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Yep thanks for that, totally agree. I had the same concerns since making them especially bare tube ends poking out as you noted. They are totally concealed by the bags once fitted, especially the rearmost end. I appreciate padded tarp will last only so long and I could be very unfortunate.
I have been meaning to square/round them off and/or see about bar end plugs, but there’s still a chance of one pinging out at impact with the ground. Hopefully I managed to fettle the design before any off.
Edit: took to heart the risk of the bare ends so went out to the shed and tried handlebar end plugs, but they didn’t fit. Instead I pushed as much high density foam into the hollow ends as possible as filler, and layered nearly 20mm thick on the outside, then insulation-taped the hell out of them. Could hit them with my palm with some force and not feel the metal. I’ll tape over again with gaffer tape when I can get a roll, and that should provide some degree of less-likely-to-fillet after a bit of grinding along the road.. not elegant but definitely a step safer.
pdlouche-
Well done, anything to improve your chances. I made the mistake of thinking the leg covers for a scooter would afford some protection if I came off. Not a bit, shredded on impact like tissue paper! Cost me a trip to hospital and a few weeks on the sofa to learn that one.
If you look at the ride magazine testing they use a belt sander to simulate contact with tarmac at speed, it's not pretty.
I hope you get to enjoy this summer biking, you've put up with so much rubbish weather since you got the bike.
Airhead
Great to see you are enjoying biking so much. Reminds me of my early motor bikes. One thing that you might want to be careful about when customising the bike with frames is the potential for you following it down the road in an accident and then catching up with it suddenly.
Looking at the relatively sharp ends of your pannier racks and the strength of the metal it would be very unpleasant to get impaled by one.
When you look at the BMW ones upthread you can see that they manage to use a much smaller but solid dimension of steel and it forms a hoop that would be less likely to dig into the road or other things in the case of an accident. The BMW ones manage to hold a lot of weight at high speeds, the only time you notice the big BMW panniers is in a side wind.
I'm not knocking the initiative you are showing but having been down the road a few times I'd like to offer my crash test dummy findings!