[image: View Post]Macs06VFR, on Jun 22 2009, 09:14 AM, said:
Removed the rear fender, and I must say, the rear, and the whole bike looks a heck of a lot cleaner. A nice cosmetic improvement in my eyes.
But... I'm concerned about possible damage to the way-too-expensive taillight assembly.
Wanted to see what others have done to protect it (modified 'fender', lens protection?), and how well it's worked out.
Also, has anyone suffered any damage? Maybe I'm worried about nothing.
Thanks in advance.
Not sure about protecting the tail light after a fender-ectomy but several bikes at TexasMac a couple of years ago had condoms on them...mirrors looked to be protected, passenger grab rails as well and even a few bar ends and grips were able to breathe a sigh of relief that they too were protected... :goofy:
I would not worry about it unless you do a lot of miles on gravel.
Pulling off that big crap flap was the first thing I did after buying my bike and yes it makes them look great but you will sandblast and pit the taillight lens over time. After 40K miles mine was pretty trashed. I swapped for the clear lenses recently and also added my own custom plate/inspection holder to reduce any future damage.
Add a piece of clear 3M vinyl to the light to protect it. It won't reduce the light output at all. There is a kit available for the whole bike, but it does not include a piece for the taillight. The kit is available from www.tankslapper.biz, and they also sell universal pieces that you could cut to size for your light.
But my luck is such that about the 3rd or 4th time I ride around the block, I'll hit a freak pebble that spins up off the rear wheel and hits the taillight in just the right spot, cracking it all to heck.
If no one else here has had any problems I'll probably not worry about it so much, and move other worries up the list. :happy:
I have well over 24000 miles that I have done on my VFR which included quite a few unpaved/gravelly surfaces and so far my tail light has remained intact. ;)
I would focus on the electrical wiring as my main concern on for the VFR.
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Jun 22 2009, 09:50 AM, said:
Add a piece of clear 3M vinyl to the light to protect it. It won't reduce the light output at all. There is a kit available for the whole bike, but it does not include a piece for the taillight. The kit is available from www.tankslapper.biz, and they also sell universal pieces that you could cut to size for your light.
This is precisely one of the thoughts I had. Didn't know if there was a custom piece, so the info and link will come in handy. I like most of 3M's stuff too. I'll have to order up a few universal pieces, and get the xacto knife out. I'm sure I'll screw up the first two or three tries at the pattern. :)
When I bought my '02 in '02 it took about 2 months (after the bike purchase) before the fender eliminator kit for the 6th Gen came out from Competition Werkes and I must have purchased mine in the first run. I also purchased a Thurn carbon fiber hugger from Dynamo Humm (back when they were a good company to deal with) around the same time.
I've put a lot of miles on the bike with that combination and no damage thus far. If you don't want to spring for a hugger then, as Sebspeed said, the 3M clear vinyl material (used for the "clear bra" on cars) should work very well.
[image: View Post]Macs06VFR, on Jun 22 2009, 10:04 AM, said:
[image: View Post]SEBSPEED, on Jun 22 2009, 09:50 AM, said:
Add a piece of clear 3M vinyl to the light to protect it. It won't reduce the light output at all. There is a kit available for the whole bike, but it does not include a piece for the taillight. The kit is available from www.tankslapper.biz, and they also sell universal pieces that you could cut to size for your light.
This is precisely one of the thoughts I had. Didn't know if there was a custom piece, so the info and link will come in handy. I like most of 3M's stuff too. I'll have to order up a few universal pieces, and get the xacto knife out. I'm sure I'll screw up the first two or three tries at the pattern. :)
Lay a piece of paer over the lens, trace it, then cut that and lay it over the clear vinyl. ;)
[image: View Post]vanion2, on Jun 22 2009, 10:03 AM, said:
I have well over 24000 miles that I have done on my VFR which included quite a few unpaved/gravelly surfaces and so far my tail light has remained intact. ;)
I would focus on the electrical wiring as my main concern on for the VFR.
I thought the fenderectomy would be about a 7 min job. One of the mounting bolts was not very cooperative. Actually, it was the plastic the 'nut' was sitting in that wasn't cooperating. The plastic wanted to be give out and the nut spun. Out come the vise grips... Did the trick.
Didn't realize I'd have to cut the license plate light wire in order to get it out of the OEM fender. No worries though, it soldered right back together. A couple heat shrink tubes and some elec tape tightened up my hatchet job good enough. Now I have a whole lot of extra wiring up in my tailsection, but that's ok. Better than not enough, right?
In retrospect, I should have put connector on both ends of the wire to make it easier to go back to stock if ever needed.
[image: View Post]Macs06VFR, on Jun 22 2009, 10:21 AM, said:
Didn't realize I'd have to cut the license plate light wire in order to get it out of the OEM fender. No worries though, it soldered right back together. A couple heat shrink tubes and some elec tape tightened up my hatchet job good enough. Now I have a whole lot of extra wiring up in my tailsection, but that's ok. Better than not enough, right?
In retrospect, I should have put connector on both ends of the wire to make it easier to go back to stock if ever needed.
Ummm, probably not what you want to hear, but you don't have to cut the wire to remove it. One of the ends is small enough to fit through the hole in the fender. I've done this twice without cutting the wire.
Another option is to remove the plastic fender, but use the stock mounting brackets, and your license plate will act as a mini-fender. Basically, what you're asking is, "what else will work as a fender, that isn't a fender." it won't clean up the look quite as much, but will be completely legal.
I never understood pulling the old fender off just to install a different one. I'm all for fender eliminators, they do look great, but if I'm going to have a fender I'm just leaving the stock one there! (which I have & do)
Ryanme17 - One wire was just clipped on, and fit thru the whole in the fender. The other wire ran into the license plate light assembly. I tried to look into it to see if it was clipped also (would have made sense to me, but then again I often don't make sense). Opening was way too small to see. The other end was a decent sized connector. Tugging a bit at the light end didn't work, so out came the wire snips.
There is a question of legality, which is always a grey area. If the police want to, they could probably write the ticket. It'd be up to me to decide if it was worth fighting (probably not). I try not to give them a reason to find things to ticket me for. I'm so worried about whether it's legal or not. I can always reverse my procedure for inspection.
New license plate bracket works well (read: looks good to me), but offers severely reduced protection as a fender.
Seb - I've seen a few other aftermarket or modded OEM fenders that did look good, or better than the stock fender too. I just like the look without it (or one greatly hidden). The thought down the road is a chopped exhuast that flows with the body. All I need now is resources... money, time, talent... :biggrin:
Trick is to not eliminate 100% of the fender, if possible. I cut mine to just above the plate light assembly bracket (which I removed permanently) mounting holes. which left just exactly enough fender to fit my license plate with new mounting holes
http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/uploads/1107104450/gallery_285_20_8881.jpg MVC-009FA.jpg
http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/uploads/1116006849/gallery_285_20_328454.jpg 2 6 05 pics 006.jpg
It's critical that I left a little bit of rear fender on the bike because I added on a plastic lens at the bottom of my tailight assembly to light up my tag, as I suspect the non US models do. It's been like this for over four years now and aside from the tip of the bike's tail light/fairing catching a little water spray, it seems like the bigger rocks and pebbles ejected by the wheel are mostly shielded by the short fender, because no damage has ever occured to my modified tailight assembly.
I debated cutting up my stock fender, but always like to keep OEM available as an option just in case. I may someday if I can acquire a spare on the cheap.
My license plate is stuffed back pretty far right now - I think v2.0 (whenever that may be) will have a bracket that brings it out a few more inches. Has to still give a nice profile, but offer a bit more protection to the taillight.
Haven't noticed any damage on mine yet (15K on bike, roughly 5K on fender eliminator) but does anyone notice the very end of the tailsection seems looser? Hopefully this isn't too far off topic, but I've noticed the pointed section behind the tailight seems floppy since removing the fender. Just curious if it's just me....
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