Is a crossbar padding necessary?

I just replaced the stock drz400 bars with a renthal. The crossbar padding is quite thick and interferes with ram mounts and other stuff like keys. Is a crossbar padding necessary or does everyone just have them there for the look? I understand having one where there was no helmet laws, but with a motocross or full face helmet, why do we need a huge padding there? I remember having one on a bmx bicycle 20 years ago when no one on the streets used a helmet. It made sense back then but not now on a dirt bike with a helmet that covers your chin. Thanks

Why use the crossbar? I always remove it to free up more room on the handlebars.

my bars are 7/8" at the mounts. I was under the impression you could only remove the crossbar if it was 1 1/8" at the clamps because they are kinda cosmetic and not really needed (ie. twinwalls).

I'm using 7/8 bars and have no concerns about strength without the crossbar. I've banged into enough trees to know the bars can take a hit OK.

Saw this on Motocross Action - seems to make sense

Crossbar. A 7/8-inch diameter tube isn’t strong enough for a handlebar. To achieve the necessary strength, a crossbar is used. Steel bars can employ a welded crossbar, but welding would compromise the strength of an aluminum bar, so its crossbars are clamped on. Crossbars support the handlebars in the up/down directions, but are ineffective in the forward/backward directions.

Steel bars are relatively thin to save weight. They need a crossbar. The aluminum Renthals are much thicker. For a motocross rider doing triples, a crossbar is a really good idea. For trail riding I think you're OK without it. I ride a two stroke and don't notice any vibration in my hands, maybe the lack of a crossbar results in some slight flex.

Aluminum is different than steel in that it has a fatigue life. With a cyclic load, it will break eventually, even with a very light load. With steel, as long as the stress remains below the fatigue limit, it will not break due to fatigue.

An aluminum handlebar is thick, and has a crossbar to keep the stresses low enough that a very high number of stress cycles is required to cause a fatigue failure.

Why should you care? A lot of parts that fail by fatigue fail very suddenly. A crack will propagate through the material until the stress at the tip of the crack is high enough to fracture the remaining material. Probably not the way you want your handlebars to fail.

Thanks for the input guys. I am leaving the crossbar there because it is not coming in the way. I will ride without the padding because that is coming in the way. Thanks again.

Trenton