VOLUME 57 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 20, 2020 P95
List Price: $136.80 (as tested)
Website: https://barkbusters.net/home/
S TANDOUT FEATURE
Durable design with great fitment
RIDER AN ALYSIS
The Barkbusters website allows
you to select the various options
for your specific bike (or universal
options that will fit many bikes). For
the Africa Twin, they have one full
wrap-around aluminum guard that
uses the threaded inserts in the
stock handlebars. From there, you
can select one of several options of
plastic guards to suit your desired
amount of coverage. Barkbuster
also offers a carbon fiber model.
For this review, we went with their
VPS (Variable Protection System),
with plastic handguard, option for
our Honda Africa Twin.
Installing the Barkbusters was
easy due to great instructions and
LOWDOWN
nearly perfect fitment. The plastic
VPS deflectors mount up to the
guards with course screws that
thread directly into the alumi-
num. At first, we were somewhat
skeptical that this mounting
method would hold up but they
have proven to be very strong. The
plastic deflectors also include an
optional short extension for added
wind coverage.
The stock Africa Twin hand-
guards broke the first time the
handlebars hit the ground and we
are happy to report that the Bark-
busters can take a lot of abuse.
We have yet to break ours. CN
•THE PLASTIC GUARDS WILL NOT
HOLD UP TO A LOT OF ABUSE BUT
AT $36.90 THEY ARE RELATIVELY
INEXPENSIVE TO REPLACE.
•DURABLE ALUMINUM GUARDS
THAT WILL HOLD UP DURING TIP
OVERS, EVEN ON A BIG ADV BIKE
•GREAT FITMENT WITH CUSTOM
OPTIONS FOR MANY POPULAR
MOTORCYCLES
TWO-POINT
HANDGUARDS
Our Barkbusters passed the first test
with flying colors—they bolted right
up to our Africa Twin! No hassles.
(Left) This is the VPS system that
we installed on our Honda Africa
Twin. We went with the two-point-
mounting system with plastic hand-
guard and wind deflectors.
