How much bracing does the stock front mudguard do?

[pete]

To keep in line with my scrambler theme, I need to raise the front mudguard somewhat, and I may need to replace it altogether depending on how the exhaust turns out.

I notice that there's somewhat of a brace built into the stock mudguard, but how much work does that actually do?

I can see it tying the fork legs together along with the front axle to ensure they move up and down in unison, and maybe adding a little twist reduction as well.

So, I'm thinking of three options at the moment.

1. Make a bracket out of 3mm steel to lift the stock front mudguard about 60 or 65mm. I could only get 50mm wide steel, so I can weld two pieces of that side by side to make one solid bracket on each side, and I think that that would be very close to retaining the stock rigidity of the built in brace. The biggest issue with this option is if the exhaust being made gives any clearance issues to the rear of the guard when the forks compress.

2. Drop the stock front mudguard altogether and use a plastic dirt bike guard hanging off the bottom triple tree.

3. Same as 2, except add a proper fork brace. The issue with this is it may look a little stupid and unless I can find a well priced second hand one, a fork brace will set me back $150, so not cheap.

Any thoughts on the above? One thing to note if it makes a difference is that I will be getting Ikon progress fork springs before too much longer...

And of course this is on my '82 450E

[pete]

Noone has any thoughts on this at all?

[kochic]

On old small bike the fork are twisty, my honda cb350 with 33mm fork is almost dangerous without a fender.
On my gs1000 with suzuki gsxr1100 fork i dont have the steel inner fender and everything is fine but the fork are bigger and the spindle is better "clamped".
marc

[tkent02]

ON a standard GS fork it ads rigidity, without it they flop around a little bit more in the corners. The harder you ride and the worse the road the more you will notice.

[landshark]

A good tarozzi fork brace, or similar, and whatever mudguard you decide to go with would look alright i reckon?

[pete]

On old small bike the fork are twisty, my honda cb350 with 33mm fork is almost dangerous without a fender.
On my gs1000 with suzuki gsxr1100 fork i dont have the steel inner fender and everything is fine but the fork are bigger and the spindle is better "clamped".
marc

Thanks Marc, that's sorta what I figured, I would need to keep something there as the fork legs are quite small...

ON a standard GS fork it ads rigidity, without it they flop around a little bit more in the corners. The harder you ride and the worse the road the more you will notice.

Cheers TKent, perfect sense again... the roads here get a little iffy at times so I suspect that would definitely get the front end squirrely...

A good tarozzi fork brace, or similar, and whatever mudguard you decide to go with would look alright i reckon?

Definitely starting to think this may be the way to go if there's not enough clearance for the stock mudguard.

As it turns out, this is on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280658358057&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_1365wt_905

I got measurements from him today and it's 100mm wide in the mounting area which might fit between the gaiters, and being plastic means I should be able to trim it to suit fitting on top of a brace.

Only question with the brace is will it work with the gaiters, I'm not sure how they mount...

[Octain]

ON a standard GS fork it ads rigidity, without it they flop around a little bit more in the corners. The harder you ride and the worse the road the more you will notice.

Have you ever rode yours without a fender?
My guess is no cause if you had, you'd know.

I cant tell a bit of difference on my 850.

[simon kuether]

Come on Pete .
Get it sorted old mate . I hear The Island calling . I've got a leave pass . I'll pick you up on the way .

Cheers , Simon .

[pete]

Come on Pete .
Get it sorted old mate . I hear The Island calling . I've got a leave pass . I'll pick you up on the way .

Cheers , Simon .

Yeah I know I know... the way it's going at the moment I'll be walkin'... mind you I haven't even tried the leave pass conversation yet...

[Agemax]

just ride it and try it Pete, you will soon know if you need a brace

[tkent02]

Have you ever rode yours without a fender?
My guess is no cause if you had, you'd know.

I cant tell a bit of difference on my 850.

Ride it faster in sharper corners on a bumpier road.

[1_v8_merc]

I had no brace on my 650.
No difference at all.

I ride nothing but twisty roads and damn near scrape pavement threw my turns.

The only reason I put it back on, was because I ocassionally ride in the rain.
And no fender in the rain is rediculous.

[pete]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I'm definitely putting *something* there, I think I just have to wait for the bike to come back and start measuring and working it out...

[Octain]

Ride it faster in sharper corners on a bumpier road.

So I thats a "no"? Then how do you know? How can you honestly answer the question?

I live in Ga. If I'm gonna ride I ride, curvy bumpy roads cant be avoided.

[tkent02]

You accuse of of never having done anything I disagree with you on, from riding Hogleys to running with no fenders, to riding a hardtail or maybe it was a chopper, can't remember. Once again, you are full of it. To me, GSes feel less solid in corners without a fender, a little less accurate, a little more floppy. Not a big difference, but some. A real fork brace makes a much bigger difference, and some folks are not attuned to their motorcycles enough to notice this either. Some can't even feel the difference between a quality performance tire and a cheap ass Kenda hard rubber hocky puck tire, can't tell the difference between nice tight Ohlins and thirty year old clapped out stock shocks, maybe that guy is you. I don't know. One thing for sure, if you disagree with everything in my posts, you are free to not click on them.