Ah is the Acerbis the blue top front half???? I was really looking to leave the top standard and fit a "hugger" low down to replace the standard short half hugger and cover far more of the tyre to keep the water off the engine as well as off me!!!!! Thanks and ps fortunately the weather looks good at the moment hehe....

yes he has removed the standard upper fender and replaced it with an ascerbis one

OEM fender mod
 

I'm thinking of modding the existing fender to create a beak (ala F800GS and triumph Tiger 800) and mount the forward section down on the tyre (ala Husqy Nuda 900) - I'll have to fabricate a bracket out of aluminium and/or carbon arrow shafts.
I've done a styling mockup in paper-mache (used the orig fender as mold) - see attached. Currently both pieces will come out of one standard fender, and the bottom piece can actually be a bit bigger - but I don't want to block airflow too much to the radiator.
There's a tool storage container supporting the fender in the side view - there'll actually be a gap there (between the fender and tyre - with the final bracket prominently visible I imagine).
Also thinking of chopping the light cowling (hence the black tape) - maybe a black flyscreen floating on top (ala Buell Ulysses).
The beak will eventually contain 2 x LED driving lights: http://www.bikevis.com/motorcycle-cr...aux-light.html (BTW, bikevis say you can order 1 x 10deg and 1 x 60deg as a set as long as you arrange it prior and during your order)

Mock Up #2
 

This is made with better glue-based paper mache - more accurate.
Still playing with the exact form of the lower portion.

Liking it. Are there no other front mudguards that could be used which would only require a bracket being made to fit?

Thanks, and no - the fork protectors are an issue with anything you try to mount on the wheel - I don't want to mess with them.
The chopped down XT fender coincidentally (physically) fits nicely in there - and I want to keep the XT theme - I think it still looks immediately identifiable as an XT ... just (IMO) better and still looks dynamic. I've seen plain/road fenders installed, and frankly, they look pretty lame/docile - it's not just a practical exercise: I'd rather put up with water in my visor than ride an ugly bike.
Worth mentioning that my inspiration is the Husqvarna Nuda front fender - yes, I have thought of mounting that too ... but I think it will lose its XT-ness and look like like I bunged a Nuda fender on it.
The project is on the back-burner (for now). I have a business I have been neglecting, and if this is anything like my tubeless wheel conversion (must do a write-up for that in the forum) it will be lengthy and all-consuming.