I'm sure this topic has been discussed in the past, as it is a very debatable one, but I want to make a poll and ask for as many opinions as possible. This is in reference to TRACK-only bikes, not street bikes! Do you have or recommend frame sliders on them or not? I know some people think they do more damage than good, while others think they're bike savers. I won't say on which side I am yet because it's more complicated for me. Personally I think it depends on the frame slider design and and the bike design. But my 2 bikes that I just got came without sliders and they were both race bikes. Now I'm in a dilemma of whether I should put sliders on or not.
I vote yay, but only the low profile sliders. Some sliders stick out in excess of 3-4 inches, which I think would only be more likely to catch on something causing damage to the bike. The lower profile pucks (like the woodcraft ones) seem to only stick out about an inch and seem less likely to catch on something. If it is strictly a race bike, I would vote nay.
If you have sliders they increase the chance of catching something in the concrete/dirt/etc, which increases the chance of the bike flipping. If the bike flips, the higher the probability of totaling the bike, etc, etc. I don't put sliders on anything.....
I have sliders on all bike I have owned and currently own and believe that they are a great product to help minimize damage All though there is always a "chance" of them catching and creating more damage, I think that chance is very slim and the benefits outweigh the risk. We all know that even a bike without sliders has a "Chance" to catch something and flipping or create additional damage. For example......your rear sets.....the foot peg is not a break away/folding system. With it being a stationary unit, this essentially will create the same issue....in a worst case scenario. From experience.....sliders has saved a lot of damage to my previous bike. I had frame sliders and swing arm spools/sliders. I can attest that without these in place....the damage would have been much more severe. But no 2 crashes are the same. I would highly suggest getting some good case savers and running some aftermarket clip-ons and having a spare set of clip-ons in case of a fall off if you choose not run sliders. Just my .02
Some good points made. The main thing from what I can tell is that no 2 crashes are alike, and a lot also depends on frame design and slider design. My 1198 had a very sturdy frame, being a steel tubular frame. The sliders was basically a solid bar (probably close to 3/4") that replaced one of the engine mounting bolts, so it went all the way through the frame and engine, and it had a pair of nice plastic pucks/sliders on each end. So there really wasn't anything to bend. In my one and only crash, the frame slider took most of the impact and the bike slid off the track and right before it came to a stop, the tires caught some grip on the dirt and flipped the bike over once, and then it fell on the other slider which took most of that impact. All in all, it saved me from a lot of damage. Just had a broken peg, a bent shift lever, and the clutch lever with master cylinder broke off the clip-on. The rest was cosmetic damage on the fairings. Even the tank got away without any damage. However, I've seen sliders on the ninja 300s we use at the site where I teach MSF classes that are a terrible design. They have a bracket that holds them in place so they can clear the fairing and it's about a 3" offset from the mounting point, so when you drop those, the bracket almost always bends. Saw one that was crashed at about 5 mph and the bracket bend enough to where it gouged one of the engine cylinders to the point that oil was sipping through the crack. Shitty design for a frame slider. I've been looking around on the ZX6R forum since someone else had asked a similar question recently, and it sounds like there aren't really any good options for the ZX6Rs, and after seeing the mounting points for them, I can see why. The frame is weak in that spot. Not to mention that the tanks are so wide on these bikes that in a crash they pretty much always take the grunt of the impact. So I may skip on the sliders for that bike. I'll have to look more into the CBR500 and what options there are for that, as well as how they get mounted.
I leave my bike stock. If I crash it, I crash it and hope it's just a low side and feel that the sliders won't make much difference. In a high side crash, they're useless. I also don't care for their aesthetics.
yes .. 4 crashes in 4 years all saved by my frame sliders .. one of them was pretty knarly ... thanks frame slider lol
Lowsided last year, my yoshi frame sliders kept the bike off of the plastics and the handle bar didn't even touch the ground. The bike balanced on the rearset and frame slider and just slide to a stop. When I replaced them I went with the woodcraft ones that are alittle shorter. I'll keep clip-ons with me just incase. can option 3 be "don't wreck"?
Most times they don't though. Maybe I should've mentioned that this is mostly for lowsides. I think we all know that in a high-side, the only thing you can hope for is lots of LUCK!
WITHOUT: I crashed and my frame is scratched/Damaged-bodywork-rearsets-clipons etc.. WITH (shortest style): I crashed and no damage to frame and very light damage to bodywork and other area. I think without it you will take bigger risk damaging more stuff.. With it, you also can break the frame if it catches something .. all depends on the rider and how they like it..