I love working on my Buell. I have enjoyed working on my other bikes, but none so much as my Firebolt. I am constantly doing modifications to my bike. I have always wanted to do something with the front belt guard and have been considering it and looking at all the options for some time. The stock part is lackluster, plain and kind of boring, kind of an eyesore on the bike in my opinion. There are a number of aftermarket belt gaurds available that are all worth considering. Some cost more than others. As far as I'm concerned, all of them look better than the look of the stock part.
If you're a little bit handy here is a mod you can do to your stock front belt guard that gives it that custom look and looks more interesting. The best part is it costs you nothing. Here's what I did: I removed the front belt guard from the bike and cut various holes in the belt guard. I used hole saws on a hand drill and measured and located the holes at appropriate intervals. You can opt on any variation of this design to make it your own and unique. I decided on a series of 1 1/4" holes that trace the path of the belt beneath:
...and a 2 1/4" hole right over the center of the front pulley:
After making the cuts I beveled the inner diameter edges with an Exacto knife and hand sanded them with light grit sandpaper rolled into a cylinder shape:
While I had the belt guard removed of course I wanted to clean up the surface rust as the whole idea of this mod is that the front pulley no longer hidden and is made visible. I used again light grit sandpaper to remove the surface rust:
I have always falled to understand why the part is not finished nor the metal protected with some sort of coating. I am considering what if any paint or metal protectant coating I may put on the pulley, but right now I am digging the bare metal look, although I know the rust will return very quickly. I will have to spend some more time with the rust removal because I didn't do a full and complete job of it now.
And here is how the modded front pulley gaurd looks on the bike:
If you're a little bit handy here is a mod you can do to your stock front belt guard that gives it that custom look and looks more interesting. The best part is it costs you nothing. Here's what I did: I removed the front belt guard from the bike and cut various holes in the belt guard. I used hole saws on a hand drill and measured and located the holes at appropriate intervals. You can opt on any variation of this design to make it your own and unique. I decided on a series of 1 1/4" holes that trace the path of the belt beneath:
...and a 2 1/4" hole right over the center of the front pulley:
After making the cuts I beveled the inner diameter edges with an Exacto knife and hand sanded them with light grit sandpaper rolled into a cylinder shape:
While I had the belt guard removed of course I wanted to clean up the surface rust as the whole idea of this mod is that the front pulley no longer hidden and is made visible. I used again light grit sandpaper to remove the surface rust:
I have always falled to understand why the part is not finished nor the metal protected with some sort of coating. I am considering what if any paint or metal protectant coating I may put on the pulley, but right now I am digging the bare metal look, although I know the rust will return very quickly. I will have to spend some more time with the rust removal because I didn't do a full and complete job of it now.
And here is how the modded front pulley gaurd looks on the bike:
