Sorry if this is in the wrong part of the forum. Move if you need to.
Has anyone out there made their own chain guard? I don't feel like having to search and buy an OEM rear tire hugger for my F3. I'm not a fan of the look and they are just hard to find in decent condition. I also don't like the ebay kind with the "CBR" cut out, it is too blingy for me.

I have a friend that is great at welding and fabbing. Anything I should be aware of? Any clearance I should give around the chain to make sure it doesn't rub? Anyone have pics of their creation?

Here is a MS paint version of my idea:

I'd only mount it to the little bracket on the swing arm already shown by the red arrows. I would think it would be ridged enough to not hit the chain up front if made correctly. Or I suppose I could mount something to that little tab a little further up on the swing arm.

Thoughts?

 

I've seen a few homemade ones. The last one I saw, the guy had cut out the guard from sheet aluminum - then coated w/ black bed-liner. It looked pretty good.

 

Shouldn't be too hard. I would use mild steel though, unless your friend has aluminum capabilities such as with a tig welder. But even then, thin aluminum is a pina to weld. You can buy thin guage sheet steel just about anywhere... lowes, home depot and most farm market stores. The thin steel can easily be welded with tig or mig.

If he is doing all the fab work, then I would just leave it up to him. If you want to help or make your own style, go to the store and buy some tape and poster board. The poster board can be used as a template. Cut the shapes you want, such as the sides and top, then tape them together. After that, you can cut some portions of tape and unfold it so you can have the proper shape to trace onto the steel. Keep in mind though, if you don't the equipment for bending, you will have to piece it all together, so you may end up welding 3 to 4 pieces. Then the tabs to hold it on.

You may also want to just consider buying a guard from a different bike. Most newer bikes only use a single guard insead of an entire cover. You could probably easily use one and just fab up a few tabs instead of creating the entire guard.

Or, there is still the option of fiberglass. It would be much easier to get the shape you want. You could simply buy some sheet plastic, cut the shapes you want and overlay a few layers of fiberglass, sand it and paint it.


I would give about .250" around the the chain. That should give enough clearance. The top portion of the chain doesn't really move that much between the sprockets, so .250" should be fine.

 

^ THANKS!

Those are some good alternate ideas! I wonder what kind of other chain guards will fit or be close enough to fit?

Great ideas and thanks for the estimated clearance too.

I'll have to show you you guys what I came up with when I can.

 

No need to do any welding. Choose your sheet metal. Design, pattern, & cut your basic chain guard shape (score & fold/bend), which is basically one straight & long piece. Then, rivet the bracket pieces to the guard. Rivet tools are fairly easy to use.

FYI, some factory plastic chain guards are made in 2 or 3 pieces of plastic w/ the main chain guard riveted to the brackets. You'd really never know though unless you took them off & looked. The SV650's is like this, among others.

As mentioned, you could buy a chain guard for another bike. Cut off the plastic brackets, fab up some new sheet metal brackets, but *rivet* them on, & there ya go.

Good luck w/ your project.

 

Yeah, I like that idea too by using a stock guard off say a F4 (its pretty close) then rivet it to whatever I can find for a bracket. Good idea! Thanks!