Lowers with guards combo

Sometime back I piped off that lowers with the guards would not be possible. Me and my big mouth. I'd bought a package deal of slightly used factory side cases, racks, lowers and tail hugger intending to resell the lowers. Well, I get to looking and think that just maybe I might be able to make things work. Turned out to be both harder and simpler than I was expecting. So if anyone else cares to proceed don't ask for a pattern cause I simply winged it!

With some minimal cutting and maximum sweating and swearing I was able to modify the factory lowers to adapt with the Renntec guards. Biggest obstacle was guesstimating the hole locations by mostly eye balling it and then test fit, trim, repeat and repeat and....
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They look really good. Thanks for the pics.

Thought I would throw this out here that I have a black Powerbronze bellypan that's cut out to fit the lower tube mount for the Renntec guards. Being modified as such makes it usefull for only a Bandit with engine guards so if anyone is interested send me a PM. Also have a black factory tire hugger hanging around as well and a Suzuki DB smoked touring screen. All items can be had for half price shipped to US.

GregH said:

They look really good. Thanks for the pics.

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+1

If anyone else plans to do this I'll pass along a few pointers that I learned. The biggest issue is properly locating where the tube will actually come through the fairing. I removed the upper rear fairing fastener and placed the lower over the guard. Also you need to use the radiator mount location with a long screw driver or punch holding it in place to help with hole placement. This gives a general idea but you won't know how far in it will wind up being on the tube as it curves into the guard mount. I did top point first and used a one inch hole saw bit then a dremel cutoff wheel to the outer edge. This needs to be angled to match how it will slide on for installing on both upper and lower holes. My first hole was cut too high cause I went with the bar mount location and didn't account for how far out on the guard it would wind up. Lesson learned as the result was elongating it lower to where it should of been. Very hard to eye ball or measure accurately. The material is stiff enough that the slit cut to the right upper and left lower holes had to be widened to near tube diameter to fit over the tubing. The dremel with a little drum sander worked well to shape and smooth edges. Right lower fairing mount bracket hole is blocked by the guard and unusable so I put a small bolt with bonded rubber washers there which holds the splice cut together. It's snug to the tube anyway and has no play. The bracket just touches the inside of the fairing with the grommet. Biggest thing is take your time and test fit, trim a little and repeat. Anyone interested I'd be happy to give measurements but finding relevant reference points and angles is the hard part. Other than one slight miscalculation it turned out really well though! If I'd had another set to practice with it would of been much easier!

It's amazing how the lines of those lowers match (are parallel to) your engine guards.... looks fantastic! And as reluctant as I am to see hiway pegs on a bike, your's are rather descrete and beg to be used.... they too look great!

Quite the package, and functional too.....

I like it.

Just a quick question for you Mtn Trax regarding the lower fairing. Combined with the fenda extenda does the lower fairing help to keep the area around the front of the engine and header pipers much cleaner?

How functional do you find the lowers for weather protection?

They seem to keep the motor cleaner but the pipes in front still get some spray off the tire. I know my lower legs and knees were dryer than before so they do deflect some of the water away. I rode for 4 days in a row of mostly rain and my upper body was much wetter than the legs were. Didn't have my ZG touring screen on yet at that point. Just to mention there are a couple other choices for lowers other than the factory set. TCP which makes the oem set for Suzuki and I see Powerbronze now makes them for much less coin.

MtnTrax said:

They seem to keep the motor cleaner but the pipes in front still get some spray off the tire. I know my lower legs and knees were dryer than before so they do deflect some of the water away. I rode for 4 days in a row of mostly rain and my upper body was much wetter than the legs were. Didn't have my ZG touring screen on yet at that point. Just to mention there are a couple other choices for lowers other than the factory set. TCP which makes the oem set for Suzuki and I see Powerbronze now makes them for much less coin.

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Thanks mate, I like the look of the Suzuki lowers. Yep...they are on the expensive side and that had me curious as to how effective they are. I have a nice Ermax belly pan fitted to my bike, but I'm thinking it might look a bit weird when I fit my long awaited ZG touring screen. I reckon the lowers would balance the whole bike out nicely but it's a lot of money to spend on a cosmetic make over......but then again Thanks for the info.