Fender Eliminated

A common modification a lot guys do with their bikes is a fender eliminator. This takes the "mud-flap" part of the fender and reduces it to a smaller, cleaner and all around prettier piece. So common that there a lot of manufacturers that make kits for some of the more main stream bikes.

There is one company that makes one for the VFR, Link, but I find it hard to pay 130 bucks for 5 bucks worth of hardware and some plastic. Or I'm just cheap.

Here's the stock fender for comparison


Quick layout of what I intend to remove; everything below the silver lines. Those two inner lines match the centers of the other existing holes. Tool of choice is a jig saw with a plastic fine tooth saw blade.



And, well, things don't always go as intended. Cut was going pretty good until I got to that tab when the blade jumped out and made a gnarly crack half way through the tab. So I cut the would-be tab out and decided to improvise with what I had.


Quick clean up with a disc sander and razor blade.


This is what I came up with as the new bracket. Not the sturdiest, but it works.


It's going to mount in between the rear reflector, so it had to be doglegged to fit.


Trimmed with shears for a cleaner look and some more holes bored out for mounting and what not.


Here's a quick fit up. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, looks A LOT better then the gaudy OE part.



But that's not the finish. Its sitting inside with a can of flat-black spray paint setting up for a coat in the morning.