Here's some home made armor I just did...bashy's are pretty hard to find here in the US for this thing so.... Victim: 2009 WR125 Materials: Moose bash plate #204X, alum plate (I have all kinds of stamped plates in diff. shapes left over from an aerospace plant), stainless/ti rivets, old automotive shock bushing, bottle cap, black RTV, Devcon, foam pads to lay on. Tools: plastic dead blow, round bastard file, rivet tool w/ handle extensions etc. (need same with Ti/SS rivets with that cheapo tool) Time: 4-6 hours with a lot of fiddling, trial fitting etc. Started with a bash plate for an '08, it was one of those 'tuck-tail' types where the tail of the plate cantilevers into the upper portion of the frame x-brace. I've never liked those as they are simply wedged into place with the front clamps holding everything, nothing ties the rear of the plate in place. No rear frame cover wither. Lame. These Moose plates are really cheezy and soft anyway so, and worth about half of what they charge for it. The ears are tiny on this plate and offer very little in the way of protection and, these cantilever types do not protect the rear of the frame like 4-point bolt-on ones do. Not a good design, just plain cheap and easy to make. But whatcha gonna do. Is what it is. The first thing I worked on was taking the step out of the tail and making it flat. Using a plastic dead-blow hammer it was easy and did not chew up the plate like a ball-peen would. I got it sorta flat then started working it into the opposite it was with a vice and the dead blow. After I got that knocked out I was able to start mocking it up with spring clamps to see where stuff needed to be bent or trimmed for fit. I had to notch the right side of the plate (file) to clear the muffler mount, bend out the ears a little for more case/covers clearance and reshape/re-step the tail a little more. Then I mounted it, scoped the x-brace holes, drilled for same and managed to use the original shouldered, skid plate bolts to hold the tail on. Took it all down, elongated the drain hole by an inch or so, riveted on an "ear" to protect the water pump/devcon'd a rubber bumper in place for same, black RTV'd a bottle cap over the sight-glass to keep that from getting smashed again (why oh why do they put glass on a dirt bike? Totally stupid, esp. on a 2T). Insulate the frame with the thing of your choice then mount it and go. It goes on best mounting from the rear first, then, clamping the front down. It touches the frame almost everywhere sans the sharpest bend in he plate. I whacked it good a bunch of times with my plastic dead blow and it is SOLID. No razzes or buzzing. The bolt protrusion on both ends is PERFECT. 100% grip with 1mm of protrusion. I just bought a new bag of stainless button-head rivets in various sizes at my local marine supply store and for the life of me I cannot find them so I used random rivets I had laying about in the pics. Not pretty, sorry. And, those rivets aint cheap so I aint too happy about losing those. The pics are self-explanatory sans the 'cat butt air freshener', got that as a stocking stuffer and it cracks me up daily. Smells good too! My bench is cleaned off every night too for you neat freaks- I aint one but darned if I'm going to bed with that mess waiting for me the next day. The big brown things are 4" foam pads I lay on. Also got some shots of the buzz-bomb with the lunch box and a get-outta-jail-free-card covering up the ugly '80's colors velcro'ed on the front. The plate turned out pretty cool and should provide some protection, much more so than the stock plastic unit which was a little more than a front tire roost guard. Better than nothing but...gimme a break. It's an enduro, if ya gonna go to all the trouble to design and fabricate a plastic plate at least cover something with it! I'm going to further this with more some cardboard templates for underside protection, nylon skid runners (skate board shop) and an ear for the generator cover. Then, get some 5mm plate of a different schedule and take it to my friend and have him weld me up a nice, sano one piece unit. Or-leave as is if I get lazy and it hangs in there...at least I'll change out those nasty rivets for nice button-head's. Any ?...please ask. Thanks for looking. -kevin.
Looks great! People screamed for a long time to get a sight glass. Prior to that the oil check screw had to be removed to check the oil level. And that screw often stripped out. I'd rather cover the sight glass if needed, but that is just my opinion. Got your PM. Because the aftermarket suppliers will always lag the bikes, and this would be an idea that would work for all bikes - morphing an existing plate for a use not intended, I'll move the thread over to the common topics. EDIT - you may have noticed some threads have 'tags'. On of the tags I put on this thread is 'protection' for obvious reasons, the other is 'Frankenstein' because it may be a little more advanced that what the average person is will to do e.g. an advanced topic.
