Belt gusrd protects the belt from damage from debris and also protects you and your clothes. Having said that, yeah the bike does does look cleaner without it, but you do increase the risk for problems.

 

Took mine off, never really heard of anyone having a major issue with it aside from the occasional rock in the belt (new belt time ) but i used my inspection tag to make a mini guard for my passenger

Old pic:

 

I have the lower guard off. I actuall think my bike looks better with the top one in place. My mood changes though. Foer the last few months the lower guard was on as well. Looking at bikes going down the road, The bikes without lower guards do look better. If you happen to ride in areas with gravel roads, may be a good idea to keep them on. Otherwise all should be well.

 

Changed to wrinkle black upper and dumped the plastic lower.

 

Def keep the upper...open belt is an open invite to some moron with a knife !

 

Leaning towards taking mine off too. Which guard do you think offers more protection though. I'd have to say do to the rotation of the belt and the exposed teeth, I'd say the lower guard protects alot while the top belt pretty much doesn't do anything.....Rich

 

I took both of mine off - looks way better.

+1 to puttnutt's comment: I dont think the upper belt guard has anything to do with keeping debris away from the belt/pulley - the direction of the belt while you are moving is away from the pulley at the top so anything that were to find its way onto the belt from the top would get swept forward away from the pulley; the upper guard is mainly there to protect the rider and passenger from the belt itself not to protect the belt.

The lower guard (called a debris shield for a reason) is the one that is there to protect the belt and pulley from debris coming up off the road; so if you are worred about belt damage thats the one to keep in place. Ironically its the one that people usually take off first though.

Anyways; they are both ugly as hell and I sh#t-canned them pretty much immediately

 

Take them off and never look back. Sell them on ebay or something. (Chain gaurd was the first thing to come off my bicycles when I was a kid too!)

 

one word of advice though......I wouldn't sell my upper belt guard. Best to keep it cuz if you want to throw some saddle bags on for a trip or something they rub on the belt; if you keep it you can always throw it back on so the bags dont rub on the belt/pulley. I learned this the hard way and now before I go anywhere where I'll be using the saddlebags I put the guard back on.

 

Good advice, never thought about that.