SW-Motech Hand Guards
Sport or Adventure
The bigger decision on this shelf usually isn't which bike it's for. By our count, 34 bike groupings here carry both a Sport and an Adventure kit for the same model, so once fitment is settled there's often still a style to choose.
Sport mounts to the bar at a single point and keeps a slim shape that doesn't wrap the sides. SW-Motech build it for wind, cold and rain on the road. Adventure mounts at two points and closes fully around the sides, adding cover against stone chips and branches off-road.
| Sport | Adventure | |
|---|---|---|
| Mount | single-point | two-point |
| Shape | slim, open sides | closed, wraps the sides |
| Built for | wind, cold and rain on the road | road use, plus stone chips and branches off-road |
| Extension set | for Sport shells only | for Adventure shells only |
Kobra and Bbstorm are their own systems
Kobra and Bbstorm sit apart from the Sport and Adventure range, with a different bracket design. SW-Motech are explicit that the two don't cross over: the standard aluminium bracket used on Sport and Adventure "is not compatible with KOBRA or BBSTORM handguard shells." A cracked shell or a bent bracket has to be replaced with its own matching system. No swapping between them. We stock two Kobra kits, built around their own aluminium bar, and three Bbstorm kits, whose large shells SW-Motech pitch at all-weather riding.
Fitment across nineteen marques
The filter on this page does the real work. Pick a make and model and it shows only what's confirmed for it. Triumph, BMW, Yamaha and Honda carry the most kits between them, with Ducati, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki, Royal Enfield and Moto Guzzi also well represented. Harley-Davidson isn't part of this range.
A handful of kits are titled Multi-Fit instead of to a named bike. These fit the handlebar's own internal thread, 6mm or 8mm, not a bracket cut for one model. They're the ones to check if your bike isn't listed under its own name.
What a kit doesn't include
Sport and Adventure shells are also sold on their own, with no mounting kit, for anyone whose bracket survived a drop but the shell didn't. SW-Motech say so plainly on the shell listing itself: "does not include mounting kit." There are two extension sets, and each fits only its own shell. SW-Motech's page for the Adventure one rules out Sport, Kobra and Bbstorm shells in the same sentence. The Sport one is listed for existing Sport shells only.
Fitting either kit starts with taking the bike's own bar-end weight off. The guard's hardware goes on in its place. Some owners report the factory weight is stuck fast when they get to it. SW-Motech say neither kit needs special tools to fit.
Anyone running a bar-end mirror should check it against Kobra's own weight before ordering one. US owners have reported for several years that theirs, at around 35mm across, is too wide for mirrors built to clamp up to about 30mm. Check the clamp range on any bar-end mirror before pairing the two. One UK buyer's review also noted a guard's bar-end mount didn't clear a raised aftermarket screen on their bike. That's a single report, but worth checking if your screen sits higher than standard.
None of this is impact protection for the rider. A hand guard's job is the lever behind it, not the person holding it.
Wind, and where it stops helping
Guards cut a lot of wind, but not all of it. UK riders who use them through winter say the air curls back over the top and bottom of the shell, so a guard alone won't fully keep hands warm in the cold. The common UK fix is fitting muffs, or bar mitts, over the guard, not instead of it. Two separate UK forum threads describe the same reasoning: the guard's frame holds the muff in place and stops the wind pushing it back onto the levers, which happens easily when a muff is worn on its own.
Every kit, shell and Multi-Fit guard here is for sale at 10% off RRP, with free UK delivery available. If the bike itself needs protecting as well as the levers, our crash bars and sliders cover the engine and frame instead.