Just added Barkbusters to the bike. If you are familiar with the KTM you’ll know they come stock with these nifty plastic wind deflectors and do well enough to shield your paws from the cold wind (and bugs).
The stock KTM wind deflectors
But that’s all they are, just a piece of plastic. I’ve always thought they could have done better. Better would be a thick aluminum bar protecting your knuckles from branches and such.
Barkbusters start with a wrap around piece of aluminum that is clamped to the bar in two places and then attach the plastic wind deflector part to it.
WHAT TO BUY:
For a KTM 950/990 Adventure with tapered bars you’ll need to buy
If you want something with color (like Orange) you’ll need to get…
INSTALLATION:
Start by pulling off the left side. The mounting is similar to the Barkbuster attachment so you’ll be better familiar with it all as you go.
Start by removing the allen at the end of your handlebars.
Next remove the other attachment point, the handlebar clamp.
With both out you’ll be able to slide the old units out and away from the bike.
Check the inside of your bar ends – is there a threaded hole? Is there an expansion nut? If you see the other end of the expansion nut you’ll want to remove that. My Renthal tapered bars had a threaded end on the left side.
looking in the Left bar end
Next, you’ll want to grab the correct barkbuster side. What you are looking for is the the dip down from the bar end, like this.
Notice the dip down from the bars?
Next start trying to figure out the best way to make these pieces work together. There are no instructions on the site or in the packaging. These clamps are marked L or R but that doesn’t preclude you from putting them on the bars one way or the other. The same thing for the dongle piece. Technically there’s 4 different options you can go with.
Having the bar attached to the bar end will help you decided where to start.
Barkbuster attached only to the bar end for now
The way it worked best for my bike was to go like this:
You want to make sure all of the attachment points are as close to flush as possible.
Don’t snug up the bolts just yet. You’ll want to do a little fine tuning once you have both sides done.
Once the left side is on, do the same thing on the right.
The right is going to be different. With the throttle side I also have a Kaoko Throttle Lock.
I removed the right side units and placed them aside. Looking in the bar end I noticed it’s different. I could see the other end of the throttle lock in there still.
I’m not sure if the bars come stock that way or if they were drilled out to accept the Kaoko unit. Either way, the expansion nut slipped out easily.
Once out I knew there was going to be a problem. The new bolts were the same length as the stock bolts.
Stock bolt on the left, Barkbuster bolt on the right
With the addition of the aluminum bar, there’s no way that I could get the Kaoko to work with the supplied bolts.
So for now I went with one of the supplied expansion bolts from Barkbuster and am going without the throttle lock for now.
Once you have both sides finger tight I would suggest putting the bike on the center stand (if you have one) and step out in font of the bike. Are both sides equal looking? You can easily move them so that they are. When you are happy with the alignment you can tighten them all down. I was wondering if I should use a little locktite on each of them. I’ll ride it for a bit and then check the bolts and see if they loosen up at all.
With the bars tight and aligned you can attach the plastic parts.
With the VPS model of deflectors you can adjust them to cover a little more of your hand (the black part) if you like. These are set that way.
VPS hand guards in the upper position
My pictures are not going to accurately show it but the orange of the hand guards is actually pretty close to the orange of the bike.
I think the setup looks pretty cool.
Plus, I’m better protected when we ride – and that’s always a good thing!
I’ll stop by the hardware store and get a longer bolt for the bar end so that I can use the Kaoko Throttle Lock and update this later. For now it feels good to have real protection up there instead of just that plastic. 🙂
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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