Are There any good looking modified rear fenders?

I'm not trying to be cocky, but i have yet to see any pictures of a modified or cut rear fender on a bandit GSF 1250, that is good looking.

sorry if you cut yours with a hacksaw, square off below the liscence light, or some other hack job, throwing away the liscence light and rear turn signals, i dont mean to insult you, but i have yet to see one that is well done, and looks better than stock, imho.

if you think yours is the good looking one i havnt seen yet, post a good picture of it here, and hopefully without a house in the background taking up 90% of the picture, and thank you for letting me critique its design, and how it was done, and how it ended up looking.

i'm not going to be mean, i dont want to be argumentative, but its your post that i will respond to. hopefully this will allow someone who has a good looking rear fender mod, to showcase their work, and set a standard for others to follow. if that is the desired look, being that the bee-sting rear tail pointed look is so popular now with so many garage customizers (you), show me. please allow me the freedom to point out the ugly ones. creativity is a plus, poor workmanship is a minus. my stock item below, for comparison.

I think you're just hatin man sorry you didn't like my hackjob. I do though

posting what i did, set me up for being the bad guy.

i dont think the stock fender is the best looking rear fender ever made, and without seeing a clever looking modification, or one that is more than just removing some part of the stock item, in any fashion, its difficult to find one to copy that i like.

changing 'the look' of the stock bike is a welcome pastime, not only for me but many on this list. the rear fender modification, look change, is one that has been talked about on so many other threads, i thought it needed its own source link.

one of the options i have entertained, was trying to replace the stock item, with something easy on the wallet, and more stylistic.

this item from GSXR 600, is available on ebay for $25. it might take some fabrication to mount it, and make it look presentable, its food for thought. how to fit rear turn signals with this item, would need to be determined.

I haven't had much time but am trying to figure out a way to get rid of the rather hideous rear deflector setup without making it look like a hack saw job. I have noticed that the rear tail light assembly looks as though it was set up to have a clear spot on the bottom of the lens cover to act as a license plate light but is covered on the inside. If i can get that to work as a license plate i think there might be some hope.

i might explain what i did to mine, sorry for calling it stock. the plastic fender, is uncut.

i moved the liscence plate bracket up, and removed the side reflectors.
i removed the spacer under the liscence light, moving the light closer to the fender.
i replaced the clear turn lenses with orange, it seems to match my red body color.

suzukijo you might think about those intergrated brakes signals with the gxr fender. I myself like them and am rather considering one to replace my rear signals although i'm not sure how visible they once installed.

i think i know which ones your speaking of. it makes the brake/rinning lite, a turn signal by using led's. i have looked at them.

if i indeed buy the gsxr600 fender, i will post here, the effort to install it.
of course like so many other things, modifying the stock items, often ruins them if one wants to return back to stock. so careful consideration of what, how, needs to be cut/removed would be prudent.

the integrated brake/tail light/turn-signal is one answer to the rear turn signal dilemma.

Here's mine, which I think I've posted elsewhere already (taken after a long ride in the rain):



Ducati ST turn signals mounted on the licence plate light base, licence plate light removed and a window put into the bottom of the stock rear light lens to illuminate the licence plate which has been moved up. I'll be the first to admit that the bracket across the bottom for the pannier frames doesn't improve the look but practicality is a must and I'm happy with it for the moment (but see below) and I much prefer it to the clear LED tail light (with intregrated turn signals) I had for about a month and then sold on.

The main component needed to try my latest rear end design has just been delivered as I type this, though - a GSXR600K7 rear section:





This would, of course, get around the separate indicator problem and my plan is to merge (plastic weld) most of the GSXR tail onto the remains of a Bandit tail section (so the mountings and the stock seat still work) but....well, until today I haven't been able to take any proper measurements and it may simply not fit but there's only one way to find out!

The GSXR body section I have doesn't come with a licence plate mount but the plan would be to use a standard GSXR one like suzukijo has shown above as I want this to look like a factory build, not a hacked about DIY job.

Probably the most difficult part of doing this will be to retain a rear rack (but not the grab rail which my wife never uses) and pannier mounts. I'm expecting to have to modify the mounting frames to pick up in different places but, like I said, until now I haven't been able to take any measurements to figure out exactly what's needed.

Comments/suggestions welcome!

Good grief, sproggy. The UK really needs larger license plates. I can barely read it. Just kidding -- in all honesty though, it's a shame the plates there are so large. It completely dominates the rear end of the bike. Ah well. You've made the best of it!

Good thread by the way suzukijo. I've done some head scratching about this as well. I'd like to clean up the back end but not compromise functionality so I'll be watching this thread closely.

KenB said:

Good grief, sproggy. The UK really needs larger license plates. I can barely read it. Just kidding -- in all honesty though, it's a shame the plates there are so large. It completely dominates the rear end of the bike. Ah well. You've made the best of it!

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You think that plate's big? You should see the legal ones......

Legal size for a bike licence plate in the UK is 9" wide by 7" high. The one on my bike (in the picture) is 7" by 5.5" which is my compromise between legality and aesthetic appearance. It's still not legal but I've been running plates this size on bikes for years and never been pulled.

No way am I cutting mine if anything I wish it was longer and wider like my old V-Stroms. I use my bike for touring and the water spray splaches the underside of my topcase keeping the key area gritty. It also shoots water/grit/road grime all over the tail.

Roy said:

No way am I cutting mine if anything I wish it was longer and wider like my old V-Stroms. I use my bike for touring and the water spray splaches the underside of my topcase keeping the key area gritty. It also shoots water/grit/road grime all over the tail.

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This is true - with my guard cut down as shown it does throw a lot of water and dirt up the back of the bike but it's a situation I'm willing to accept in order to improve the aesthetics. In most cases function would win over form but not when it comes to that ugly lump of plastic. Anyway, it's not like it rains every day......it just seems like it at the moment.

Roy said:

No way am I cutting mine if anything I wish it was longer and wider like my old V-Stroms. I use my bike for touring and the water spray splaches the underside of my topcase keeping the key area gritty. It also shoots water/grit/road grime all over the tail.

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Agreed. I did a fender eliminator on my 919 and regretted it afterward. It looked fantastic with no fender and a Clear Alternatives light that replaced the turn signals. Since I wasn't touring with it, I figured it would be OK.



Well, within 500 miles the underside of the rear cowl and the tail light were all chewed up from debris from the rear tire. So, I won't be doing that mod again. But it would be nice to clean up the back end of the Bandit a bit without compromising functionality.

suzukijo said:

this item from GSXR 600, is available on ebay for $25. it might take some fabrication to mount it, and make it look presentable, its food for thought. how to fit rear turn signals with this item, would need to be determined.

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A Givi type turn signal mount would do the trick. I'm sure you can find a posting on the mega thread that has a pic. To give you a quick idea though, it's a simple square "U" shaped bracket that mounts behind the license plate light and places the turn signals inline with it.

i like sproggys out of the box thinkin, about the turn signals. but with the bags why not have them hanging out there.
i'm trying to get the gsxr fender coming, when it does, i'll post my efforts here.

in the meantime, any other personal expressions of your work, post it here.

suzukijo said:

i like sproggys out of the box thinkin, about the turn signals. but with the bags why not have them hanging out there.

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I use the bags maybe once a month on average - only when we go touring two-up. The rest of the time the bike doesn't wear the bags or the racks - only the top box for work. So it's a tricky compromise having turn signals that work with the bags but don't look bad when the bike's 'naked'.

As the GSXR K8 tail piece that you're planning on using mounts upwards onto a flat area of the undertray I'd imagine you wouldn't have too much trouble making up brackets to make it fit the Bandit. The main problem is that you'd have to either cut the rear section off the standard fender/undertray (irreversible) or remove the whole undertray and make/find a replacement.

Incidentally European K8 models have a slightly different tail piece with a moulded-in licence plate bracket and without the side reflectors:



I think the US-market one is neater.

But, you know, it would look a whole lot better without that half-a-brick sized licence plate light......

Hey Joe,

If your not going to trim your rear fender down, can you at least go over to Cycle Gear and spend $5 for a black license plate frame.

suzukijo said:

I'm not trying to be cocky, but i have yet to see any pictures of a modified or cut rear fender on a bandit GSF 1250, that is good looking.

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Not a bandit, but is this one okay or just another hack job?

Now that is a nice looking rear end. Bike, you say? What bike?

El Bandito said:

Hey Joe, If your not going to trim your rear fender down, can you at least go over to Cycle Gear and spend $5 for a black license plate frame.

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personally, i think the liscence plate frame look, looks like [mod edit].
plate frames are seperators, the seperate you from your money. the often break before the plate does. the plate frame offers no support, and just looks cheezy. cheap, dumb. imho

k8 600 fender coming i hope.

twist, no pic in your post. ??

sproggy said:

As the GSXR K8 tail piece that you're planning on using mounts upwards onto a flat area of the undertray I'd imagine you wouldn't have too much trouble making up brackets to make it fit the Bandit. The main problem is that you'd have to either cut the rear section off the standard fender/undertray (irreversible) or remove the whole undertray and make/find a replacement. I think the US-market one is neater. But, you know, it would look a whole lot better without that half-a-brick sized licence plate light......

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sproggy, k8 fender is coming i hope. yes it does look like it might be easily to adapt to the bandit, and yes the fender undertray may need to be cut, yes, the fender cut off altogether, and the new k8 600 rear section bolted on somehow. i'll see when it arrives.

i really thought starting this thread would bring out the multitudes of rear fender shots, but i may have sounded too threatening (quoting beavus, "are you threatening me" ).

Roy said:

No way am I cutting mine if anything I wish it was longer and wider like my old V-Stroms. I use my bike for touring and the water spray splaches the underside of my topcase keeping the key area gritty. It also shoots water/grit/road grime all over the tail.

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It would be really nice if they made a full rear tire hugger that would keep the spray off the tail. That would look pretty nice. A fender eliminator with a full rear hugger.

Joe,

Looking at the pic of the tail section again and knowing that you're capable on the tools. What about mounting the signal lights dirrectly to the side of the license plate light? It only requires two holes per side and a large flat washer to keep from the nuts from pulling through. There should be enough side material on the light to mount them and the wires would be hidden. If not the stock turn signals maybe some smaller aftermarket ones.

Just a thought.

suzukijo said:

twist, no pic in your post. ??

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They said the picture had a scantily clad girl in it and deleted it , but I never even noticed the girl, just the rear end (of the bike)....

twist said:

They said the picture had a scantily clad girl in it and deleted it , but I never even noticed the girl, just the rear end (of the bike)....

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If you want to show it, put in a link. My four year old daughter often sits in my lap while I cruise through the threads and I do not want to have to get into discussions about such images with her just yet