[choobidoobi]

Hi all. Am mackling together a headlight guard from some leftover st/steel mesh. Its fairly heavy duty stuff but confident itll look brill if I get it all welded and mounted properly.

Three important questions before I get going tho:
One – is there a legal restriction on the amount of coverage by the grill (ie 'blocking' light from the headlamp units)? and is that why touratech stipulate 'for off road use only'?

two – whats the best method of welding a good grade of stainless? I have read that gas arc is the best way forward? (I will need to recruit someone to do this for me)

three – I have a problem fixing the guard to the bolts under the nose at the front (see TT's example below) since one of my bolting points is chipped off at the corner of my fairing. Anyone have any ideas of where else / how else to fix this more robustly – as I said it does weigh some...
or should I tap some new usefully positioned bolting points – like through the metal plate which sits behind the 'nostrils'??

Any handy tips welcome !

 

[hotbulb]

I don't think there's any legality problem in the UK(but I could be wrong!). I suspect, from looking at the TT catalogue, that in Germany all add-ons have to be TUV-approved, and suitably marked and documented. If they're not tested/approved, they mustn't be used on the roads. At least, that's my thought.

 

[Oloff Burger]

Hi,

This will probably not help you, but i've attached some pics of mine. The one i made is smaller than yours and i've squeesed it inside the fairing. Took a bit of bending and gentle persuasion to get it to fit, but this way i could secure it to the fairing attachment frame on the inside. It's bent so that it's about 1cm from the headlight and i hope this will be far enough to stop a rock and protect the light. I did try it on the outside first, but was wary of drilling holes on my already cracked and sun damaged fairing.

I used an old bbq grid and cut it to size. Smoothed off the edges and sprayed it black with Halfords heat resistant spray.

Not nearly as professional as yours, but mine is hidden away.

 

[Cookie]

In Germany it´s illegal to tamper with lighting; putting a lampguard in front of the lights means to partially blocking the light. That´s why TT clarifies that the guard is not allowed for public road use.

The tucked-away lampguard looks really good, I must say - however I don´t think it´s the idea of the lampguard. If you have a stone hitting the regular-fit lampguard it may partially pass through the guard and - if mounted in the original way - still not hit the glass; the tucked-away version will not protect the glass in these cases as the guard is more or less on the glass. Anyways, it looks really good and if I wouldn´t need the lamp guard for real protection on tour I´d probably do it the same way.
Cheers
Chris

 

[Oloff Burger]

Chris,

You are correct in saying that it probably won't do the job of protecting the lights in that position. I wanted to fit it this way temporarily to see how it looks before changing it to the outside and drilling holes in the fairing. I really like the look and have ordered some PVC one's off e-bay that stick onto the lights with velcro.

If i can fit them between the mesh & light and in that way offer some more protection to the lights, i may just leave it as is. I hope that the 1cm clearance i have between the mesh & lights along with the PVC covers underneath would do the job.

I'll have to stay away from German roads though!:hitler:

 

[Cookie]

1cm should be plenty, I´d think. BTW, German cops don´t seem to worry much about the headlamp guards; it´s more a factual thing of illlegality which the manufacturers have to provide notice of than getting fined on the road, I think. I had the TT version ordered last year and did return it because it just didn´t fit, thus I´m still looking for a well-fitting part.
Cheers
Chris

 

[dod]

I have a factory wire mesh headlamp guard on my Triumph Scrambler that did not come with any warnings or off-road markings so I assume that it is not a problem in UK.

 

[choobidoobi]

Cool. Does look good. Thought about trying inset it like this but the guage of my stainless steel mesh renders it hard to bend to shape.
Have cut a bracket to meet the main centre fairing bolt and will tap a couple of rods through the nostril plate to poke out and meet the bottom end. all this and a good dose of welding up and should be strong enough to take a brick end! Will post up some shots in the bodgers section if I ever get round to completing this using the materials I have!

Thanks for the advice guys.