While recently working on my dirt bike, I noticed the bottom frame rails on my dirt bike were beat up. It made me wonder if I needed to put a skid plate on my dirt bike.
Yes. You need a skid plate when riding your dirt bike in the woods, in the desert, or around rocks. Motocross riders should also consider a skid plate on their dirt bike if the suspension regularly bottoms out.
Now you may be wondering, “I ride in some of those conditions and do not run a skid plate. My dirt bike is just fine.” You may be fine now, but eventually you’ll regret not having one.
Let’s discuss why.
Dirt Bike Skid Plates Protect Vital Components
If you haven’t picked up by now, we believe that skid plates are vitally important for specific riding conditions. It may be your best friend if you’re out on the trail or out in the desert and then bash the bottom side of your frame or motor on something hard.
Tearing up components gets expensive. Rocky Mountain ATV has reasonably priced skid plates.
Specifically, it will protect some vital components on your motorcycle engine. Stop and think about it for a moment, think about the bottom side of your dirt bike. How many times have you come home from riding on the track or the trails with mud just plastered on the bottom side of your bike?
For starters, your transmission will be on the bottom side. If you badge against a rock, you take the chance of cracking in case. You’ll lose all of your precious tranny oil all over the ground leaving you stranded possibly miles from anywhere.
Also on the bottom side of your motor, you’ll frequently find things like your water pump. Similar to losing your engine or transmission oil, this could leave you stranded miles from anywhere. The difference between losing your engine oil and antifreeze will be your engine running a little longer when running without the coolant.
The third major component towards the bottom of your motor is your stator. While there is a cover on this component, you don’t want to expose his electrical component to the elements of any kind of weather. Even dry weather can cause damage as dust and other particles may accumulate in the electrical components, causing the bike to run poorly or to not run at all
The last major component on the bottom side of the engine is your clutch basket. Bash this up against a rock or a stump, and like everything else we’ve discussed so far, it could leave you stranded.
Skid plates Protect Foot Controls On Your Dirt Bike
Besides protecting vital components of your dirt bike engine, a skid plate can also help protect your foot controls.
Protection will not be as good as the bottom side of your engine, but it will act more like a deflector sometimes for your foot controls.
I can tell you personally from the used dirt bike that I bought it would’ve been nice to see a skid plate on my dirt bike when I bought it. The shifter lever was in good shape, but the brake lever was not.
In fact, it was so bent the pedal was rubbing up against the clutch basket cover and wearing heavily on it. I had purchase a new brake lever, which was difficult considering the age of my dirt bike.
While I cannot say a skid plate would have most definitely protected the brake lever, it would’ve significantly reduced the likelihood, I would have had to purchase a new brake lever because it has provided some level of protection.
A Skid Plate Reduce Chance You’ll Be Stranded
Without armor, most enemies will blow military vehicles to smithereens with small firearms. The skid plate acts as armor when we ride through the woods or in the desert.
We have talked about how it protects many of the components on the bottom side of the motor. We’ve even talked about and alluded that it will keep you from being stranded.
I will not get in and rehash many of these points, but I want you to think about what a five or 10 mile journey back to your truck would be like pushing a 200 pound dirt bike through Lord knows what.
The skid plate acts like an insurance policy giving you peace of mind the bike will not be ditched in the middle of nowhere and increase your confidence that you’ll finish the ride.
Downsides To A Skid Plate On Your Dirt Bike
We have talked about many of the upsides to having a skid plate on your dirt bike. There are downsides that you need to be aware of.
First, if your skid plate is big, bulky, and made of metal, it will add a decent amount of weight to your dirt bike. If the skid plate is heavy enough, it’ll change the handling characteristics of your machine.
Thankfully, many skid plates have a reasonable weight and you will not likely see much of a difference in your bike’s performance.
The second downfall to a skid plate on your dirt bike is getting your toes or boot stuck in the protective plate. On the surface it seems kind of ridiculous, but the reality is after playing with a few bikes that had skid plates on a stand I jerked my boots away as they became wedged in the skid plate.
The skid plates were big and bulky, wrapping around more of the motor than what I would have on my dirt bike. So be careful and be aware of what you’re putting on your bike and the consequences of wedging your foot in between the plate and the rest of the motorcycle.
The third downfall to a skid plate is that it may easily fail. Some bikes come with a “skid plate” on the machine, but really all it does is provide splash protection from water in the bottom side of the motor.
In the actual world, these skid plates get ripped off or broken the first time we smash them up against a tree or a rock. Be careful of the quality of your skid plate. Make sure it’s of a thick, durable plastic as a minimum. You’ll most likely be installing some kind of aluminum plate.
What Is The Difference Between a Skid Plate, Bash Plate, and Engine Cover?
There’s not really a big difference between a skid plate and bash plate. They make most of them out of a heavy durable plastic as a minimum and more commonly will find them assembled from aluminum.
Whether it’s bash plate or skid plate will mainly depend on your geographic region. Some riders refer to them as bash plates and other regions refer to them as skid plates. My take is a bash plate will be the most heavy duty form of plate put on the bottom side of the motorcycle frame. When I referred to the armor earlier, this is what I think of.
The skid plate is a little lighter metal or plastic yet very durable as you skid across the rocks, trees, and stumps. An engine cover as we noted in the downfalls to skid plates really do not provide any protection. They seem to be bolted on the motorcycle more as an aesthetic item than anything.
How Much Does It Cost To Repair A Skid Plate?
The cost to repair a skid plate depends on the extent of the damage. If you crumple the plate, the cost will be a new skid plate.
If the plate is bent or cracked, you may easily weld the plate back up or bend it back for little to no cost.
If you don’t have the capabilities to weld or the machinery to bend the plate back, taking it to a metal shop may cost you a few bucks. You might expect to pay somewhere between $25 and $50.
What Is The Best Dirt Bike Skid Plate?
This is a brilliant question and really depends on preference. My suggestion would be to consider the riding that you’ll be doing and then looking for a skid plate to give you adequate protection.
Here are a few of my favorite skid plates from Rocky Mountain ATV that you might want to consider. They’re strong and a good bargain.