If you are looking for the ultimate protection for your Africa Twin consider this: Touratech’s RallyeForm Skid Plate is the first heavy-gauge aluminum solution that uses a deep-drawn manufacturing technique to generate maximum protection.
This video with Touratech Adventure Expert, Aaron Jennings walks you through installation and highlights some of the key features on this exciting product.
The Ralleform Skid Plate is available in Black anodized and bare aluminum and in Standard size for bikes with lower crash bars and DCT for the Africa Twin and soon to be available for the BMW R1200GS and KTM 1090/1190/1290.
Transcription:
Hey, this is Aaron with Touratech USA and I’m here to show you our new Africa Twin skid plate. This is our RallyeForm, which is a super cool new design that’s built using some proprietary machinery that uses a four millimeter plate stamped into this shape with the compound curves and the hard corners and everything. There’s no welding, which keeps the plate super strong and makes it a really good structure to protect the bottom of your motorcycle.
We’ve got them in two versions. We’ve got this one, which is the version for bikes that are DCT or with lower crash bars. We also have the extreme version, which does not fit the DCT, but it does work on the standard bikes. No lower crash bars needed. We’ve got both versions in bare aluminum and black. Here I’ve already got the mounting system installed to the skid plate with rubber mounts that protect it to the frame. There’s frame mounts in multiple locations.
There’s really just a couple of tools you need to get the skid plate installed on your bike. We have a four millimeter and a five millimeter Allen socket, a 10 millimeter wrench and the driver. I like to use blue Loctite, medium strength because it can be removed with the hand tools and doesn’t require heat and will keep any bolts from vibrating loose.
The stock skid plate’s just held in place with three button head Allens. There’s two here in the front and one on the lower left side that’s super easy to get to. That’s all that holds the stock skid plate on. We’ve done some writing on this bike already and you can see some of the damage that we’ve caused already. We’ve got a dented head pipe here. Just for stock skid plate’s still on the bike, but you can see just how much more protection our skid plate has, and this is our standard. The Extreme will come up even higher here on the left.
The first part to get installed for our skid plate is the rear mounting bracket. It goes into an eight-millimeter pin on the frame, and then up over the frame tube on the left side. The pin’s on the right, frame’s on the left. It provides the rear mounting point for the skid plate bracket. It just slides in and tags onto that pin.
In your hardware pack is the little kit of all the rubber mounts. Just clip them apart. They’re sticky on the back so you put the long one on the right hand side of the skid plate, short one goes on the left hand side of the skid plate, and the two squarish ones go on the front mounts of the skid plate. The two round ones go onto the spacers with that M8 bolt will do the front mounts on the skid plate.
The last rubber bits you need to install are the distance spacers which are there’s two at the rear, one at the front. I find a little dish soap makes those slide through a little bit easier and easier to get them installed into the hole. Once they’re on they should be able to turn and they just provides that rubber.
For the first mount, what I always do is the rear, which will go to your bracket. Use the M6 by 20, a little blue Loctite on those, and just install those loosely so that you can get the rest of the bolts in.
Now that we’ve gotten the back mounts installed loosely, now it’s time to move onto the front. The front is a single bolt through the frame of the motorcycle into the skid plate. That’s a six by 55 millimeter Allen-head with a six-mil fender washer, and then a six mill nut with a captive washer on it.
A trick to getting it in, this is probably the trickiest part of the whole deal. Trick to getting it in is to hold it like this, then you’re going to slide it into the back of the frame. There’s the key. Getting the bolt out through the skid plate and then you’re six mill nut with the fender washer, or the captive washer on it. I’ve already put a little bit of blue Loctite on that bolt so it’s pretty much the Loctite that keeps it from vibrating loose rather than excessive torque.
These mounts we’ve got the spacer, another one of the rubbers, the round rubber, and then our eight by 30 bolt, and also a little bit of blue Loctite on this bolt is a good idea. You just have to line up the skid plate, get that bolt in, and get those in loosely too.
Now that we’ve got all the mounting bolts in loosely, we’ll go ahead and snug everything up here.
Now that you’ve gotten the mounting plate all tightened down, we’ve got the four positions now where the skid plate bolts in. There’s two in the upper front, and then two at the bottom rear. For that you use the last four bolts, which are the eight by 25 stainless Allens with a flat washer, and that’s a little button head. I like to put a little bit of blue Loctite on these just to keep them from vibrating loose, that way the Loctite’s going to be what’s holding them in rather than super high torque. We’ll go ahead and get all three or all four of the skid plate bolts in loosely before we tighten anything down. Once they’re all in we’ll get it snug down and you’re ready to go.
We have provided as an option, you can change these front two mounts to hard mounts from skid plate to motorcycle simply by drilling the skit plate using the mounting bracket as a template. The bolts that we’ve provided for these lower front mounts are long enough so that you can through bolt directly through the skid plate into your frame.
We’ve installed our standard RallyeForm skid plate. The Extreme actually installs exactly the same way, same mounting system, same mounting brackets. Remember, our Extreme skid plate is used for non-DCT bikes only and without lower crash bars. If you’ve got a DCT or you want to use those lower crash bars just be sure and grab the standard RallyeForm skid plate. Both of them now feature this new super cool recessed concave portion in the front which allows for full unobstructed clearance for the front fender at all suspension travels.
I’m Aaron. I work at Touratech USA. I hope you get your skid plate on just fine. If you don’t, give us a call and we’ll be glad to help. Thanks a lot.