Y61 Skid Plate

[Maybell Hughs]

Im curious as to why so many feel the need for a skid plate for a street bike??? I've never seen so may posts on these and on people damaging their lower engine casings. I mean, this is not an adventure/dual sport bike by any stretch, so what the heck are ya'll doing??

I see your point but you want it there when you need it. IMO it would be good for protecting the oil pan from the errant rock but a bigger jolt would probably bend it. Don't care where its made don't like the unbraced front.

I have an SRC on my 2020 Tracer GT and put it on just for rock protection. I don't ride off road. However I do take long trips and have ridden thru some road construction areas that would certainly qualify as a dirt road with rocks. I have several scrapes on the bottom, some I know where they were obtained and some not. Once was pulling off the road onto a gravel area to fix my GoPro. Got a good scrape when i dropped off the pavement which was maybe 3", didn't look that bad but angle I came off and where the wheels were obviously made the drop worse. That would have been a tough hot spot to have been stuck. Another time was pulling into my driveway. We have valley gutters and scraped it as I was fully loaded and not being careful enough. So stuff happens and maybe these scrapes would have not hit or maybe just scraped the headers a bit.

So any skid plate is better than nothing, maybe. A bigger hit may be enough to bend the skid plate and damage the oil pan. IMO mine would bend the brackets before it would cause engine damage but is quite stout.

Not trying to talk you into one or the other but to give you my experience so you can make an informed decision. If you don't go off-road and just ride on the streets and don't get caught in strange places, IMO the one you have shown would protect from the rock or object thrown into the oil pan but probably not a tumbling rock that was turned on end as you went over it.

I've seen the posts. I've owned around 12 bikes over the years and covered a lot of ground, and have never had an issue with my oil pan or oil pan bolt being hit by anything or scraping anything(they are almost always the lowest point on the engine). Even on my cruisers, which sit way lower than a Tracer. I can see it being an issue for folks that have lowered it beyond the Yamaha 15mm, which I see a lot of as well.

Whether a harder skid plate would have handled Mr. Kelly's freak hit without causing a leak is unclear, but maybe things could have turned out much better. A stronger material could have at least spread out the hit more and not dented so deeply.

Whether it's an expensive skid plate or cheap, one thing that comes to mind is inserting a second layer of metal into the plate at the lowest point to help distribute the force a little further, which is what Mr. Kelly did with the replacement.

As noted, it seems important that the mounting brackets are designed to yield before putting a damaging amount of force into the engine cases. With no frame members anywhere nearby, there's a certain limit on this bike.

The skid plate on my KLR650 attaches directly to the frame, and is made of some incredibly strong 4mm thick aluminum alloy; it can and has taken some absolutely brutal off-road impacts from rocks, logs, etc. without the slightest fear of engine damage.

When I had a V-Strom, it also had a very strong skid plate that bolted to the crash bars (and thus the frame) at the front, and directly to the frame in the back via some some large engine mounting bolts. The bracket in the back would have yielded under heavy full-weight impact, but the next point of contact was the exhaust, so there was a ways to go before trip-ending damage.

There are some light-duty skid plates for V-Stroms that bolt to the engine, and these have indeed cracked cases and destroyed a few engines in highly inappropriate off-road usage. And there are plenty of V-Strom (and SV) owners with no skid plate, or only the stock plastic fig leaf, who stick to the pavement and have had no issues in many hard miles.

If you really want the absolute minimum, or don't like the doofy look of the SWM or others, there's also this type for the FJ-09 that basically wraps only around the protruding part of the oil pan; again, it's more of a defense against flying objects. I don't think there's anything that could take a full-weight hit bouncing over a curb.

It looks like Twisted Throttle has some stock of the SWM plate, so I am leaning thataway at the moment, plus perhaps adding a secondary steel plate inside in the oil pan area if there's room. That flappy protrusion at the front looks like absolute shite... not sure if it's worth modifying. It's not clear what that actually protects.

Personally, I'm in the middle - didn't get the cheapest, nor the strongest. Something in the middle. I'm no longer concerned to take that random trail with some gravel on it, no matter where I am or how far from home (and tools).

Look at most of your cruisers and how the frame, oil cooler, and general oil pan design and lower engine design are less "big flat face of brittle aluminum with nothing blocking debris from the front wheel" like the CP3. The new Tracer 9 is even more exposed as the exhaust is not as in the debris path from the front wheel.

I've had a Yamaha FZ6, CBR600RR, Kawasaki ZX6R 636 and a BMW F800GT and never put a skid plate on them. The CBR and ZX6R were fully faired and the exhaust ran under the oil pan so little more protection. They were bikes that were 100% on road and never even saw a gravel road. Once buying the BMW have done a lot of long road trips and for me the skid plate was insurance so I wouldn't wind up like @Clegg78 Already had a trip ruined when the BMW destroyed a rear wheel bearing. That's my reasoning.

What I love about this forum is the ability for folks to express different opinions and viewpoints on a subject. People can ask why and not get hammered - maybe some polite "now why would you think that".

Yeah, I think the exhaust on a lot of sportybikes and streetbikes actually offers more of a "buffer" between the tender oil pan and the hard, cruel world. Even if you squash a pipe haflway (and many have) you can make it home. The FJ/Tracer's unique exhaust just sort of leaves the oil pan out in the breeze on the left side.

Installing the skid plate was pretty easy, using a durable 3-point mounting system. It bolts directly to the frame with the same mounting points as the stock skid plate. This all makes it easy to remove for maintenance like oil changes and cleaning. I have read that some people have drilled holes in the skid plate to access the drain plugs for even easier oil changing, but I will not be going that route.

I have beat up my bike up something fierce this season, this skid plate included. I can recommend this product for sure - takes hits well, maintains shape well, deflects nicely off obstacles, and is quieter from getting hit by rocks from your tire than the metal options out there.

I just installed the AXP skid plate I ordered from Slavins Racing. Came well packed.

It can be installed with the SW Motec center stand installed. It also clears a Denali Mini Sound bomb horn installed in the stock horn location.

There are two washers included with it that are not shown in the instructions or the installation video. They go between the rear support block and the bracket on the bike that the bushings and threaded rod are attached to.

Skid plate did not come with any adheasive backed foam as shown in the install video. The plate I received was also tight against the water pump housing on the right and stator cover on the left sides of the bike. I put small rubber grommets at the point of contact to hopefully keep it from rubbing on those areas and to also maybe cause the HDPE to open up a bit under the added pressure/stress

I'm also eyeing the AXP HDPE skid plate for several reasons. A question to those of you who already have one and have ridden off road a bit, do you find the left and right extension plates that cover the water pump & stator interfere with your boots while braking, shifting or just stand on the pegs? Thanks for your insights - waiting for the snow to melt...

The stand is smooth all the way up and down. I applied a small amount of marine grease to the fittings where the stand mounts to the brackets and a small amount between the springs. Did you grease anything? I tightened it pretty well so perhaps that may help if not.

I have the AXP Racing bash plate on my Honda CRF300L and love it. I think it probably offers more protection than an aluminum bash plate. I worked in an art foundry for years and we cast some aluminum. I hated working with it. I hated welding it. I hated grinding it. It doesn't bend worth a damn. That being said, I have the aluminum bash plate from Touratech on my Tenere and also my BMW F750GS and like it because the bends are smooth, not sharp angles, which I think reduces the strength. The AXP does not reflect the sound and I think it will bounce back from most blows. Another thing I learned about all bash plates is to take them off if you are letting someone else change your oil or doing service that requires removal of the bash plate. I got my bike back from a service where there was a port to remove the oil drain plug in the plate but they still removed the plate and then cross threaded one of the bolts when putting it back on. I took it to a different shop and they tried to drill out the remainder of the bolt after they broke it off trying to remove it. So now I just remove the bash plate before taking it into a shop.

3a8082e126