DubbleJay said:
Wow thanks for that explanation. I hadn't thought that the skid plate might actually warp out of shape once taken off. Huge consideration there... thanks. As far as the opening for the oil filter. Just to be clear, I wasn't really speaking specifically about any particular make. More speaking to the fact that in almost every thread regarding skid plate design and build someone inevitably brings this up. Given that yours is 1/4" probably negates any structural concerns but if someone else was fabbing up a plate out of 3-4mm aluminum it would be a concern to cut a big opening right in a "cave-in" zone. As well... considering now your comment regarding the tendency for these things to go out of shape... A screw-on filter cap probably would never screw back on once removed.
I assume when your speaking to customers regarding their "sprung" skid plates they are talking about other manufacturers right? Have you noticed a tendency for one make to suffer this malady more often than others? Have you noticed a "springing" in your own bash plate? <----Yes, I do differentiate between a skid and a bash plate
. Too me, a 1/4" plate built like yours is obviously meant for boulder hopping, log crushing mayhem...(bash) the more often seen 3-4mm plates are I think less suited for such things (skid).
Yes, I tend to see different problems with many of them. Ive actually had to cut three plates off from three different customers bikes. Ive also seen where customers had another skid plate and seriously damaged there header to the point we had to replace it along with cutting the skid plate off and sending them off with a new skid plate. I would prefer not to mention names but all of them have fundamental structural issues. Unfortunately most of these plates cant support a bike + loaded + fuel + rider + panniers + gear + Etc. 1000 Lbs. with 1/8" sheet of aluminum. If you "skid" most any plate on the market across a log or rock and it has full weight of the bike on there plate, there is a high probability that is has stretched, moved, or sprung that plate. I talk to real customers almost everyday about this situation. We have had no issue with that. Ours is frame to frame mounted and is very robust. If a customer EVER had an issue they can call me directly and we will get them fixed up. In my humble opinion I think that the skid plates on the market today are made for road gravel, and light trail use. (No one ever can plan for the accident or unexpected, if they are under protected they are sure to find out though) And with our plate you can now ride anywhere, anytime, do anything you might want, and have fun.. If you have an "accident" on the trail, the bike/engine will be fine, we will always hope the rider is safe and un hurt.
I did just that about 100 miles off in the desert wasteland of Big Bend, Tx last year. Long story short we where not hot-dogging or going crazy. Myself and another Tenere rider where doing some fun dirt roads. We encountered a sand section and I slowed down to about 10-12 Mph. I had my feet down and was trying not to crash. You know the old adage, don't look at what you don't want to hit... Well off to the side of this sand road was a boulder about 18X20". I was trying not to crash in the sand. I saw the boulder, aimed right for it and then proceed to hit it on the whole left side of my bike.. It touched the fork, smashed my (new skid plate at the time) bounced off that and bent the shifter, hit the peg, and dented the pannier.. I didn't fall of the bike but that whole thing sucked bad. The front left corner of my skid plate was dented in. The rock was high enough and broad enough that is whacked the whole front left corner. The guy behind me crashed in the sand. After we got his bike up and we both took a deep breath we looked at the damage. We where both saying a little prayer that the damage didn't shove my oil filter into the case. It would damage a lot of stuff. No way to get the bike out 100 miles to the main road on the Mexican border. You never know what "accident" you didn't plan for..
Another thing. I don't think many people think about this at all. I have thought about it many times. When riding this bike, if any plate contacts anything with the ground you can have many loads from different angles applied to the plate.. Most of the time the load to the plate is NOT just a vertical load on axis from the ground. You have forward momentum when contacting an object. If you have a heavy load on the front right / front left / (and other locations) you can have major failure rates on these locations. They are VERY week. Most if not all plate manufactures are engineering these plates from a perspective of only a vertical load. There is much more involved in real world protection other than just a vertical load. The sad part is, many plates cant even hold up a 800+ Lbs bike without having issues with the mounting locations and the loads involved. Why would anyone expect it to have long term protection if it had a shock impact on any hard object. We can use motorcycle jack, car jack, a boulder, a log, anything you want with ours all day. Its now a structured part of the frame. We then can do the calulation on load values in some real world load loactions on others skid plates, it will fail. Ive seen it roll into the shop many times. Maybe some of the customers im refering too will chime in and confirm what im talking about.
If you would like more info I can talk your ear off.. I have installed 99% of them, I know customers with all of them. Etc.
