Skid plate confusion

Standby the BMW Big Plate

Low sided into a ditch and did this - if I had the smaller plate it would have been much much more

I have one exactly the same as this one. I banged out the skid plate put it back on, Than I bought a used header off flea market and hang it on the wall, when I go to see it I will put the new (to me) header on.

Ron

After seeing all the scary pics posted here, I took out a third mortgage and ordered the BDCW skid plate and extra life insurance. Thanks for the valuable feedback, ya'll.

BTW, re BDCW as an FYI the matching center stand cover is on backorder which sucks IMHO.

I put a BMW Adventure bash plate on my standard GS.

As the late Davey Jones once sang..... and I'm sure it was about the BMW Adventure bash plate

"Aaaaaaaahhhh'm a believer"

While two up on a dirt road in teh Coronado Forest in southern AZ some washes stared to come through the road. They were pretty wide, and smooth so I kept my speed up around 50-55.

One dip looked deeper, so I stood up to look into it as I approached. Uh oh. Huge sheep's head rock in my path. Too late to brake, I moved over enough to miss the wheels, but the bike bottomed out right onto that sheep's head with a mighty "crack".

Thinking I really broke something and expecting an oil leak... I stopped to look. The bash plate had a two good creases, and a small crack in the aluminum. Very small.

The aluminum is thick, the rubber pad distributes the impact and the mounts are sturdy.

We smacked into that rock very hard. The impact was loud and physically jarring. The bash plate did a perfect job.

Jah-bless, you skirted a fall there. So, if the BMW skid plate took the impact and cracked in the process, do they make something that protects the skid plate from impact? I think Touratech makes a skid plate reinforcement plate. but then what protects the reinforcement plate? Where does the protection stop?

Anyway, my point is that if your protection needs protection itself, then maybe it is not protecting much in the first place.

I just installed the Jesse skid plate. $195. I tried to buy the Wunderlich but they were back ordered. The Jesse is made of 3.4mm aluminum and used larger rubber shock absorbers in the mounting.

I went with a skid plate from AltRider,I got from from Chad at Adventure Designs in Hayward Ca.It's aluminum,but it has a corrugated design for strength.The "wrap" around design protects your header and connector,plus it doesn't weigh a ton.


2011 GSA

Bash plates should be considered sacrificial. Would you rather crack a $300 aluminum plate or a $$$ engine case?

X2

I have already sacrificed the small stock plate and am in the process of installing a BMW Adv. plate, as soon as the weather warm up a little.


A little damage to the filter, but could have been worse.

Don't throw away the old one, you could put it under your shirt for an improvised bullet-proof vest when in shady neighborhoods.

Of course given that choice, I would rather sacrifice the plate. But I would rather not crack anything and have the plate scratched but otherwise intact. I understand that anything will crack if impacted with enough strength. As far as sacrificing the the plate or the engine, I found a way around it: Before going on a long trip, I send money to this Shaman living in the caves of Nigeria (not related to the Nigerian prince who keeps emailing me asking for money) and he sacrifices a goat and asks the trail gods to accept that in lieu of any of my motorcycles vital organs.

FYI, Touratech now sells a steel/rubber reinforcement plate/kit for their skid plate for those who ride this boxer twin like a cheap whore. I just sheared off the sacrificial rubber mount points on mine last weekend in Death Valley and the front mount rotated into the oil filter and creased it causing a small oil leak. I was using an aftermarket oil filter which is a bit longer or that wouldn't have happened (no more). A little epoxy putty on the filter and on the road again. The reinforcement kit and new rubber isolators are on their way.

Well, I bought the BDCW skid plate and had it installed on my 2008 R1200GSA. One thing that no one mentions is the loss of ground clearance when using thick plates with thick rubber mounts. Has anyone compared ground clearance? Sometimes it is better to avoid a problem than trying to solve it. I've already "used" my skid plate getting off a curb in Lebanon.

Also you have to keep an eye on this skid plate because any oil leaks (although a rare phonom. on the GS) will not seep on the ground but they will stay on the skid plate. I'm in the habit of keeping an eye on the ground below where I park my bikes but now I have to monitor the skid plate as well.

http://blackdogcw.com/files/ADVRIDER_mag_12skid_review.pdf

Well since you have bought one I assumed you had read this...it weighs 11 lbs...that is a lot of extra weight, but carried down low...

What surprised me it that although touted as being mounted to the frame, the front mounts are the stock BMW wimpy bolts [and spacers?]. At "intro" price of $349 it is in ball park of good after market plates...

I have one of Ernie's plates, well made, but like all of them if it gets hit hard enough the engine case could be damaged...even the BD plate if it gets a hit up front..

Oh yes, no loss of ground clearance...see article.

Ps...I recommend getting the center stand plate...I have displaced rocks with my front tire and had them jam up into the center stand plate lifting the rear wheel off the ground...without that plate getting anything stuck into the center stand could really ruin your day. Roll over or off, or get impaled..your choice.

Would be nice to have a chart summarizing and comparing pros and cons such as weight, coverage, ground clearance, price. I'm an engineer, I prefer short and sweet charts to extensive verbage. Will take your advice on the center stand protection. Thanks.

But as an engineer, empirical data would be hard to ascertain...

I bought the wunderlich for my hp2 it does the job but the twin head light Ernie and BMW plate are heaps better I would not recommend the wunderlich extreme for the money it arrived with nicks in it and the hardware is kinda cheap too just saying that's all.

I've been reading all the reviews here on skid plates, and it seems that a fair number of people like the BMW heavy-duty plate. Besides the reported difficulties installing the rear brace, one other area that concerns me is that there's no matching centerstand plate for the BMW skid plate. The skid plate does, however, seem to reach further back than other plates. Is the protection of the BMW plate enough that I shouldn't worry about a centerstand plate? The other option I considered is hacking off the rear-most square portion of the BMW plate (and not installing the rear-most mounting brackets) and instead installing a Touratech centerstand plate to go with it. Not sure if the two would mount on the same plane, or if this would create a snag potential if they're not level with each other. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

i weighed it before i put it on...8lbs is more like it.