How important is a skid plate for an X

So I've just bought this sexy beast and I'm just wondering if i should get a skid plate for it. Ill pretty much always be on roads but I might go down some dirt tracks if I feel like it. Is it necessary?

I made one myself, I can see it is a good thing because of all the sandblasting there is on it now :-)

This is from when it was made.

This is after only 200km dry road driving.

Right ok cheers ill look into it. Whats yours made from?

I made it out of 5mm aluminiumplate, and glued 2mm rubber on the inside.

Risk vs reward, plus added noise.

I've got well over 10,000 miles on my X and never had a skid plate.
I've run some gravel and dirt roads plenty of times.

Was I pushing my luck, or not???? I don't know.

I think street tires are much less prone to grabbing onto rocks and then throwing them.

My two cents - no guarantees or warranties associated with it.

I have heard lots of rocks hitting mine on the road with my R tires. Never considered the sand. I also like the looks of a nice skid plate. hjorth73 - Nice job on that skid. Looks very nice. After looking at that nice pic you took again, I think your bike would look nice with a black skid plate on it. You will get some more noise though.

mcdoudlehopper wrote:

I have heard lots of rocks hitting mine on the road with my R tires. Never considered the sand. I also like the looks of a nice skid plate. hjorth73 - Nice job on that skid. Looks very nice. After looking at that nice pic you took again, I think your bike would look nice with a black skid plate on it. You will get some more noise though.

Yeah I do have to agree with you there, black does look good. Why will there be more noise? surly if its attached probably it won't vibrate that much?

Noticeable louder with the skid plate. The engine noise reflects back up at you.

Just fixed the noise issue on mine today.   It's the unsupported rear of the plate vibrating against the rear of the frame and a couple of the welds that stick down.   Put foam under the contact points at the back of the plate, put two thin rubber spacers between the frame and front mounting points, problem solved.   Back to being a quiet bike again.  

If I was going to run it on the street, I'd used the HDPE plastic.   That stuff works great offroad as well on a supported surface like under a floor pan of a side by side.   It will slide over rocks and not catch.   However, I'm dubious about it not collapsing if it's not being supported by a plate or bars behind it and hitting rocks.  For the street, I think that stuff is probably a fantastic option on a bike.

Update. Put 100 miles on the bike today. It's not perfectly silent, but it's almost there. Noise at cruise is nearly gone. Much less worrisome to ride long distances on. The helmet wind noise at 60-65 drowns any tire, engine or reflected noise now.

I like having one on mine...

With all those comments I think I will be ordering one soon