Mine is plastic.

 

My Softail has been without a lower belt guard for over 20 years without issue.

Had nothing to do with trying to look cool.

I took it off because I wanted to be able to see and inspect the belt.

The original belt went over 115,000 miles, and ..that was cool.

 

No I checked before I removed it.

Sorry, recycled Hamm's cans. I'm thinking it's cracking because the lip where it attaches to the swing arm is a lot shorter than the entire length of the belt guard allowing it to flex back and forth a lot. I'm going to reweld it and try running rubber washers to see if that helps.

Stock or aftermarket?

 

Pretty sure it is stock. With the exception of the se slip ons, the bike was dead stock w/ 14k on it when I got it last year. Looked like a friggin' museum piece!

 

I have a chrome lower on my 99 Softail Custom that is very stiff and heavy. It does have rubber washers between the steel washers where the bolts go through.

 

I'm on the third lower belt guard on my Softail. I am still running the plastic guard, as I don't like the looks of the chrome ones-not an area I want to call attention to.

Mine cracks at one of the screw holes. In fact the one I have now is cracked, but serviceable. The lower belt guard for mine is long obsolete, but my dealer was able to find a spare from his source for obsolete parts.

 

and ugly.......

 

Stock lower belt guard is plastic.

Mine has been on a shelf in the basement since 1997 with no negative effects to the belt or bike.

 

Not ugly, just.......DIRTY!!!

 

How much you want for it?