Do we really NEED barkbusters?

who is this mystery person who broke both wrists by goin over the bars & getting them trapped in his barkbusters?! sounds like a load of frog poo & scare tactics to me. could happen i guess, but i could win lotto too. generally id like to think id let go of the bars well before i was in front of my bike. my brother doesnt run them because he thinks they dont look 'cool'(i disagree, acerbis multiplo & racetech look pretty good to me!). hes also had to replace 3 clutch levers, ride his bike out of tight single track with no clutch at all(snapped off @ perch) which as you could guess was hard goin on a crf450r & his grips/bar ends look rather shabby. but hey as long as you look cool right? not to mention if you have a hydro clutch how expensive it is if you damage a master cylinder(brake too for that matter). first thing i put on a bike. good for smashing through trees & mainly crash protection(i fall off too much i guess). 1 thing that makes me wonder is why some people run them parallel with their levers & not the ground/horizontal? mine are always horizontal & never ever broken a lever or done any damage whatsoever! id have thought being in line with the levers wouldnt give you very good wind/brush protection & theyd just spin downwards when you crashed? i too have seen a little finger taken off by chain/sprocket in a crash. ugly. we also call him '7 of 9'(only 7 fingers of 9 digits left)

Yes would be my response to the original question

I have a friend who wrecked a hand on one of our rides, and several fingers have never worked exactly right since. Brush guards would protect your hands from most of the stuff you hit while on the trail, but not from a solid hit. I like them because they protect the levers and bars, especially the HDB which take quite a bit of the load from going down and transfer it right to the top clamp. Strong! I think it helps minimize bar bend too in some cases.