Another skid plate option (aluminum), less than 200 USD.

[gbergma1]

On a happier note, MOOSE is developing a skid plate for the S10, spoke with Shane in WI about it, should be done soon, they just got their pilot bike to start prototyping. These guy's make real stuff for people that really ride so it should be a good one. The greatest positive is their pricing, half of everything that is out there. Hang tight. Contact SHANE at Moose racing here moosecomments@mooseracing.com , say that Geoff Bergmark said the S10 plate was coming, get on the list. Check out here, carbon fiber costs half as much at the SW stuff!!!!!!!!

http://www.mooseracing.com/catalog.jsp?level1=1756&level2=1782&level3=1795&category_id=1795

 

[Waspworks]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

::017::

Greg.

 

[stevepsd]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

::017::

Greg.

::026::

I know that Flatland declined (I have used these alot on my dirt bikes) to make one. Moose plates are similar. Mike open up alot of other alternatives if the dirt bike aftermarket starts to look into the Adv bike market.

 

[markjenn]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

The more the merrier. I will be interested in how a CF skid plate designed to cover and fill in the gaps in the lower frame rails on a 275-lb MX/enduro bike translates to frameless 600-lb adv bike. And can be sold for the same price.

And I didn't realize that the skid plates currently on the market weren't for "real" or that we currently aren't "really" riding with them.

- Mark

 

[tomatocity]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

Hopefully they paid attention to the lackings of all the other skid plates.

For my needs...
- Easy on and off for oil and filter changes.
- Protect the engine and ALL the components, like the O2 Sensor.
- Needs to be higher in the front to prevent the Fenda Extenda from hanging up and breaking the front fender.
- Needs to have flush mount or smooth mount for the lower mounting bolts.
- Should be as quiet as possible.
- The price is up to the reseller. Too much and you lose sales.
- Since I am not a rock pounder the Carbon Fiber skid plate would be good for me.

 

[gbergma1]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

Yeah, "real" probably wasn't a good choice of words. I used to ride some MX and supermoto so coming over the ADV realm I was surprised that the price is double for the same stuff. Wise move by the seller, no poor bloke is riding one of these things, just like Harley's I suppose. Given the material and process, 300 bucks doesn't make sense, either their R&D have there cubicles in the paint booth, or someone's wallet is getting fat. So maybe, "real" means a fair price. In regards to being strong enough...well the bike with rider & kit approaches 800 pounds or more probably, I used to fly MEDEVAC, we had a saying: "sometimes you just die". Also, I don't understand folks reluctance to buy a composite skid plate, the stuff is good enough to stop bullets, could probably stop a rock ok. Pick good lines, ride smart.

 

[markjenn]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

Yeah, "real" probably wasn't a good choice of words. I used to ride some MX and supermoto so coming over the ADV realm I was surprised that the price is double for the same stuff. Wise move by the seller, no poor bloke is riding one of these things, just like Harley's I suppose. Given the material and process, 300 bucks doesn't make sense, either their R&D have there cubicles in the paint booth, or someone's wallet is getting fat. So maybe, "real" means a fair price. In regards to being strong enough...well the bike with rider & kit approaches 800 pounds or more probably, I used to fly MEDEVAC, we had a saying: "sometimes you just die". Also, I don't understand folks reluctance to buy a composite skid plate, the stuff is good enough to stop bullets, could probably stop a rock ok. Pick good lines, ride smart.

Let's wait and see what Moose comes up and at what price they actually sell for before we start proclaiming that others' wallets are too fat. And, as I alluded to in my earlier post, the engineering of a skid plate that simply has to wrap around a couple of lower frame rails on a lightweight MX bike is completely different from what a S10 requires. Look at Moose's application list for the CF skid plates and you don't see anything remotely like a S10 or R12GS - they're all lightweight bikes with lower frame rails and many can probably use the same mold or nearly the same mold. I owned some E-Line CF stuff at one time and it attached with hose clamps. A CF plate for the S10 - that has to take loads as well as impacts- is going to be a completely different animal from what they're selling now.

Also, not all skid plates for the S10 cost $300. Probably the most popular is the SW-Motech which list for $260 (see edit below), although many of us have gotten in much cheaper - I paid $207 shipped for mine. The much simpler, smaller, lighter, less-engineered CF ones you're crowing about cost $160. I can virtually guarantee you that Moose is not going to be selling a CF skid plate for the S10 for $160.

If Moose does come up with a serviceable skidplate for significantly less money good for them. But you're counting chickens where the eggs haven't even been laid yet. And making some ill-advised disparaging remarks in the process.

- Mark

Edit: When I originally made this post Twisted Throttle's web site was down and I recalled that list price was $220 for the Motech plate. I just checked and the actual list price at the time I bought mine was $230. (I paid $207 w/shipping with a promotional coupon.) But TT has raised prices and current list is $260. This IS getting pretty pricey. The Yamaha skid plate is not highly regarded but is $200 list and available for $165 or so.

 

[3putt]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

Also, "pick your line, ride smart" only works for about 2 hours, after that and many miles in, you just start riding and hitting S$$T. As your speed goes up, the ability to avoid goes down.

 

[EricV]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

Also, "pick your line, ride smart" only works for about 2 hours, after that and many miles in, you just start riding and hitting S$$T. As your speed goes up, the ability to avoid goes down.

::026::
"pick your line, ride smart" is not why people buy skid plates. ::025:: Its for when that line wasn't as good as you thought, or the "good" line is just not as crappy as the rest.

 

[mcbrien]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

That CF plate sounds awesome . Glad I've waited 8)

 

[protondecay123]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

It will be interesting to see for sure. I understand what you mean by "real". A skid plate is usually mounted to the frame and not to the motor. That's the biggest problem I've seen. Be nice to see the price line. Currently I'm thinking that if I upgrade from OEM, will probably do Jaxon's with GIVI bars or Rumbux. If I want more protection, I want something mounted to the frame not the motor it's trying to protect and something to guard the radiator. ::002::

 

[tomatocity]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

"A skid plate is usually mounted to the frame and not to the motor." This is something I forgot to mention in the email I sent to Shane of Moose Racing. Hopefully he is reading this thread.

 

[Joe-JOE]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

Bump...hope Moose gets it done & available soon.

I'm starting to farkle, 2 days later after bringing home my S10 >

 

[EricV]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

On a happier note, MOOSE is developing a skid plate for the S10, spoke with Shane in WI about it, should be done soon, they just got their pilot bike to start prototyping. These guy's make real stuff for people that really ride so it should be a good one.

@gbergma1 - Sorry guy, but this is a FAIL. Carbon fiber is a composite thermoset. In this case, kevlar added to increase abrasion resistance, but this is effectively a one time use product. One single hard hit and it's compromised. After that, the resin has broken down and it's just a fibrous blanket that does little to absorb impact shock.

Pretty as heck, but not what I want for a skid plate. You essentially need to replace it after any hard hit to maintain the usefulness of it. Great for a stator armor that only hits ground when you toss the bike, but not so much for a skid plate that catches rocks all the time. Just IMHO, having actually had carbon kevlar composite armor on a bike, and used it.

 

[stevepsd]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

I'm starting to farkle, 2 days later after bringing home my S10 >

Why did you wait so long! ::025::

 

[gbergma1]

Re: Finally, another skid plate option aluminum and/or carbon fiber.

Got anxious and contacted them. They said possible stock to sell by mid-may.....

 

[hANNAbONE]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

@gbergma1 - Sorry guy, but this is a FAIL. Carbon fiber is a composite thermoset. In this case, kevlar added to increase abrasion resistance, but this is effectively a one time use product. One single hard hit and it's compromised. After that, the resin has broken down and it's just a fibrous blanket that does little to absorb impact shock.

Pretty as heck, but not what I want for a skid plate. You essentially need to replace it after any hard hit to maintain the usefulness of it. Great for a stator armor that only hits ground when you toss the bike, but not so much for a skid plate that catches rocks all the time. Just IMHO, having actually had carbon kevlar composite armor on a bike, and used it.

...what EricV said...

 

[sallydog]

Re: Finally, another skid plate option aluminum and/or carbon fiber.

::017::

 

[mcbrien]

Re: Finally, another skid plate option aluminum and/or carbon fiber.

My carbon fiber wheels are holding up fine on my Aprilia . I have
no problem testing out a skid plate . If they didn't work they wouldn't
make them ;D

 

[Checkswrecks]

Re: Finally, a real skid plate, aluminum and/or carbon fiber, designed by riders!!

@gbergma1 - Sorry guy, but this is a FAIL. Carbon fiber is a composite thermoset. In this case, kevlar added to increase abrasion resistance, but this is effectively a one time use product. One single hard hit and it's compromised. After that, the resin has broken down and it's just a fibrous blanket that does little to absorb impact shock.

Pretty as heck, but not what I want for a skid plate. You essentially need to replace it after any hard hit to maintain the usefulness of it. Great for a stator armor that only hits ground when you toss the bike, but not so much for a skid plate that catches rocks all the time. Just IMHO, having actually had carbon kevlar composite armor on a bike, and used it.

Eric, love most of your posts, but have to call you out on this one. For a start, carbon is a fiber and survives fire quite well. We've dealt with it in aircraft accidents for only 40+ years. How well the resin supporting the fibers will do is up to the product selected by the designer.


No, Kevlar is not needed at all. Kevlar's strength is that it may add attenuation properties, but it is not necessary.


And a solid piece of a carbon lay-up may certainly be designed to withstand more than a single hit. It depends on the design and the hit, just like it would for a skidplate of aluminum, steel, or titanium. Carbon airplane props are pretty hard to damage.


Composites have been part of my work for decades and I spent last week at a conference partly about crashworthiness of composites in primary military aircraft structure. The material absolutely CAN do what we want and be a great skid plate. Or a total failure if Moose doesn't design to the strengths of a composite. It can also cost more than half as much as the bike, since the big airframe makers have driven the supply down so badly.


I'm going to side with MarkJenn on it being WAY too early to make statements like Eric's.


I'd love to see Moose pull this off and only time will tell. The other bottom line is that it's great to have more options being made for our bikes.