tharkun

All,

I have been observing what I think is a disturbing trend in SUMO racing with hand injuries that may/may-not be attributed to bark busters (bar protectors). I ride mostly mini-motard (really mini road race here) on asphalt kart tracks.

Last fall I had a lowside crash at fairly low speed (20-25mpg). I was in the process of releasing the bars from the low side but my left hand was still inside the bars when the bike was hit from behind and it flipped over me. I had all my fingers hyper extended (bent backwards) pulling and tearing numerous connective tissues. I have recovered but have low sided several times since and had my hand impeded by the bar on release. I extended my bark busters out farther w/ spacers & longer bolts, but still can get hung up.

I cared for one of our riders who had even more room between his bark busters and bars when he went down. He ground the top of his knuckle off though his glove. It was a low speed (15-20 mph) crash also w/ high quality RR gloves.

(note: I have over 30y ears as a Paramedic w/ extensive experience in trauma)

First race of season this year, a rider low sided in practice on his KTM SM and fractured his middle finger metacarpal (bone from the first knuckle to the beginning of the wrist bones). Prognosis is good, but again I saw the fall & knew his hand was toast as soon as I saw it get pinned between track and bark buster.

I wear full on road race gloves (Joe Rocket GPs or Helds) as do most of the riders in these cases. Others I have heard about who were riding with lighter or "sumo" type gloves have had injuries too, including wrist injuries.

We have had several other riders go down and suffer hand injuries that I believe were caused by the bark busters because hands were caught/pinned in the bark busters, or were delayed by the bar interfering with a rapid release of the bars.

I am beginning to think that there may be a flaw in the design of the current crop of bark busters we use or that they are serving only a partial protective function. Bark busters are a hold over from dirt bikes and do in fact serve some purpose on a Sumo or RR track, but the question I have is the current design actually protecting us from some injuries, while increasing the incidence of other types of injuries.


So a couple of question to you Sumo & mini RR riders (on dirt bikes running on tarmac tracks)

1) Have you suffered a hand injury while using bark busters?

2) Do you feel they contributed to the injury in any way?

3) Do you feel they prevented worse injury by their use?

3) Do any of you use spacers to increase room between bars and bark busters?

4) Do you remove the plastic guards and ride with the bars only?

Even though most of this is anecdotal, I think that we may be incurring injuries because of a potential design flaw that may be trapping the hand, where it otherwise would be released.

I am looking a designing a different type of guard and am looking for any input you all might have or to just see what others have noticed in the world of SUMO.

v/r

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luvtolean

No WAY I'd use bark busters on a motard.

Woods riders risk smashing a hand into a tree (which hurts like hell without them) but they also know an over-the-bars crash can mean two broken wrists if they don't get their hands out in time.

Personally, I just ran Acerbis roost guards, which also will pinch your fingers, but are flexible enough not to injure you too much.

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Someone needs to present the facts and the physics rather than just the rhetoric. Poor old Carmelo doesn't understand the physics of a motorcycle. - Jerry Burgess, on spec tires and changing engine rules

G-ForceJunkie

I've been running bark busters on my dirt bikes for 21 years now and never injured my hands. Without a doubt they have prevented many serious injurys as they bounced off trees, rocks, and 3 head-on collisions with other bikes. I do agree they add an additional way to hurt your hands, but the question is does that possability overide the severaly situations they protect. On dirt bikes, its a definate yes. Your situation in Sumo...I don't know. I assume its to protect your hands and levers banging bars side by side?

seamus

Maybe the answer is to put a springed hinge that will allow the bark buster to rotate out away (or down as your hand comes up and out) from the handlebar but not towards it.

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