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               Originally Posted by 
               Pleiades 
                
               
             
              They do a job in stopping vegetation and branches, particularly brambles, from wacking into your hands off road. They also protect your levers from being damaged in a fall. But perhaps the biggest advantage is that they deflect the wind, cold and rain of your hands giving your gloves a better chance of staying dry and your hands warm.
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         +1 to all that! My biggest reason for hand guards is to avoid breaking the levers in a fall - guards have done their job for on numerous occasions!! - and also to protect my hands from getting wacked by various vegitation (like pleiades said) when off road. I wouldn't ride without them the amount of times they've saved my hands from injury and my levers from breaking they are worth every penny.