Boredom + Cutting Wheel = $15 fender eliminator

So with all of the forest fire smoke making breathing outside downright dangerous, my cabin fever got ahold of me and out came the cutting wheel.


Yep. That could be cleaned up.



Licence plate moved up and prepped. Fire up the air compressor and get out the cutting wheel.



Fender cut and also, the side reflectors have been removed, moved to the rear fender and their metal supports cut off so they don't dangle from beneath the rear of the bike.



Used the wiring for the old license plate light to wire in two LED strips purchased from local auto store for $15. and double sided taped to underside of tail light. MUCH brighter than stock and lights up the whole road behind the bike. I was truly shocked at just how bright they are!



Much better. But taking the Wingrack and putting on the solo cowl also biases the before/after photo. A BIG thanks to all of you who posted similar mods, which allowed me to research exactly how I wanted to do this, and I hope this helps someone else considering the same mod.

A side view.

 

Nice job, when I got my 5th gen the fender was already cut. My plate sits literally right under the tail light!

 

I considered that, but I wanted the work to be subtle and clean enough to look stock, and moving it up farther meant deleting the rear reflector, which isn't a big deal I suppose. I can always move it up later if I want.

 

When I picked up my 5th gen this past January, it already had the back cut high, removing the stock reflector, but without a license plate light. I found the cut wire stuck inside the taillight, and thought about wiring up an led strip to light up the plate. Yours looks good and rear visibility is always a concern. Great idea for (another) winter project. Thanks for posting up pics

 

Looks good but I would call that a knee high skirt. I cut mine to a minny. If you take the rear cowl line and follow it you the cut line of the abs fender. That will leave you with a perfect flat spot for the fender and two perfect locations to mount the plate as high as it can go. I got two plate bolt led lights from ebay. They are soooo sweet. Just 1/4 of the light edge reflects on to the plate. Each 1/4 on each side facing the plate lights if perfectly. This is super clean looking, super easy and super cheap. And legal. You cant even tell there is a light unit of any kind in the day.

 

I didn't know they made LED license plate bolts. What a great idea. looks good.