650ss rear mudgaurd

Hi Kevin.

I took some (none-genuine) mudguards ...off my 650SS, which are hung in the shed. 

The front is the heavy valanced style, with brackets.The rear pretends to be "original" deep valanced but puzzled me until I stood a few feet away from the bike and realised it didn't follow the curve of the tyre. Ie. too small.

It was difficult to spot from pictures I took when first collected the bike.

Everyone's taste is different. I fitted a stainless front 19", bought at Stafford classic show, drilled it to suit fitting quite close to the tyre.

The rear was in a bare metal state, bought with a lot of parts. Previous owner said it was from NOC. He didn't like it. So with those brackets (lift handles) plus the originals...neither suited the pre-drilled holes!! Lot of head scratching ...

I fitted blank grommets in those holes, gritted my teeth, marked out and drilled new holes.

Put rear wheel back, lived with it for a few weeks, scrutinised from all angles. Decided I liked it, took it to a recommended chroming co. at Leeds. Brilliant job! Well pleased.

See if the club have stock of the style you want, or one of the dealers.

Hope this helps.

Tim S

We had our Atlas  rear guard welded and rechromed , it did not last very long .welds split chrome peeled. Its now been brazed and patched internally to give strength. Filled and de-chromed ,and now painted black along with the front guard.  Its for riding not a show bike.

The rear guards have another oddity. As pressed, they had a flat part inset from the curve. This flat turned in at the lower front left to deflect road dirt in away from the swinging arm. It is about 2" x 2". On bikes after about 1963  this piece no longer exists..so it has another couple of mm tyre clearance.  But if you look carefully, you will see it appears to have been cut off in the works by a bloke with tin snips. In other words, the pressing and trimming machinery was not altered.

As my boss once said: "we seem to know more and more about less and less until we know absolutely everything about nothing at all..."

Also..my frame was not true so the tubular spacer on one side are the top was at a slight angle. This meant than the weight from the back of the seat caused the sides of the guard to flex slightly until a vertical crack appeared.

I filed the space to square units end, and wire brushed and sanded inside the guard until it was totally clean  and araldited half of a 12" stainless steel rule along the edge. It's still there, not bending or cracking after maybe 15k miles.

 David, have you got a picture of the features, you are describing?

Cheers

John

 David, have you got a picture of the features, you are describing?

Cheers

John

Just read this, John

 It's a bit hard to get under but it'll give me something to do tomorrow evening.

This evening I took three Nortons out for just a couple of miles each.  Fun for me...but maybe not for the neighbours!

Back to Kevin's question. Is there an answer? I just bought a 16H toolbox. It's not a perfect copy. The hinge is poor but it is the right shape and size and looks far better than not having one. And before posting here, I might well be the only person to know the defects. The steel is very soft mild steel sheet. Which makes sense for someone to make them using rollers etc. But I don't know about guards. Aren't Restoration Spares one of the outfits that do them also?

There is currently an original slimline rear mudguard on eBay.

Very very poor condition but cheap enough if you've got the sheet metal skills and time/patience to do the necessary repairs.

Hello Now most Indian made Slimline  Mudguard  look the parts  but not all are finished in the right way  As some ether have No tags for the rear light wiring Or and No Bridge peace for the rear mudguard stays  Some are chromed but NO holes drilled  witch when you drill holes they  have more chances  of  contracting the tin worm virus  so be careful on what you buy yours  anna j