Not to side track the thread. I bought a new '13 G650GS here in mainland China Oct '14, in preparation for an overland trip from Ningbo (near Shanghai) China, through Laos, into northern Thailand Jan & Feb this year. Since my plan was to ride and not be put off by any trails and having ridden northern Thailand the previous Jan & Feb '14 on a hired CB500X, knew what I was in for. A big dirt bike was not ideal choice so I wanted a mid displacement DS/ADV. The G650GS I feel is a more tried, tested and reliable platform, and one of the few affordable choices available in mainland China. It doesn't have a computer like the F700GS/F800GS, and cost less to boot. Mind you the wee G still cost $20K which was more than my S10 cost in OZ. But it is what it is.
I completed the trip (departed 2 Jan, arriving in Chiang Rai, Thailand 5 Jan - arriving back to Ningbo, China 5th March). Once again, I luv'd being in Thailand, 1000 times better than China IMO.
In amongst all of the farkling and so on of the wee G in preparation, I was looking at the addition to a rear wheel splash guard too - which are available here. In the end, after seeing how slash guards seem to snap due to vibration over time, I decided to go with the KISS mantra. Instead I fabricated/added a rear mud flap. I simply bought a couple of thin rubber 'flaps' and took a couple of thin alloy flat sections which I bent at a slight angle to 'feather' the mud flaps rearwards slightly. I installed the bars in behind the rubber mud flaps so the flaps are all one sees from the rear. The flaps are effective at minimising the crud, dirt and mud thrown up the rear and covering the rear side of the top box.
Cost $2 plus a little bit of my labour.
No issues and still can easily remove the rear wheel. Replaced the OEM Metzler Tourance's with Karoo 3's as I did a lot of knarly offroad and single track in northern Thailand, that the XT1200Z would have been too heavy work IMO. Even carried three new Karoo 3's back into China and arranged freighting from Xishuangbana.
All in all, very happy with my KISS mud flap, and still works after completing 22K km in two months. While in Thailand, I met some guys riding S10's doing trips round-and-abouts. Some were from Malaysia, Singapore or other parts of Thailand, and it was at those moments, I wished I was on my S10. But realistically some of the tight technical dirt we rode, even the wee G650GS was a handful, meanwhile the CRF250's lapped it up.
Right back to regular programming...
