SW Motech engine guards

Joined
May 25, 2025
Messages
43
Location
Northern Utah
Bike
NT1100 RE INT 650
I am in the process of installing the SW Motech engine guards on my NT1100. It's not going well.

The product, as is everything from SW Motech, is high quality and the fit and finish is excellent. However, the installation instructions are excrement, and the installation process is very fussy. If you are an experienced mechanic, get a helper and plan on at least an hour to install them. If you are not an experienced wrench turner, take them to your local motorcycle shop. You can thank me later.

The clearences are VERY tight. The upper front bracket is difficult to install, and the access to the nut on the right hand side is almost impossible. Access to the mounting nuts and bolts is not good, and the instructions as to the sequence of bolts, spacers and washers appears to be wrong. The spacers to on the back of the paired bar ends, not the front as shown in the instructions. You need to take the lower engine guard (plastic bash plate) off to get any kind of access. The right rear mounting nut has to fit between the rear master cylinder and the frame, and access is very tight. In addition, you have to trim down the plastic "heel guards" where the rear of the bars mount.

The instructions are garbage. There are no detailed drawings, photos or instructions, just a series of line drawings that only show the general mounting, and you have to download it as a PDF to your phone, then print it out. An instruction video would be very helpful.

Speaking of videos, there aren't any useful videos on Youtube that I can find. The only one that shows the actual installation is about three minutes long, mostly hand held while the installer unwraps and installs parts with one hand, and it doesn't show any details at all. It's a joke.

These guards will probably do a good job of protecting the engine cases, but will not provide any protection to the fairing. The main reason I got them was to give me a place to install driving lights, as my dealer can't seem to find any information on installing OEM driving lights.

Hope this helps.
 
For those who wonder what those might look like:

 
I have never been a fan of Motech instructions....or Yamaha manuals for that matter.
 
"Warning: the parts are not compatible with the original fog lights." may have something to do with it?
No, it's probably more that some of the accessories (fog lights, comfort seat) haven't caught up with the US dealer network yet. Although there has been some discussion that we in the US get the comfort seat by default. Regarding the seat, it's probably going to Russell Day-Long this winter, depending on how the next 1K miles go.
 
If you watch some of the European video's, the NT1100 seems to have a lower cowl with holes for fog lights, or they are in there. USA model doesn't have that lower cowl. Might not even be a 2025 model that was in video. But I did see them, thought I would like some until didn't see that lower cowl. These LED headlights are so good, I don't even need any extra driving lights
 
Of course now the European postal systems are not shipping any thing to the US for a while according to the news media, because of tariffs. Might be hard to get stuff from Europe for a while.
 
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