I saw alot of you guys have removed your belt guard. I'd like to take mine off. I'm going for a less is more look on my SB (slowly but surely). My question is, does it actually serve as protection for the belt or the rider/passenger? The bottom of it is open to the road, which is where I could see debris from the road doing damage to the belt, but there's no protection there. Then again, it's gonna take some serious debris to jack that thing up.

So, if I take it off, am I shortening the belts life span?
Is it just a cosmetic accessory?
Is it there for our protection?
Or did the MoCo just put it on there so those with the chrome bug would spend more money in the parts dept (mine's wrinkle)?

 

No issues with premature wear... its more a protection for rider/passenger.
They look great with the guard off IMO. Go for it!

 

My .02 leave it on..one little rock and your done...I never understood why you would take it off,and some take off the top one too,I know there will be alot of guys to chime-in to say"I haven't had one in year's" no problem...your choice

 

Hoping for a unanimous response here is like crapping in one hand and wishing in the other. I'll go best of seven unless one hand fills up first.

 

I've never run one and been fine...........your choice

Plus on a Dyna you have the shock there to keep the passinger from jamming their foot in there.............if they get it in there anyway then they deserve it

 

The odds are slim to none but I have seen one small rock leave a bud on the side of the road when it got between the belt and pulley. Result was a busted belt. When he got home and finally got a new belt on he reinstalled his guards. Like I said the odds are slim to none but with my luck I don't want to risk it. For all I know it could happen with the guards on, but not yet.

 

I don't have one. I do remember somebody on here having an a rock make its way past the guard and causing a problem.

 

I've removed it before but not on my SB...I've lowered mine 1" with blocks and on a hard hit the belt guard has protected the belt from the rear fender...someone else had warned about this as well...food for thought...

 

I took both of mine off. I haven't had any issues in the 2 years or so that it's been without.

 

Alright so I'm still leaning toward taking it off. If a rock gets up in there, it's a fluke. Will it just break the belt, or is there a chance it would lock up the rear wheel and send me on my way? A belt is one thing, skin graph another.