A lot of riders argue whether having hand guards on their bike is a good idea or not but in reality, it all depends on what type of riding the rider is doing and whether the rider prefers hand guards or not. Whether it’s a track or in the woods, hand guards can save brake levers, clutch levers, and actually help prevent the fingers from being tore up or even broken during a crash.

Riders that ride in the woods are more likely to have hand guards. Hand guards can help eliminate the threat of falling over and breaking a lever or damaging the throttle components. Woods riders often tend to have a different type of hand guard called a “bark buster.” A bark buster is a metal bar that attaches to the handle bar just like a normal plastic hand guard. A bark buster can save the levers from being broke off if the rider were to ever hit a tree or possibly a rock. A bark buster can also save the fingers from getting injured. With the metal bar surrounding the levers and where the rider’s fingers would be placed, there is a decreased chance of harming any of the components mounted on the hand bar and the metal bar is a bit more reliable when hitting the ground hard. The rider doesn’t need to worry about the metal bar breaking. Woods riders often prefer bark busters over plastic hand guards for those few reasons.

Riders that ride on a motocross track usually don’t have any sort of hand guard on their bike. Motocross riders don’t seem to need the hand guards because a crash on a motocross track is normally affecting the whole bike so a broken lever would be the last thing to worry about. Motocross riders do to tend to use hand guards during muddy races. Instead of the rider having to deal with muddy grips, the rider will put a pair of hand guards on to deflect as much mud as possible.

It will never matter what type of riding the rider does, having hand guards or bark busters on the bike is all personal preference and the type of riding conditions. Hand guards and bark busters will help eliminate the risk of injuring the fingers or breaking a lever but anything can happen while riding a dirtbike.