Featured Justification For Sump Guard.

Detailed the Speed Twin(finally) the other day and saw the oil level was a bit high, and by a bit high I mean just about to the top of the glass. I've heard both sides of the coin on this- potentially disastrous, and not too big a deal. Either way once I saw it I wasn't comfortable with the situation. So I assembled the necessary kit to bleed off a bit of oil and get the level back down to where it should be. When I went to remove the Tec Sump Guard I put on when I got her, I saw that they(the same dealer service dept that overfilled the oil) either didn't fasten all the screws on properly or neglected to return one screw altogether during the last servicing. One screw completely missing. So FTR- Triumph dealership #2 in my AO are a bunch of incompetent jackasses, but that's another story.

Anyhoo- So I get the guard off and give it a quick inspect, and other than the scrape on the forward L side I'd mentioned in a previous thread there was a puncture on the opposite side. A puncture that went full thickness and all but penetrated straight through like a bullet. Guard is easily about 4mm aluminum.

I took these photos while the guard was still wet from a rinse so its overall condition looks worse than it actually is. Other than simple weathering, the scrapes and puncture, whatever it was, are the only damage. I replaced the factory screws with stainless hex bolts.

So… I said all that to say: These guards are definitely money well spent. I can't imagine how pissed off I'd be if that plate hadn't been there to protect the bike from that strike.

 

So far I don't have any damage from debris off the road making it through the holes in the skid portion, but that's a definite possibility. The bottom-most two should be eliminated and the top two made much smaller, perhaps with an increase of 2 more corresponding holes. The necessary removal of the guard for oil changes is bit of an annoyance, but that should subside after you do it a couple times. There are much nicer guards out there but ultimately they're just going to get the crap beaten out of them like this one so simpler and cheaper is definitely the way to go. I've seen people install screening inside the vent holes matching the type on the side covers that looks really cool so that's an option for the intrepid. IIRC they used self-tappers. I'll probably eventually just repaint this thing from time to time as damage becomes more and more noticeable.

 

Been out hitting it in the rain so it's lost a bit of its luster...