Tips: an installation overview of the Givi Engine Guards for the Suzuki V-Strom 650

Olaf Wolff
AllAboutBikes.com Sr. Staff Writer

Motorcycle mechanics are by and large jaded when it comes to opinions regarding motorcycle aesthetics. Knowing that, I still felt the urge to ask the mechanic doing the first 600 mile service on my new Suzuki 650 V-Strom his opinion on engine guards. He rides a V-Strom 1000, so he gave me kudos for choosing the 650, but felt free, none the less, to express his disdain for pretty much anything aftermarket. So, now I’m thinking, OK, I’ll install the Givi engine guards, but if I don’t like them for any reason, I’ll remove them after I take pictures. Half-way through the installation I was convinced they were on for the duration.

Installing the guards is a piece-o-cake, if you don’t let the enclosed instructions and pictures distract you. Understandably, the instructions are written in five languages. Thing is, sometimes the English version comes second in the series, other times third or fourth. But, at least when you do identify the English version, it’s not the least bit helpful – here’s the first step and I quote, “Mount the engine guard on the motorcycle.”

Granted, this isn’t a highly technical installation, and I hardly ever use the instructions anyway, but I do like to know that they’re there just the same. Usually the picture or an exploded diagram is all I need. In this case, the engine guard in the picture didn’t even match the one in my hand, but the mounting points did coincide and the individual numbered parts made sense with the supplied illustrations.

The actual procedure is fairly basic, but be certain to install one side first before doing the other – these are after all engine bolts. Remove the fairing trim right below the gas-tank (one 4mm hex-bolt and two snap-fasteners). Line-up the guard and the rest is self-explanatory – two 6mm engine hex-bolts on top, two at the bottom. 

Save the OEM bolts should you decide to ever remove the guards, but you’ll need to use the longer supplied bolts to install the guards properly. At this point only snug up the four new hex-bolts on the one side before moving to the other side. Because of the angled bends in the guards and slight variables in the welds, from one set of guards to another, it’s necessary to leave the guards only lightly tightened, so there’s play.

With both sides freely installed, position the spacer and the ‘nipple,’ which incidentally is the only term that’s given a single translation (fits between the two open ends of the guards that meet just above the oil-cooler), and begin to tighten the single 6mm bracket-screw, pulling the two sides together. Then go back and tighten the four engine hex-bolts on each side.

Here’s an important tip, the heads of these bolts begin to strip before the bolts completely firm-up – leaving me less-than confident since I had to go by feel after making that discovery on the first bolt.

With that said, the guards feel secure as they are. They add aggressive styling to the bike’s profile, and from all indications, they’ll do exactly what they’re supposed to do, should I actually ever need them. They’re labeled engine guards, though clearly, they’ll protect the gas-tank as well.

In conclusion, Givi makes a very good engine guard. The functionality and execution of the design is apparent. The lack of passable instructions isn’t really a problem – for my purposes a good exploded-illustration and some torque specs would do away with the cheesy translations. But, it’s too bad that a decision to go with lowest-bidder for hardware slightly besmirches what is otherwise a complete engine guard package.