rear fender removal pros/cons

[roccop]

Hey all,


might be removing 15-20cm of my rear fender on the Kat over the weekend.


Question i must ask as dealer bought it to my attention.


He said once i do it that when riding it wet the rear of my bike is then more subjected to mud and crap splattering up even on the back of my jacket.


Have those of you modified rear fenders experiance an obvious change such as this?

The bike will look nicer but i think i would rather my jacket/tailend cleaner in wet weather



ideas please?


roc

[TheKlic]

Pro's- looks
Con's- Yes you do sacrifice a little wet protection, but it NEVER made it to my jacket, just all over the taillight, etc.
Another con is that in some countries you're required to have a reflector at a certain spot from the rear tire, something.

[reconstyle]

Nothing ever got on my jacket....

[guestrider]

gonna be removing mine soon cause i dont think the fender looks right on the bike. a little water or mud never hurt anyone.

[Chuckwick357]

i don't get water on my back either.

[Sasquatch]

I removed my entire fender...never have had issues with mud/etc on my jacket

[katman05]

Took a good chunk off my fender, but what does it matter if you get a little mudd on your tailight? After riding in the rain I wash my bike anyway. And it looks alot better.

[The CyberPoet]

The shape of the tail section plays into whether you'll get water-spray, as does the tire size, once you cut your shovel down.

Other CON's:
1. If you ride in groups, people will be less likely to ride behind you on any wet-surfaces (whether it's still raining or not), because they'll get more wet-mist-crud off your tire.
2. If you want to mount the Givi brand hard-bags and use the Givi-brand side-rack mounts, you need the shovel at least as far as the blinker mounts + 1/2" or so to take the cross-bar and mount it securely.
3. (Already pointed out by others: ) legal requirements in your particular state/nation. Most jurisdictions permit it as long as the license plate remains in basically the same spot and remains illuminated.
4. (Safety issue: ) Many who cut off their shovels go a step further and replace their blinkers with smaller equivilents or surface-mounts. While these might "look cool", they do reduce your visibility to other drivers, esp. in low-light conditions.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[bubba]

replace their blinkers with smaller equivilents or surface-mounts. While these might "look cool", they do reduce your visibility to other drivers, esp. in low-light conditions.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

I think u got it backwards, its harder to see in the day, but at night theres really no change, since any kind of light is going to show up bettter when its dark.

[Dee Dub]

Pros? It doesn't look near as ugly...

Cons? You won't be able to wheelie as easy because of the loss of counter-weight...

[The CyberPoet]

replace their blinkers with smaller equivilents or surface-mounts. While these might "look cool", they do reduce your visibility to other drivers, esp. in low-light conditions.

I think u got it backwards, its harder to see in the day, but at night theres really no change, since any kind of light is going to show up bettter when its dark.

Nope, I don't believe that I have it backwards at all.
The further out from the center of the vehicle you put the blinkers, the more visible the blinker action generally is to others. Six to eight inches spread can mean a lot more visibility.
The wider the field of focus is for the blinker assembly light, and the more lumens the light-system can put out, the more visible it is to others.
Small blinkers, surface mounts, and esp narrow-focus LED's reduce visibility of motorcycles to other drivers. That issue is made worse in low-light conditions (I'm not talking about zero-light, just low-light), where smaller, weaker or off-focus lighting can easily be overlooked by a cager. With the growing popularity by car designers to make the A and B pillars in vehicles extremely thick, the visibility to someone sitting 35-45 degrees off your bike can easily drop to zero or virtually zero, from their driver's seat viewpoint.

Cheers,
=-= The CyberPoet

[Black Sheep]

Pros: Looks cleaner, sportier...

Cons: If you don't like it, you can't easily put it back the way it was...

[drduct]

Does anyone have any pics showing how far cut was made on rear fender and what was it cut with

[1990gsx 600]

http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=92684&highlight=shovel+chop

heres a thread for you

[nicholaskumm]

oh just cut that thing off haha