I drilled one hole in the lowest point on the left side for drainage and I had to notch for the shifter to clear properly. I also had to shorten up one of the rear bolts because it was bottoming out on the oil drain plug. I don't think holes in the front are a good idea, you'll just pick up all sorts of gravel and crud, which will then just sit there in the "pan." I got mine for going down the occasional gravel road, like if I visit my parents down their long driveway, and at ~30mph it's chucking small gravel at the front of the plate pretty hard, and not just down the middle either, don't want that getting to the frame/block. I can imagine it'd be worse with offroad tires...
The hyde skid works well. I regularly hear pretty loud clunks when runnng offroad in rocks. The guard shows some pretty good gouges in it from large rocks hitting it. A front knobby will pickup and throw baseball size rocks well enough to dent a headpipe, although I haven't had one in a number of years. Used to be really bad with the 2-stroke expansion chambers, would put a nice dent in them. No need for air holes, the motor is liquid cooled. I'll probably sell mine off, think I'm getting one from www.tciproductsusa.com when they finish up their prototype accessory parts for the 630. They make a nice HD skid with engine guards. Sorry for the thread-jack...
The muffler shop guys I visited said the headers and midpipe were stainless -- main reason the price quotes were high. They sure look and feel like stainless to me. Definitely NOT titanium. And not magnetic enough to be standard steel...
Does nobody make a carbon skid plate (I don´t want the noise an aluminium skid plate usually generates)..
Remember, a "carbon fiber" part isn't carbon fiber...it's plastic resin with carbon fabric as a reinforcement. The plastic has a high compressive strength, but is weak in just about every other manner. It will break and crack with impact. All the carbon fiber does at that point is hold the broken parts together. Carbon-impregnated parts are not meant for impact applications.
Yes, the skid plate definitely does its job! Mine is nicked and scratched up underneath but that's fine. It was made for protecting the underside. I was thinking more air flow for the oil bathed bottom end not the liquid cooled top end. I'll just leave well enough alone. Thread-jacks are welcome. It's good to hear everyone's opinions and experiences.
I'll add that carbon fiber looks terrible when scratched and banged up. Hyde's high impact plastic skid plate looks and wears well even after taking a beating off road.
The Uptite Racing skidplate has a lot of small diameter holes - noise doesn't resonate off it like I've seen with solid skidplates. It also offers a bit more wrap-around covereage on the side of the motor, protecting the oil filter housing on the right... and the lower half of the cover on the left side. On my TE 610 I had the oem skidplate, and it's two elongated front holes let it slide side-to-side when it took a good rock hit. That never happened to me, but a friend had it happen on one of our Baja trips, requiring a field JB Weld patch when the skidplate punched a hole in the left cover (irony).
Is the Hyde plastic one made for the 630? If so ... would be very grateful if you could post a link as I need some form of protection.
Drops right on, other than shortening one bolt a bit and notching ~1/2" for shifter clearance. It was originally just for the 610 but they added the 630 to the listing. Part# HP-SG-99, second one down HERE
If you want one of these hang tight for a few more days and I'll know if I'm going to sell mine. Will save you some $$ for sure. Yes, the 610 has the same cases and underframe so it fits both.
Patrick, shoot me a PM with a fair price and it's yours. It is a nice piece, fits well, works well. There are just a couple of scratches on the bottom from a rock pitched up by the front tire, but you can't see it unless you climb down under the bike! It's been on the bike for about 400 miles, half of that dirt. Can FedEx ground to your door. --Chris
poor man's pipe. tottal cost to my door $259.99. also added jd power surge. its a new bike! https://picasaweb.google.com/shoolsema/October142011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJe7zdWokpfnOg#
Been considering the same. As far as I understand it all you need is a can for, say, an RMZ450 but you'd have to do a mid pipe. Simply blocking off the branch to the right side won't do...you'll see that the diameter of each side is smaller (two smaller ones=fine, but going to just one that's smaller= much too restrictive.)
