Here are my thoughts on the ACD, and I have a few. I don't endorse anyone for anything and only fly the colors "Stickers/Decals" if I am 100 sold on a product. I did a lot of research on skid plates before I bought mine. There will be basically two types of buyers.....one buyer will farkle out the bike so it looks nice for them. The ACD is the best looking by far. The other buyer will buy it for function. "How will it protect the bike for my style of riding". I chose the ACD for it's protection function....not to mention it just looks bad ass. The true test came a few weeks ago on the Washington Back Country Discovery Route section 1. Other than a real nasty section of washboards that went on for miles, the section wasn't too bad...except for the occasional ruts. On the very first section of ruts, I came around a corner uphill doing only about 25 and got caught in one. The bike took a hard hit which I thought was dirt and immediately stalled out and was stuck....no big deal. It took a minute to get the bike out as it was wedged in. What I didn't know at the time was it was stuck in between boulders and the hit wasn't dirt, but rock. I am 100% sure that if I had any other skid plate based on the damage (sorry competitors, but I speak the truth here), it would have been severe. No skid plate would have meant a tow home.
After looking at the plate later on, I could see what appears to be scratches, were actually semi deep cuts from the rocks. If you go to the FB page, you will see some pics. In person, you can see the damage better and feel the deep lines. The amazing thing is the plate did not dent, bend, go out of line or even move at all. It did it's job.
Now if I got a nickle for every time I have told someone about this plate, I'd have enough to buy another. My payment is knowing that the plate saved my bike and has many years left of protection left.
