Thought I’d share my little fettling session with everyone.
My latest ride, XT660R, came with a manufacturers sump guard, but I felt it failed to protect certain parts of the engine . . . so I thought I’d knock one up myself . . . . .
Start with some cardboard and the original sump guard . . .
Trim the cardboard to a shape / size by mounting it onto the bike using the original fittings and you get this . . .
Bend and tape the trimmed cardboard template on the bike and you get this . .
Mark up your alloy plate using the trimmed template . . .
Cut out the template shaped alloy and start drilling holes and creating some depressions for the mounting bolts to sit in, using my favourite tools . .
The start doing your Uri Gellar thing and get bending, using the original guard as a guide . . .
Then, with a few bends in place, test fit to make sure the holes you’ve drilled line up . . .
Once you’ve got the mounting points sorted, you bend the edges of the guard to make them more conformal to the engine . . . and “Voila" you got one home made sump guard. . . . .
Still got some finishing to do, but in the main that’s it, job done.
Here we see the cardboard template and the nearly finished alloy item side by side . .
Steve T
