Article by Trailrider Magazine 

It was party hats and birthday cake to celebrate 25 years of Barkbusters’ booming success.

Sitting around the workshop fiddling with bikes and talking about which Barkbusters are best made me realise not all Barkbusters are Barkbusters. The iconic Australian handguard brand is so engrained in the minds of dirtbike riders that the Barkbusters name has become the generic term for handguards, regardless of the manufacturer who made them or what logo is plastered all over them.

Think about that for a minute. It’s like calling all motorcycles Honda, or every hydration pack a CamelBak. Geez, you reckon Mr Barkbusters would have to happy about that.

Barkbusters is a truly Australian brand with an all-Australian product produced right here on Aussie soil. What started out as a basic form of hand and lever protection invented by a true dirtbike enthusiast has boomed into an international success. It’s 25 years since the first Barkbuster was born and that was a good enough reason as any to go riding. It was party time.

Rough and Ready

The story goes that, back in the early 1980s, former Australian Husqvarna importer Hans Applegren encouraged Ted Goddard to design and manufacture some form of solid hand and lever protection for the handlebars of dirtbike riders.

Ted set to work and soon Barkbusters was born, Ted registering the name in 1984. Each Barkbuster was made by hand in a shed in Griffith, NSW. Ted sponsored numerous riders who loved the product, one of which was a young enduro rider named Matthew Phillpott. It was Matthew’s idea that some form of shield could be adapted to the Barkbuster for additional protection. Matthew developed the Barkbuster Weathershield, which Ted purchased. It was a match made in heaven that would lead to much bigger things for Matthew. 

Two years after the Weathershield was launched in 1996, Ted decided it was time to hang up the tools and retire. Matthew saw great potential and purchased Barkbusters from Ted and a new era was born.

After just two years at the helm of this iconic brand, Matthew launched the EGO Barkbuster and the company hasn’t looked back. What started as a parttime gig now employs 12 people and exports to 20 countries around the world.

Party Time

With Barkbusters chalking up 25 years, Matthew decided it was cause for celebration. And what better way to mark the occasion than with a ride?

Industry figures and Barkbusters representatives from around Australia and overseas joined in a two-day ride based at Batemans Bay. There was an enduro or adventure ride and I opted for the big-bike experience, armed with a brand new Yamaha XTZ660 Tenere. Little did I know I was in for an education of old-school enduro, hard bastard elementary school.

I had the unofficial Aussie enduro royal family showing me the way with Chris Cater leading the charge and Geoff Ballard sweeping the rear. Both Cater and Ballard are intimidating bastards on their hulking BMW GS1200s. I was packing it.

For those of you who haven’t been near a NSW state enduro or an Australian Four Day Enduro, you may not have heard of Chris Cater. If you have been to either of these race events you will almost certainly have heard Mr Cater. He’s a big man with piercing eyes and a thundering voice that he uses to great effect. He’s a scary bastard. He also rides with the vigour of an 18 year-old. Geoff Ballard needs no introduction. He’s the enduro legend.

The adventure group was a small one with just myself a USA Barkbusters distributor Erik Stephens riding between Cater and Ballard. The rest of the party goers were riding enduro-style with KTM Trail Tours. “Bah!” barked Cater. “They’re only on half bikes. We’re goin’ for a real ride.” I just about pooed myself.

Good Time

We’d covered some serious ground by the time we regrouped with the enduro “half bike” tour. I was having a ball. This adventure stuff was all go.

The enduro riding was a bit much for some of the other “half bike” riders and we picked up three of them for the afternoon session. We even muscled through some prime single trail on the big bikes. There’s not much that’ll stop Cater and Ballard on their flying adventure machines.

It was 220km of quality adventure riding before we called it a day and joined in the Barkbusters official 25th celebration festivities, which included a great speech from Barkbusters founder Ted Goddard. It was a reasonably early night, though, because Chris Cater had more adventure trails to show us.

Barkbusters put on a great show and it was worthy celebration for sure. Two full days of serious riding with each and every bike sporting a gleaming set of Barkbusters — a great Aussie product that’s protecting the hands and levers of riders and bikes across the globe. Happy birthday, indeed.

 View the magazine article