Highway Dirt Bikes.

I believe in hand guards. I believe I’m on my second set of Acerbis on the V-Strom. Had a nasty crash, broke the left side. Did they protect my hand you might ask? Nah, don’t believe I was holding on anymore at point of impact. I believe in good handlebars too. Had 1-mph fall over on the Strom, bent the stock bars. Not too much to ride mind you, but enough to realize that they wouldn’t take any abuse. Now that crash that crushed my hand guards didn’t begin to tweak my replacement Aero aluminum fat bars. Hmmm? Lesson learned perhaps. Well, sorry to say those weren’t the first dirt naps the DL650 has been subjected to. Those of you who’ve ever up righted a prone KLR from a gravel wash can attest to how it weighs twice as much when you can’t get a good footing. Just one little lean on the mirror and snap, busted the bracket that holds the front brake lever. This is going to be a fun ride home, oh no it’s not. Little things like that get your attention. And they add up. Like when you give a mouse a cookie, and then a glass of milk, he’ll get sleepy and want to take a nap. A bedtime story in the rocking chair to go with that milk, cookie, and nap would be nice.

Well sometimes it’s just about the best quality. I did my research and HDB is uncontested as the best you can get. The price isn’t outrageous either. Of course, if I’m getting those guards, I might as well get those trick folding mirrors that have to be an improvement over stock and won’t cost me a brake or clutch lever even if I shear them off. The hand guards only mount to HDB top clamps, which go with their lower clamps. If I’m getting new clamps, I might as well get those aluminum fat bars I like so much on my Wee Strom. After all, the stock bars are a little low when my 6-foot frame is standing on the pegs, so a taller set would be just right. The heated grips on that bike sure have come in handy (<--pun alert). If I’m putting on new bars, which of course require new grips, might as well install the heater elements at the same time. Heck, I’ve already installed an Eastern Beaver 3-circuit box just because I knew it would come in, don’t say it, handy. What are we up to here – mouse, cookie, glass of milk, bedtime story, nap in the rocking chair. In for a dime in for dollar, might as well give up the pillow and blanket too.

HDB is not a factory in China. It’s a little machine shop here in the USA, and they’ll work with you. There’s not a lot of real estate on the front of a WR250. When you want to mount a GPS, an electrical outlet for said GPS, or other 12-volt must have, and that switch for the grip heaters, where’s it going to go? On the custom HDB top clamp of course. I told the proprietor that I wanted a hole for a Powerlet outlet, and one just for the Symtec grip heater switch, and a really trick 1” RAM Mount Ball using one of the 4 top clamp bolts would be the bomb for holding any accessory I can think of. He did it all, and it is cool. 2 out 3 circuits used already.

So now that I’ve given the mouse the proverbial cookie, let’s just say, it’s sweet dreams. The hand guard plastics are already bushwhacked, glad I got ‘em. Standing on the pegs is no longer a bend-over affair. The mirrors are better than stock on the street and folded away for safe keeping in the dirt. I’m not worried about breaking the lever brackets off or bending the bars if it’s the R² taking the nap. If these hand guards ever break, it’ll be the least of my worries. The accessories are neatly in their place. And it’s one cool setup. Sweet dreams little mouse.

This top clamp is an upgrade unit that features extra material for mounting holes. The Symtec grip heater switch hole is custom order as is the RAM ball mount. The electrical socket hole fits Powerlet only. The bars are Pro Taper, Windham Mid Bend, platinum (color), bar dimensions are: width - 31.50", height - 3.90 ", pull back - 2.13". By general comparison, that's wide, high, and flat. The lower clamp is the taller 2 1/8" version. Cables are stretched to the limit. Narrower bars would give a little more cable slack, but I don't need or like narrow bars.



Before and After: The picture angles aren't identical, so the photo comparison is a bit skewed.

The HDB mirrors are only available with their hand guards. They simply won't work any other way. As you can see, they're smaller diameter than stock, but more convex, so the perceived field of vision is greater. Sticking out from the bars, they almost clear the elbows with my elbows-up and out riding posture. Up/down adjustments are done by the hand guards. The mirror "stalks" have a hinged elbow for in/out adjustment, not visible in these pictures.



The mirrors are "folded" in this shot. They don't literally fold in. They rotate inward using a ball and socket design, which is why they are proprietary to HDB hand guards. Totally clean.


My pictures were on here when I originally posted. Where'd they go? Edited to re-add pictures. The weird thing is, I couldn't see them in the preview, yet when I added one and previewed again, it was duplicated. So I added and deleted (the duplicate) for each picture. I'd prefer to see the raw HTML tags in edit mode.
Edited for pictures and technical details/descriptions.
Edited 8/9/10 to add the pictures again. The pictures are hosted on SmugMug, which works fine on every other forum I use. This forum is just buggy about image links.

Not sure what happened to the pics...I've had that happen to myself before and ended up doing it over. Nice writeup, tho.

Dude! turn signals?? Give a mouse a cookie and all.

+1 to both of the above.

Where's those pictures!?

Boondocker, do you have the pics hosted someplace or were you just trying to paste or attach them?

For anyone else interested in HDB topclamps and handguards, there are some pics and HDB info HERE.