KTM 690 Skid plate - pilot project

This spring I was looking to buy skid plate for my newly purchased 2008 KTM 690 Enduro. There is lot of good options out there, some reasonably priced, some not so reasonably priced. My favourite was Adventure Spec skid plate, but to "heavy looking". Brake cylinder coverage was nice addition. Flatland racing skid plate also looked good, clean and "light weight" look. I also considered KTM skid plate, some debated it bends to easy, but that way it soaks hits, and its easy to bend it back. And its cheap. Few other options too.

But in the end, my creative side prevailed and I decided to make one for my self.

After few days of lying under the bike and measuring, using Solid Works and paper models, I was satisfied with the result. Then I unfolded CAD model and cut 5 mm aluminium sheet on water jet. There were 3 separate parts - left, middle and right. Every part then folded to specific angles and welded together. I used solid aluminium blocks to fabricate those square blocks with tubes that enters the bikes frame (I did it in the hurry, that's why it looks so sloppy), then welded them to the skid plate.

Lot riders complain about buzzing sound from skid plate area, so I used rubber spacers (mounted to the skid plate) to eliminate vibration and buzzing. That worked out amazing.

Then I made upper bracket out of 5 mm aluminium, measured everything once again and welded it to the skid plate.

At the end - sand shooting and powder coating to black.

In his fantastic Advrider thread, Noah/RoninMoto wrote about how he broke part of the frame where skid plates attach to the bike, on the front. Apparently, skid plate was loaded with some parts (sprocket, if I recall correctly, but same can happen with mud) so it stressed mounting points of the frame, cracks appeared and collapse was inevitable. Off course, Noah is pushing his bike to the limits and chances are very small something like that could happen to me, but it was something to think about. So I made two slots in the upper front part of the skid plate and used plumbing clamps to secure skid plate attaching it to the upper part of the frame. Result is not pretty, nor is necessary, but its as close to "unbreakable" as it can be.

Also, I made small protective part for rear brake cylinder (copy/paste Touratech, so not for sale), so "belly" of the bike is all covered.

After hole season of riding (including one enduro race) with the bike, I have reasons to be proud of my skid plate. It performed very well, it took some serious hits, but it looks undamaged. I closely inspected frame sections related to skid plates, and no damage there too. Few close ups:

And few from some distance:

I wont be making this for sale as I currently don't have time to make everything I need for small series production, but I wanted to share this project, maybe somebody will get own ideas.