Review: KTM LC4adv CF skidplate

Part I: Product appearance and installation
(Part II: field testing to occur after my bike is repaired... (soon))

Background
Andrew of www.adventurersworkshop.com asked me to test a product he is considering carrying: a Carbon Fiber Skidplate for the KTM LC4 (640) Adventure manufactured by Carbon Performance in Europe. (If you haven't noticed the "schwag" link at the bottom of the page replaces the "Gear" link that used to have a little pic at the top of the page.)

If you need something check his website out or tell him your needs; he is a very helpful guy and may be able to help you even if you don’t see it listed on his site. The same manufacturer (Carbon Performance) that made this skidplate is also designing a set of tankguards for the LC4adv at Andrew's behest Here's to Andrew!

The product



You've got mail!
So the skidplate arrived very well packaged (good job Andrew).


Something very sexy about CF, especially when it's shiney Here's some preliminary looks:





Inside not shiney (like the bottom of your engine is gonna care )


Comparsion
So how do the two skidplates visually compare? Here are a few shots off and on the bike:


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Front Right:


Underside:


Front Left:




Installation
My bike is a 2003; you will need to ask Andrew if this product will fit your model year. It does not attach at the same points as the stock aluminum skidplate. The stocker attaches with one bolt in the front and four on the bottom as you saw above. The CF skidplate does not bolt to the bottom, rather it’s shape hooks onto the frame in the back so that there is no openings on the bottom and nothing to snag




Here is a close up. Note the CF peeking out in the middle; that is the formed lip that catches the frame in back. A nice design idea as there are no openings or snags (bolt heads) on the bottom. We'll see how it holds up soon.

Didn't see it? Keep looking - Waldo's in there...

The installation will require the one top bolt, two sheet metal clip nuts, and two of the bolts from the bottom. I wonder if rubber grommets would be a good idea?



by this time my assistant was already sleeping on the job… boy is it hard to get good help these days!



More Mounted Pics:



Field testing to come soon (as soon as my bike is repaired and I can beat on it! )

Dead sexy....

Now, go try to hurt yourself.

CC

You've got about eight weeks before he's trying to eat all your sockets. DAMHIK.

Hey, there's no hole in that thing for the drain plug.

Andrew is good about trying to meet peoples needs with product. It's a nice looking piece Meat... now go ride it over some boulders.

You get a batt. box yet?

Scuderia ordered it last week - my only free days are weekends so I am hoping this saturday will be the end of my dealings with Casper Mountain Motosports...

Once the battery is secure (and the oil leak is fixed) (oh, and the MT21s are on ) (oh, and mini-meat has on a KTM coozie ) then it will be time to make that pretty skid plate suffer the wrath of all us no so purdy people!

I heard from... dag? that once they are scuffed you can clean em up and shoot them with the krylon clear and they look purdy again. dat would be pretty cool!

the whole point of this thing is to protect the belly of the beast from abrasion and intrusions - but I am guess it is also to raise the footprint (impact to surface area) so that the hit is not so "pointed". or is that poignant (sp?)...

lots of great MC things going on right now for meat pop (If I can hijack loaded's style of referencing myself in the 3rd person :huh) - alot more than I thought with the kid expenses and the wife on SDI for a while.

whole lotta luv flowin thru this screen people! now I am gonna go dry my eyes and... and, um I know what people say:

GO TO DISNEYLAND!!!

So i gotta lock up the sockets too?!? :huh Dang this munchkin business is complicated...

Plug? we gots some of dem, it just wasn't installed:

I will take that as an order! Just awaiting repairs and then I will be in trouble

the kid? don't wory... there's a drain plug

nice plate meat... lets see it do some rock sliding

good thing I ain't in Southern Louisiana anymore...

That's the perfect kind of help to have. Quiet(most of the time), and works for food.

Great write up so far! Can't wait to see the field testing results!

thanks,
Andrew

(exhale) phew... da boss is satisfied!

I am shooting for the repairs this saturday (plz Scuderia!) so the field testing should commence shortly thereafter

EDIT: this just in - Scuderia doesn't have an appt. until next saturday so we are on hold people. My $6 part will be in this week but they are overbook for saturday.

patience is a virtue but boy does it suck sometimes being virtuous.

Well, finally got something to add to this poor thread: field testing results for the skidplate from Andrew's Adventurersworkshop. I went down to the Kernville WARPED AdvRider event last weekend. I logged about 6-700 road miles and about 100 dirt (terrible ratio but the meet wasn't close to me).

Under light use (tarmac) the skidplate has performed flawlessly. As expected the skidplate is quieter than the stock Aluminum plate, likely by reflecting less engine noise. It also does a good job of deflecting debris thrown up by the front wheel (except for the piece of sheet metal I found recently but no skidplate would have helped in that situation).

Under medium use (off-road w/out high centering) the skidplate has performed well. It does a fair job of deflecting debris thrown by the front wheel, but did not deflect all in the muddy conditions encountered last weekend. I wonder what skidplate (shy of the rallye types) would do this. Here are some pics:

Right side:


Left:





I also feel it faired well against small to medium-sized rocks flung by the front wheel. Throughout the weekend I hear many "thunks" as rocks spit up and deflected away from the skidplate and found no damage. I am in the process of cleaning the bike and will post pics if any damage is found.

This leaves the heavy-duty off-road use category. I have failed to find any obstacles within reach of my skill levels when I visited around Kernville (MotoMike found some for himself but I will leave that story to him ). I hope to visit another OHV park in the eastern Diablos soon as I saw good rock formations that I should be able to use soon.

Big question to the interested parties: how important is high-centering in your riding? Anyone ever destroyed a skidplate on their bike? Did it do its job but require replacement or did it not do its job in any way? I am planning on finding a local curb and high centering just to give it the final test - is this what you potential buyers want to see?

Beat the crap out of it! It appears that it has performed quite well indeed!

I need to check in with our own Bojangles to see how his faired as well.

I think we can safely assume that the skidplate did a really decent job of handling the off road experience quite well but I'll reserve the right to comment on the final bash test.

thanks again!
Andrew

My pleasure Andrew, glad the delayS didn't sour the experience for you.

I see I have my marching orders

Yup, me, on my Husky TE 610-E, doing about 120 km/h, through a creek, took some air coming into it (wide creek, no water, flat bottom, on a dirt road), landed in the creek bed, suspension bottomed out, an iceburg type rock (little bit sticking out and god only knows how much was under the dirt) sticking a few inches out, caught the skidplate and ripped 'er clean off... fark.. did it make an noise.. and it felt like the Hulk had hit the bike with a 15 pound sledge hammer ! I locked brakes up, hopped off, fearing the worst, no skidplate (bashplate as we call 'em in Oz), rode back, saw the rock with a big Alu. "gash" on it, plate had a hole punched in it and all mounts ripped flat. It was held on by hooks going over the frame rails and bolted through the skidplate to the hooks.

Here is a pic from the manufactuers site



Did it's job, wasted the skidplate, saved the bike. Sure as hell would have punched a hole in the engine without it.

I am more interetsed in a Ralye replica plate and hope to convice a mate who is a wizz at that shit to make me one, when I get my 640 Adv.

I am waiting with avid interest for Andrew F to report if the revised HB bars are any good

So far the reports are very good and I have placed a standing order for 20 pieces to comes to me next month. They changed the design and the mount of the cross bar to be a lot less stressed and now has vibration mounting hardware. I'll get pictures as soon as possible.

thanks,
Andrew

Sweet ! Great stuff as ever Andrew !

Just an update:

I another couple of trips with the skidplate and no problems. More rock hits with some very large sounding rock hits in Clear Creek (BLM Cali). Clean it up and I can't find an serious marks!

I was waiting to finish up this review until I could get a good high center rock hit to really test the strength of the build. I am really focused on this because it looks so thin! However, maybe that is because I am not a Carbon Fiber person - I never had CF before.

Well, I found some pics that make me feel a little better about the thickness. These are two pics of KTM Factory Race bikes,

The first is KTM's Factory Baja bike note the skidplate:


The second is one of KTM's Factory Dakar bikes: (thanks for the closeup KTiM ) note the thickness:


If its good enough for them then it is probably good enough for us! I will still be trying for a high center but at this point I am thinking that the quality of the build on these things seems good to me and they will probably deal with most things we would throw at them!

Someone asked me recently for more information so I am finally posting this. In my attempt to finish up this review - no high centering, sorry - during my hiatus from riding (injury recovery) I wrote to Carbon Performance, the manufacturer of the skidplate, to ask them some questions based upon their website's information and ask about the testing they performed on the part prior to releasing it. Here is their reply:

I thought that bit of information, in conjunction with other infomation gathered above might help ease concerns about the ability of CF to perform adequately in this application.

Again, from me.

What's the status on this thing...

Seems like no one really went down a rock trail with this plate. Is it 'carbon', or 'carbon kevlar'. Big difference as the added kevlar will make sure the stuff stays together, while carbon would crack up and fall into pieces after hitting a serious rock.

I don't buy this 'MX tested' stuff, since we all know an MX track is less hard on skiddplates (hell a MX bike runs without one!) compared to enduro/rally.

The Rally skidplates are thick and well layered with kevlar!