Bashguards in general, dont see too many about, at trail centres etc

Specced a black e-13 on my new custome build – clever move or mistake?

need one on my full suss, as I ride like shit, can't remember the last time I bashed the big ring on a hard-tail though

i have a triple and bash on the hummer

Depends on your riding stlye and where you ride i guess. Judging by the chunks out of the bash guards on both of my bikes then i reckon they are a good thing. Also, i never really used the big ring anyway.

Lots of jey boys riding Cannuck Chase with them I always chuckle when I see them!!!

You know who you are 😀

Sorry, Nodrog rides stuff I'd be carrying my bike over, so maybe I could bash a bash-guard on a hardtail if I tried

I have an alu Race Face one with a double and it's properly dented to the point of being oval. I can still pedal fine, which means it's doing its job perfectly

Lol at Oxo 🙂

They're so cool I'm getting one for the road bike.

I use one as i wanted to ditch a lot of chain.
And i dont seem to use my big ring that much

I have teeth missing (off my outer crank, not my mouth) and i ride a hardtail, so i guess its a good thing if i get one for my FS

Cool. At least they look cool. Thinks I.

Postieritch- there are lots of folks on the chase with mahoosive full boingers and body armour too. It just goes to show that most mountain bikers are knobends 😀

single speed nichemongers are exempt from the above statement.

back to the original question – if you've hung up/smashed the sh*t out of the big ring then yep a bashguard is uselful. I don't personally think having a large chunk of heavy coloured plastic stuck to the chainset for the sake of it looks cool, more like a trouser guard for spazzas.

what's next? spokey dokeys or a playing card taped to the forks to make it sound like a motorbike.

cool and practical

I got one because it looked cool and it keeps my chain on
I'm considering taking it off because the stuff I ride in leafy Surrey isn't exactly rocky and it weighs a ton

I've just bought one, only bashed the big ring a few times, but I don't use it, and one scar on the back of my leg from the chain ring in an off is enough thanks, seen some really nasty photos of what they can do to flesh 😐

Cool, because I have one! 8)

Cool, because I have one! 8)

Well, it was a 42-tooth outer ring but as I never used it and it had bent teeth, 15 minutes on my bench grinder and Hey Presto, instant bashring. 😀

Sorry, duplicate post. Admin pse delete. 😳

I run a double/bash setup, and despite not being the Emperor of Gnar, there are a surprising number of dings on it that I assume would have meant bent teeth on a chainring. So for me, useful.

As far as heavy goes, a Turbocharger weighs barely more than an XT big ring- bashrings don't have to be heavy. But they're expensive, of course…

I'm running a double with no bash just now, works a charm… Just getting the extra ground clearance has made the difference I was after so no need for the bash as yet. And it's no real loss to me to lose the big ring. Cheaper than fitting a bash, and lighter of course. Surprised it's not more common.

Bash guards dont saw your leg off and they dont really weigh that much. If you ride XC and can stay on your bike you dont really need one though.

Nah, I just ding the big ring and then get the pliers out. Does that make me gnarcoretothepowerofsick or just lazy? 😉 🙄

I saw a bashguard at Afan last weekend. It was stuck to my bike. The reason why it was attached to my bike is that it was cheaper to buy a Stylo crankset from the Chain reaction flood sale last year than to replace worn chain rings. I wonder now why mountainbikes are not specced with one as standard, considering I never used the big ring on the last crankset. I'm sure not using the big ring makes me "ghey" in some hardman's eyes, but so be it. It probably weighs about the same as the useless appendage it replaced, and it actually has a purpose.

tazzymtb – Member
Postieritch- there are lots of folks on the chase with mahoosive full boingers and body armour too. It just goes to show that most mountain bikers are knobends

single speed nichemongers are exempt from the above statement.

So where does that leave me? I ride a Pitch around 'cannuck' including follow the dog and I use the same bike for the DH tracks with a fgull face and a bit of armour. I also have a steel ss ht that I ride around the chase including FtD but not the DH tracks.

Both have bash rings! am I a knob or am I exempt? 😕

Cool or fool, I couldn't care as I need one anyway, fashionable or not.

my bash rings stop my kecks getting ripped on the big ring when I use my bike to pop to the shops on and a couple of rides have seen me bending my big ring so I need a bash ring IMO

Also a large ring can do real leg damage in a tumble.

I wouldn't spec one on a new build if I wasn't sure of the merits / whether I needed one or not. Its not a case of them being 'cool' or not either… I got rid of mine because I very rarely used the outer ring and since I'm doing fewer HUGE rides on my 4X and more shorter, techy, steep stuff rides the bash was a sensible choice.

Fit one if you need one, otherwise its just a fashionable trouser guard. You don't daub yourself in body armour and a full facer to ride gnarly trail centres do you as well?

"just a fashionable trouser guard"

😳 I have an E13 one from the CRC flood sale on my 'take the kids to school' singlespeed bike for just that reason.

**** it against a curb or something on the way and it'll have been worth it. At least you seemingly thought about speccing it on your bike and what it could be used for – seems the OP got drawn in by sales hype and doesn't even know whether about why you would use one.

mine has enouygh scars to justify its presence, both on ht and fs. FWIW the e13 one weighs more than most, get a straitline or similar and save 1/4lb.

I currently have a fairly lightweight metal one on mine. It gets bashed and dinged but I just bend it back to being nearly true. Advantages are that I get more clearance, a 44T ring was always getting caught in some areas I ride (not all – I cannot afford a different bike for when I decide to ride less technical areas). I can run a shorter chain and I also dont get teeth cuts in my calf.
The disadvantage is that I am slightly undergeared. However, I always found a 44T too much for my trail bike and ideally I want something like a 39T or 40T outer but cannot find one.

Those E13 ones weight a tonne. I had one but sold it as I saw no point in having something so heavy unless you are deliberately hitting it to do slides and grindes or for get over bigger obstacles that you cannot hop.

After the last thread about this I had a look through a couple of my ancient "Learn to Ride Mountain Bikes" books. One, by William Nealy (sp?) is illustrated with a series of rather annoying cartoons and confidently assumes that raybans and converse sneakers are the absolute height of cool and canti brakes and thumbshifters are the apex of technological attainment. Can't recall when it was published – mid-90s at the latest.

It reckons that if you're riding over a big log, you shift the chain onto the middle ring, whack the big ring into the log as far up as you can get it and use a half pedal stroke to ratchet the bike over the top of the log.

Maybe it's all utter bollocks and no-one really deliberately did this, don't know. I guess 7/8 speed chainrings were rather thicker than 9-speed and perhaps didn't bend as easily as well. But I certainly do remember people taking the pliers to chainrings with bent teeth.

None of this is to say that bashes aren't useful, or that anyone needs a big ring, and some people are clearly more 'core now than anyone was in the early 90s. To say that something is "fashionable" isn't necessarily a bad thing, and doesn't reflect badly on the person using it necessarily. 🙂

Postie- noted.

22/36 no bash here, decided I didn't really need a bash just got a tough blackspire 36 ring and that is ok with any small knocks

Bashguards are a helpful innovation. I don't know why more trail bikes don't come with them.

Bashguards are as essential as 700mm+ riser bars, stubby stems, at least 200mm disc rotors and gravity dropper style seatposts.

You just can't ride without at least 4 out of 5 of the above.

I ain't got any 🙁

bashguards shouldn't really be needed at all running a 36T ring (unless you ride trials or DH) IMO. a guide plate however is very important to keep the chain from falling off the outside if you plan on riding anything even vaguely rough quickly.

got a 22/36 set-up on my hardtail with a skinny superlight BBG 32T bash on as a guide ring, it physically can't hit anything as the diameter is a few mm less than the chainring teeth. never drops a chain tho.

Bashrings on my DH bikes (3) all take a battering tho (v.low BB race bikes) bent a fair few alloy bashguards and cracked an E13 in half.

I took the big ring off because:
It was making a mess of my leg.
teeth were ground off.
I hardly used it.

However, I've not replaced it with a bash guard, don't see the point apart from on a low BB DH bike. There's so much clearance now, I'm unlikely to ever bash the chainrings. I don't really care that it looks a bit crap, it works.

I got one on my toy bike because I kept bashing my outer chain ring (mainly when messing doing local street riding). It has taken a few knocks so has proved useful. My bike does have a pretty low BB though (Blur 4X).

Meant to get one to fit in place of my outer chainring in Spain last yr. Scraped the chainring a few times, so will make more effort to get one sorted next time I go. Really don't need the big ring, there.

Just means I won't be worrying about clattering into things, that i probably would do if I didn't have the bashguard on.