Have any of you ever experienced this issue? Was riding with some friends about a month ago and found ourselves on some partially degraded roads. I could hear the stones rattling around under the fender but never thought they were doing the damage that they were. When I got home I washed the bike and much to my dismay I found at least 15-20 dimples from the inside out that also broke the paint surface. Never thought the fender was that prone to stone dents from underneath. My new fender is in and is at the local body shop having a layer of bed liner applied to keep this from happening again. Not bitchin, just sharing with those of you here who may ride gravel or broken up paved roads. My dealer is contacting HD to inquire as to the possibility of the original fender being sub-standard thickness but I'm not holding my breath to a favorable answer. Oh yah, for those who are curious, a new fender, painted to match the bike, $630!

 

Wow, I ride on gravel frequently and never seen anything like that!

I have seen like one dent on my buddies fender but he sucked up some big piece of road trash.

What they build those new '14 fenders with...tin foil?

 

I wonder if the steel quality or thickness decreased on the 14's?

 

this is one of the first things i noticed when i bought my 12. wiping it down and the front fender feels like it's made out of aluminium foil. i've heard of wheel weights coming loose and doing this on the newer bikes,but not rocks. really flimsy, nothing like the older bikes.

 

Just curious, how fast were you riding? They must have been some pretty big stones, as you called them.

 

I've never seen it,even on el-cheapo aftermarket fenders.

 

I was wondering, too. Every ride for me is 4 miles of unpaved road. I usually stay 20ish mph

 

Don't think I would ride that road again, regardless of how fast you guys were riding.

 

i don't think this is going to accomplish anything. bedliner is very flexible. all it will do is to cushion the 'thunk' of the rock as it hits the underside of your fender and dents it outwards......

 

I live on a gravel road and idle in and out about 1/4 mile at 10mph. The day that I wrote about we were riding at 30-35mph. I'm not trying to lay the blame on anybody but the one gripping the bars, I was just curious if anybody else had experienced this. The part that makes me think the fender could have been substandard metal or even possibly stretched thin during the pressing process is the fact that all the dents appear to be on the left side radius of the fender. I'll get a better look at it once it's off the bike.