They are advertised as highway bars and called engine guards. There is roughly 3x difference in the price. Can anyone with "hands-on" provide some feedback on this topic.

 

The name is irrelevant. They are all designed to do the same thing. They protect the shiny bits if you drop the bike at slow speed or stationary. If you're lucky, then they might also help to protect the shiny bits if you drop at a reasonable speed. If you're very lucky, they might also help to protect your legs when you end up with the bike on top of you. But that's not what they are designed for, and so that's why they are no longer called "crash bars" by the manufacturers. They are more commonly called "engine guards" as that's their purpose.

Now, if they are also called "highway bars", then they probably have built-in highway pegs (foot pegs for stretching your legs out and finding more comfortable positions on longer rides). That doesn't necessarily mean that you'll find them comfortable though -- the Lindby ones make you feel like you're in a obgyn chair for instance.

I would expect that any decent brand is going to do its intended job well. But it might be worth searching around to see how they fair when dropped at speed to see which is likely to give you the most protection.

 

What Peg20 said. I have the Lindby Multi Bar and it has saved my "shiny bits" a couple of times. Both when in the driveway. The bike fell on the bar and kept it upright enough to keep anything else from hitting the ground.


The multi bar gives you an alternate position for highway riding. Kind of a knees up position but comfortable enough for a short time.


You can not count on the bar for protection in a crash, that's not what they are designed for.

 

I have the Lindby on my Heritage and like it. I just attached some highway pegs to it so I can kick my feet up while cruising and be comfortable. In the crash I was in 3 weeks ago (see other thread in this forum), the bar helped protect my leg and engine from damage. Speed at impact was probably no more than 30/35 mph but I wasn't really looking at the speedo at impact.

I can't really compare to Jardine because I'm not familiar with it, but I like the Lindby and will put another one on my Heritage as it gets repaired from the crash.

 

Lindby's are more expensive but not 3x !! Anyway, its about style and finish I expect, the sharp cornered Lindby models are probably more expensive to produce than bars that are simply bent into shape. "I'm Guessing". I put Lindby's on my Breakout. They were very easy to install and IMHO look terrific.