Crankbrothers Guardian Universal Handguards review

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.

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