Rather than fork out around £90 for a hugger to protect my recently fitted remotely adjustable Hagon shock I have added a rubber flap similar to that which comes fitted as standard on my BMW R1100GS.
Before
After
Good idea, I was washing and polishing the bike today and wondering what to do about this problem. Now I know!
I got the ribber from here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141120177410#ht_2003wt_976
I bought a 200 x 200mm sheet x 2mm thick and cut to suit. I originally bought 4mm thick, but that was too thick.
£2.35 including post
The metal bit was something I just had laying around in the garage, but I guess washers would do the same job. It is riverted with 5mm rivets (with 7mm max fixing length)
You obviouly need to remove the wheel to get space for the drill and rivet gun.
The rivets obviously go into the battery compartment so remove the battery first!
Once the rivets were in place they didn`t protrude past the thin rubber layer on the battery compartment so no other protection to the battery was required.
I left the flap a bit short of the swinging arm as the gap will close up a bit when I sit on the bike. Mark Shelley2014-05-11 20:57:03
my version
See that recess in the underside of the guard above the riveted bracket? That’s where I glued my foam rubber flap made from an old back protector. It’s as thick as the recess is deep and goes down to just below the top of the swingarm. Fitted now for 10000 miles
Good jobs there, but I still think you can’t beat a nice hugger for looks and overall protection for the rear end, and £90 isn’t much when you consider the purchase and running costs of a bike. But what I draw the line at is shelling out several times that for a carbon fibre version.
Huggers look fine in black, but colour matched ones look hideous.
I tend to agree…but my wife loves the white one on her 390 Duke. Guess who has the job of cleaning the bikes?
If you ever do a bit of (even mild) green laning, it’s only a matter of time before the hugger will look rather secondhand. I might go down the rubber route on the Stelvio.
Jon
when I had my griso I found the hugger helped but did not protect shock well enough so made a sock for it out of old inner tube ,not pretty but worked .
Im now going to pinch all the above ideas for me 1100s,nice work I like
Rubber is generally good but…
Again this assumption that these bikes will only be used in fine dry weather.
Mike H2014-05-13 15:36:40
I stitched some velcro to the side edges of a piece of 5mm neoprene cut from an old wetsuit I have which was about 12" square, punched a string of holes along the top and bottom edges, threaded zip ties through them, wrapped around the shock, and presto! A very efficient, unnoticeable shock sock. Fitting time…2mins. saved myself £25 or so on a fleabay item. And becuase its black,youd never notice it unless you were told.