Front fender...fork brace, or not?

Hey, folks! I searched the archive, and found both opinions about this. Just wonder if there's any new information one way or the other. I took my front fender off a few minutes ago to finish cutting it down and paint it. I was shocked at how much i like the bike without it! Cosmetically, at least..I don't want to compromise the performance. At the very least, can anyone tell me if I can safely test ride it without the fender to see if it feels different in low speed parking lot antics...them carefully increase speed. Or am I flirting with tank slapping consequences, etc? Thanks.

i put down around 3k miles on my 250 with no front fender and it sucked.. rocks/sand aways flyin in ur face. forget tring to ride in the rain..

Yeah, I figured rain would be bad...how did it handle with the fender off?

The fender is an important brace - I would strongly suggest not running without a good braced fender or a fork brace. I've run fiberglass front fenders in the past and the handling was nasty...

Very good. Thanks Jeff! I appreciate the quick reply.

Hey Ron,
I just took my fender off last week and modified an old school aluminum fork brace I got off Ebay to fit my fork. Looks SWEET and drives great. I completely agree on the difference it makes visually.
I was going to post the clubman pics for you tonight but the wife took the camera to a party so it will have to wait till tomorrow. I'll shoot one of the brace too..
-dutch

Awesome! Thanks!

I did the same thing and pulled mine off, realy liked the look. But after some advice from the forum I chopped it down and put it back on. And there is a handling difference in the turns.

Post edited by: bkitchen, at: 2005/10/27 23:27

Cool, looks like it's going back on before I ride it much. It really came off with difficulty...very tight fit on my wrench, and tight quarters for turning it. Oh well, needed some motivation to finish chopping it and get it painted.

Jeff,

Surely you dont mean that the very flimsy "brace" that attaches the fender to the fork can improve hadling? It is not exactly stiff if you know what i mean. Or are you actually saying that?? Details please.

Galaxian, I deleted your double post.... and I do tend to agree with you... I have a fiberglass front fender on one KZ900 and a steel on the other and the one with the fiberglass fender feels as planted and stable as the steel. The handling on the two bikes is a tad different as I have a 79 front end on the one with a fiberglass fender as well as a 16" rear LTD wheel and the other is standard 19"/18" 76 KZ900 stuff but I certainly haven't felt any twichiness from the one with the fiberglass fender. I can't imagine the scrawny steel fender held on with four little 6mm bolts would make a bit of difference if the front wanted to flex under stress. Most fenders that DO provide some bracing are actually beefed up across their centers.

I agree too. The fender serves one purpose, it's a fender, not a fork brace. Back in the old NMRA motorcycle drag racing days in the 70s, there were a zillion motorcycles racing, and the rules in many classes did not require running a front fender so many were fenderless even running 140mph quarter mile runs.
wiredgeorge wrote:

Galaxian, I deleted your double post.... and I do tend to agree with you... I have a fiberglass front fender on one KZ900 and a steel on the other and the one with the fiberglass fender feels as planted and stable as the steel. The handling on the two bikes is a tad different as I have a 79 front end on the one with a fiberglass fender as well as a 16" rear LTD wheel and the other is standard 19"/18" 76 KZ900 stuff but I certainly haven't felt any twichiness from the one with the fiberglass fender. I can't imagine the scrawny steel fender held on with four little 6mm bolts would make a bit of difference if the front wanted to flex under stress. Most fenders that DO provide some bracing are actually beefed up across their centers.