ASK THE MXPERTS: KTM FORK GUARDS AND YOUR WALLET

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roost3Modern fork guards do a good job of warding off the ill effects of a massive roost from another bike—they just aren’t as good against a home-grown roost.

Dear MXA,
    I am always reading about MXA lamenting that KTM switched its fork guards from wrap-arounds to the more attractive open-style fork guards. I don’t get what you are going on about. The wrap-around guards were difficult to live with. You couldn’t take them off without taking the forks off the bike. They looked ugly. They weighed more. What’s the deal?

The MXA wrecking crew vastly preferred the old full-coverage wrap-around fork guards to the open ones, but when 4CS forks were spec’ed on the 2015-16 KTMs, the old fork guards were dropped. We admit that the wrap-around guards weren’t as attractive or as light as the new-style guards, but owners of pre-2015 KTMs who wanted open-style guards could just use Honda fork guards (which fit on the KTM bladder forks).

WEBforkguardswrapThe old-style, wrap-around, KTM/Husky fork guards have their pluses—looks isn’t one of them.

Open-style fork guards are not as protective as wrap-around guards. MXA test bikes with wrap-around guards rarely suffered a blown fork seal. As soon as KTM switched to the open-style fork guards, we started having to replace seals. Any fork guard will protect the front of the fork leg from roost and stone nicks, but virtually all modern fork seal leaks are caused by nicks to the back side of the fork leg. Modern seals are very good, but a small dent in the chrome plating of the fork leg will tear the fork seal and create a failure. Wrap-around fork guards extend fork seal life by stopping rock dings caused by debris being roosted from the rear.

WEBguardopenThe new-style, KTM/Husky fork guards look sleeker, are lighter and easier to remove, but they have one big minus—which comes out of your wallet.

We understand if you are skeptical of roost coming up from behind, but when your front tire sprays rocks, pebbles or grit rearward, it ricochets off the frame or gets thrown upward by the front spokes. These rocks are still traveling at enough speed to dent, nick or divot the back of the fork leg. When that protruding nick goes up into the fork seal, you will have hit bubbling crude, black gold, Texas tea, oil that is. Given that MXA has at least one of every motocross bike made in 2016, we have more experience with blown fork seals than anyone on the planet. We prefer wrap-around fork guards…and that is why we lament that they don’t fit on the 4CS forks.

SUBSCRIBEINTERNAL

 

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