Removing rear fender

I see some of you guy's have removed your rear fenders.. I was wondering if anyone has pics or something.. I'm going to remove mine but wasn't quite sure on what to do yet.. Did you cut the fender half way or just completely remove it? The plastic fender only goes so far under the seat.. What did you cover the hole where the metal fender was? I want to tuck the tailight under the fender also.. Any ideas on mounting brackets? Thanks guys. Here is a pic of the bike with the metal fender I want to remove..

Hey Vach - I did this mod a couple of times over the past couple of years on my '77 650. The look is very clean and tidy with the fender removed. The plastic inner fender is still intact.

My first attempt was with one inch wide, 1/2 inch thick galvanised strapping but it didn't turn out to be strong enough. I ended up going with a stainless steel plate bracket on the next attempt and I used 16 guage. This lasted for one season but this spring I hit a sunken manhole cover and the bracket bounced enough to hit the tire and fold underneath itself. Luckily I was only going about 30 mph.

I just installed a thicker piece of stainless plate, 3 mm in thickness and this should be the ticket. It is very strong and doesn't have any lateral movement when I hit a bump.

I drilled the two holes to mount up through the tailpiece mounts to the back of the frame, drilled a large hole to fit the taillight electrical connection through, drilled to small holes to attach the taillight body to the plate and finally had four holes drilled for the licence plate.

The piece of plate that I started with was 14 inches long and 7.25 inches wide. I had it cut and bent at a machine shop that has a hydraulic bender that can do clean 90 and 45 degree bends. Trying to do these clean bends without a proper press is pretty tough.

If you need any more info just send me a U2U. Here is a pic of the installation.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

I cut a steel plate to bolt to the tail mounting holes and used some small tubing to space the light out to end of the tail. My light fit up a little tighter than reborn's dose.
Mark





Post edited by: Mark Wing, at: 2007/06/23 15:46

For the plate I just used a pair of steel straps to put the plate right under the light like reborn's. I had tow sets of holes to mount the plate sometimes high so you could hardly see it.
Mark

I don't have a good pic of it from the back. As far as the missing coverage it dose not get wet enough around here to worry about it, you could put a small piece of plastic under there.
Mark

Actually Mark this pic was taken before I did the final fitting. It is up a little tighter to the tailpiece now.

I am going to mount a little piece of sponge under the tailpiece to absorb any contact if the bracket bounces a little due to our rough roads.

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

Very cool guy's thanks for the pics and info.. I've never seen how they were mounted, so this helps a lot.. Sweet, thanks agian....

This is how I did mine:
I used two pieces of Aluminum that were approx. 5" X 1 1/4" and bent them into a Z shape. One end of each Z bracket is bolted to the rear cowl mounts, and the tail light is mounted to the other ends of the Z brackets. You can adjust how far in the light sits under the rear cowl, by where you make your bends.

I then made a license plate mount coming off the two tail light bolts, out of a metal plate.

I used a piece of plastic, which I found in a Telephone booth at the time,

:whistle: covering the phone book, to make a partial rear fender.





Post edited by: rstnick, at: 2007/06/23 18:25

I cut my rear fender so it will still bolt up and give a little mud protection. Not that I need it now.

Maybe I'm feeling backwards. I've always wanted to get rid of the plastic tail and accentuate the fender. Unfortunately, my seat is not long enough and I just end up looking "unfinished".