It ’ s always a great day when something shiny turns up for a bike at the KR office . This time it was a skid plate for our ES700 .
WORDS & PHOTOS : Ben Wilkins
LONG TERM TEST
SUMP PROTECTION
It ’ s always a great day when something shiny turns up for a bike at the KR office . This time it was a skid plate for our ES700 .
GasGas sent us their aluminium skid plate to fit to the ES700 we ’ ve got for long term test . Fitted to the bike as standard is a seemingly quite sturdy moulded plastic skid plate that has done its job so far .
Offering the two skid plates up side by side , the aluminium item is slightly wider - about 30mm at its widest point - and uses the same mounts as the original equipment plastic skid plate . A quick measure with a vernier gauge shows it to be constructed from 3mm aluminium and it comes in at 1100g , a little heavier than the 730g plastic plate . Fitting is super easy . Unbolt the front , upper bolts and pull towards the front wheel . The locating pegs bolted into the bottom of the plastic plate slide out from their rubber mounts . Simple as that . It ’ s only slightly more tricky to fit the aluminium skid plate ... bolt on the supplied bracket to the front , upper bolt holes , slide the locating pegs into the rubber mounts , then tighten the bolts up . The mounting bolts only require a pretty low torque setting , so don ’ t go applying brute force or you ’ ll strip a thread quite easily I feel . In terms of protection over and above the OE plastic skid plate , it ’ s a little wider but there
KIWI RIDER 59