Haters gonna hate. Mockers gonna mock. But I love pinky protectors at this time of year.
- Brand: Crankbrothers
- Product: Guardian Universal Handguards
- Price: £49.99
- From:Crankbrothers
- Tested by: Benji for 1 month
Pros
- Sufficient protection vertically and horizontally
- Easy to swap between bikes, or remove/install as and when
- Excellent choice of material; stiff enough but usefully bendy
Cons
- £50 is still rather expensive
- People will mock you
You need to be confident to run handguards. Because pretty much everyone you know (and don’t know) will mock you for using them.
Let them mock. Enjoy your undamaged hands (especially if you prefer to ride glove-less). Enjoy riding faster – and safer – by not having to panic-avoid sidegrowth.
Not everyone may need handguards. If you ride wide and/or manicured trails, you’ll be fine without them. If you ride anywhere more ‘natural’ or narrow, you will understand the benefits of running handguards. Especially at this spring-into-summer time of the year. Brambles. Nettles. Carwash-style fern forests. Sapling branches. General undergrowth becoming overgrowth.
I don’t recommend handguard for protecting you against striking trees or rocks. Nothing helps there. Handguards are great for keeping your mitts from getting scratched, cut, stung or otherwise attacked by an exuberant Mother Nature.
My previous favourite handguards were the Revgrips Handguards. Principally because they were large enough to do the job. Too many motocross-style handguards out there simply don’t offer enough protection. Especially vertical ‘depth’. They also often taper towards the outer ends (teardrop shape) which is just… wrong.
The Revgrips Handguards weren’t perfect. They were expensive (£80). And they didn’t offer that much flex/give upon impacts. They also sometimes didn’t mate perfectly with certain brake lever/dropper remote cockpit clutter.
These Crankbrothers Guardian handguards pretty much address all the issues I’ve hand with other handguards.
First of all, they’re large enough. 175mm wide. 85mm tall. They don’t taoer too much at the outer end. They sit 95mm away from the centre of the handlebar, which is bang on in my opinion. You can extend them to sit a further 12mm away from the bar but you’d have to have absolutely monster mitts for that to be required.
Secondly, they’re quick and easy to adjust to mate with whatever brake/dropper/shifter clusterf**k you may be running. 33mm of lateral adjustment. There’s also two mounting options for the arms should you need to perfect the angle of dangle or height etc. I would strongly recommend the quick-release version I tested here (not the version that fixes to lock-on grips’ inner clamp). The material used for the arms is bendy enough that you can install/remove the handguards without even having to remove your grips.
Thirdly, related to bendiness, the materials chosen for the arms and the guard ‘plates’ are ideal (glass-filled nylon and high impact polypropylene, respectively). Bendy enough to move out of the way if striking saplings etc. They also mean you don’t have to overly careful when leaning your bike against a wall or on the floor. The Guardians bend out of shape, but then reset back as they were post-bending incident.
Niggles? Fifty quid is no doubt still *just* that little but too costly to persuade many of the handguard-curious out there to take the plunge.
Overall
Big enough. Bendy enough. They’re not cheap but these are currently by far the best mountain bike handguards currently available. If you’re fed up of bleeding hands and fingers when riding natural trails, and you like to ride without gloves, you really should give these things a try.
I had a Huffy White Heat in the early 90s with those things. 🤣Â
These are very much on my purchase list with the New Forest gorse going berserk presently. Not to mention the brambles on all the chalky downland surrounding. Armoured gloves and long sleeves are the current option, gets pretty sweaty.
(I had some full on MX ones on my Raleigh Maverick in 1985)
Crank Bros?Â
I’m out.
@speeder, Crank Bros are usually fine as long as there’s no moving parts.
Unanswered question for me is these vs Sendhit Nocks.
(ps handguards aren’t just for #enduro shredderz, mine are absolutely at their best in proper winter, with a set of pogies over the top, the two combine to give a non-wobbly non-annoying pogie result that doesn’t wobble about on harder riding. Superb)
I hate, hate, hate the look of these things. But I can’t ride without mine (older Nukeproof ones bought in the sale). My local trails just butcher my hands if I don’t use guards. And it seems to have become much worse in the past year or two. I think part of my problem is always looking for new routes, and walking trails appeal to me.
So if I ever break mine, I’d be looking to buy a set of these. Thanks for the review @Benji.
Was going to buy these today as a result of the review (see thornproof gloves thread) but out of stock everywhere…..sendhits might be the next best option
Personally I’m not a fan.  But I could have used them last week on Dartmoor as the tracks had got pretty overgrown and I was pulling horse and prickles out of my arms and knuckle all evening. So I’m not going to hate on them.Â
I know but I still wouldn’t risk it. That slot looks like a bad idea to me and £50 is a lot to pay for a few bits of moulded plastic and a nice box. I’m sure they’ll come in a very attractive box.
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They’re available from US Amazon for shipping to the UK (July 5th delivery supposedly), adding in the various costs they’re only a few quid more than the UK retail price
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Any particular reason? Â Just for easy swaps between bikes? Â I have the version that replaces a grip clamp and it is very neat, no conflict with dropper levers etc. Â The design is such that you can remove the guards anytime without having to rummage for the original clamp for the grips
I’m not particularly after a pair of handguards, but can see the attraction when the gorse is thick (ie now), but 50 quid, seriously? I am no fan of temu, but…
This is/was my thinking…good idea, but £50-60 for 2 clamps and some injection moulded plastic!?
Gorse is bad here year round, but especially at the moment + brambles and big, heavy ferns that grab your brake levers.
So I invested in some £12 jobs from that there AliExpress.
So far I’m loving them. They’re keeping the gorse off my knuckles and have fended off a few tree strikes too.
Yeah I accidentally bought what I thought was cheap Sendhits but turned out to be a ripoff from aliexpress, they’re definitely not as good- you’ve got to be really careful with the hardware and the “arm" is plastic not aluminium as with the real thing which means they’re much less protective- but they were IIRC £9 and it’s a really good way to at least try out the concept. I don’t like encouraging ripoffs but if it lets you dip your toe for cheap and then maybe buy the real thing- which is what I did- then it’s fine I reckon?