RE compact engine guards on the Scram: my impressions after a week and counting

[Ike208]

Too late to edit my above post but I found them on wachuko's bike after doing some forum mining. They are Givi. Nice bars!

Actually, the price on Hitchcock's is WAY better than what is in the Givi site! Hitchcock's says you can change the filter with bars in place but man, it still looks tight...

Ah, I also like that I don't have to place the (ugly, IMO) Givi-branded slider pads if I don't want.

@wachuko : how's the filter access?

 

[iowa al]

I have the Givi bars on my Hima. Filter is not bad. The crank cover is a little tight. Turning the engine over with the crank bolt is very tight, but doable.

 

[2LZ]

@wachuko : how's the filter access?

Unfortunately, we haven't seen wachuko around for quite a while. Hope everything is ok......

 

[Woodstock]

Unfortunately, we haven't seen wachuko around for quite a while. Hope everything is ok......

Ditto. He always said something relevant and seems a fun guy.

 

[Alan F.]

Actually I commented on one of his youtube videos the other day and he was quick to reply, so might just be busy.

I've got 2 local Craigslist ads for Givi bars from a Himalayan, I'll post links in the appropriate section if anyone might be interested.

Listed in the bike's & parts section
NOT MY AD $100
https://www.royalenfieldowners.com/index.php?threads/givi-crash-bars-for-himalayan-found-on-craigslist-nh.6636/

 

[Alan F.]

https://youtube.com/@Wachuko-1?si=rYpFlEmsGjI1bjoE

 

[Dave.H]

Just fitted a pair of compact engine protection bars. After reading the woes of some members faced fitting said bars decided to by cheap and get my mate Derek who can bend stuff and weld and paint to help make them fit. So bought a set for £31 off eBay, when they arrived they were in a Royal Enfield box with a Royal Enfield receipt and fitted with out any problems. Happy days

 

[BKSCRAMbler]

I ordered a set of the RE compact engine guards from a source on EBay, and installed them after completing my first service. What arrived appeared to be genuine RE product based on the shipping box, build quality, and fitment all being what I expected from RE (that is, good enough but not spectacular). The only thing that made me give it the raised eyebrow was the lack of instructions. On one hand installation should be straight-forward, but on the other hand RE usually does a good job of including instructions for even simple stuff.

I couldn't find any videos on YouTube for mounting these on a Scram, but did find a couple videos about this and similar products on Himalayans and that was enough to get the job done. The upper mounting points on each side go to engine mounts that are actually one long, shared bolt with its head on the left side and a nut on the right. Access to each side is complicated, on the left side the oil cooler lines get in the way and on the right the exhaust pipe obstructs access. Some videos mention this can be improved by loosening the exhaust manifold connection at the engine, but I didn't feel comfortable doing this. The shared bolt has to be driven completely out before the left side can be hung, and then the bolt is replaced to hang the right side. Fortunately, the engine is held by at least six other places (IIRC) so there was no sagging of the engine while the bolt was out.

Securing the lower end of each guard was relatively easy, although I had to use a longer bolt and add a handful of washers between the frame and guard on the right side lower end to keep it from coming into contact with the tailpipe. Once the guards were in place, the access to the upper mounting points that was difficult to begin with became positively devilish. The best solution I came up with is to use the appropriate socket wrench size on each side with long wobble extensions to help manage the difficult geometry of actually reaching the bolts, and this will be easiest with two people.

Now that they're mounted, I think they look very nice and provide the right combination of protection and looks I was going for. HOWEVER, the crying may not be over: as one of the pics shows below, the right guard covers the oil filter housing. For oil changes I think I'll be able to get the upper left filter housing bolt out but the longer bottom bolt will require loosening the guard's upper mounting point then completely removing the lower right mounting point to pivot the guard out of the way. Without doubt it will be easier than the original install but it's still going to be a pain in the neck, and will need done on every oil change.

I have the RE compact engine guards on my SCRAM and I just so happened to take a Maintenance 101 workshop this past Saturday and learned how to change my oil. I encountered the "same" issue but it wasn't that big a deal. You do need to loosen a lower bolt on the guard to be able to pull it back some to access that long bottom bolt you mentioned but that was about the extent of it. The tech I was working with sorted it out in pretty short order...

 

[wachuko]

Sorry folks... focus has been on taking care of my father-in-law. Looks like we are on his last few months , but we are giving him the best quality of life possible and keep him surrounded by loving friends and family.

Bike has not been out since my last post here.

Let me answer a few questions on the guard. Access to the filter is a bit more cumbersome, but there is no need to remove the bars to do oil changes. Same with turning the crank for valve adjustments.

I am very happy with these crash bars. They are very solid and, even if it was on sand, they were great during that fall when I did my first try riding on loose sand. They also do not stick out much, which is another reason why I like them.

These bars and the SW-Motech under side cover are two of the best accessories I have installed on this bike.

So highly recommended over other options available.

 

[Woodstock]

Sorry folks... focus has been on taking care of my father-in-law. Looks like we are on his last few months , but we are giving him the best quality of life possible and keep him surrounded by loving friends and family.

Bike has not been out since my last post here.

Let me answer a few questions on the guard. Access to the filter is a bit more cumbersome, but there is no need to remove the bars to do oil changes. Same with turning the crank for valve adjustments.

I am very happy with these crash bars. They are very solid and, even if it was on sand, they were great during that fall when I did my first try riding on loose sand. They also do not stick out much, which is another reason why I like them.

These bars and the SW-Motech under side cover are two of the best accessories I have installed on this bike.

So highly recommended over other options available.

Thoughts and prayers dude.

 

[Ike208]

One last post, because no thread may ever die...

At the beginning of this thread, I noted that my biggest complaint about these bars was that I needed to completely remove the right side lower bolt, and loosen the upper right side bolt (which is difficult due to poor access to the upper bolts) whenever the oil needed changed. THIS TIME, I decided to see just how close I could get to getting all three oil filter cover bolts out without loosening anything. It turns out the upper bolts are manageable, and it's just the lower (longer) bolt that BARELY contacted the lower side of the crash bar. We're talking maybe a couple of millimeters of extra clearance is all it would take to get the bolt to clear the crash bar.

It got me thinking about the center stand install I'd just done, and the way they cut down the flange end of the large pins used to mount the center stand so that it can be done without dropping the exhaust. Eureka! Just a couple minutes of Dremmel work later, and I had the long oil filter cover bolt modified to the point it would pass the crash bar. All I had to do was grind off the flange on one side of the bolt down to the actual surface the 8mm socket mates with, but didn't need to actually grind that mating surface to make it work so I'm not worried about rounding the bolt head in the future.

One thing others have noted is that there's a bit of variation in exactly how these bars fit each other's bikes, ya gotta love that RE engineering. BUT, if you find your setup is a similar "near miss" here's a way to get around having to remove/loosen any crash bar bolts for an oil change.