Which front mudguard or fender ? 🤔

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Yesterday I spent an hour or so stripping down the front mudguard so I could give it a decent clean with a view to using it as is.
Aside from some dents here & there it looked useable until I removed the stays - had to drill out a couple of the bolts - its rotted out behind the bottom stay.

So I'm planning to replace the front one with a new one - the DS site appears to imply it's the 750K2 part they quote it as Genuine Part @£220.80 or aftermarket @£190.80.

When they say Genuine Part what do they actually mean - It's been discussed here before but can't find the answer via search?

What do you get for the extra £30 if anything?

Genuine/Original/OEM ??

[Nurse Julie]

Genuine means genuine Honda part but not necessarily Original to that bike. It comes in Honda packaging. Aftermarket is as it says, aftermarket. I didn't think a 750K2, 1972-1973 front guard was compatible with a 500. The 1974-1975 K2 front guard is compatible though. The Genuine Honda one will fit better but has 12mm stay holes that you have to put rubbers and top hat spacers. The aftermarket is a trickier fit but does have the 6mm bolt holes for the stays.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Presumably  the DS Genuine one does not come with the necessary spacers/ top hat bits to fit thanks Julie.
I did have some rubber centred washers that came with an air con kit that might do the trick.

[Oddjob]

Drill out the mudguard brace if you're binning the old guard Ted. You can actually use the brace and fit a different blade off another Honda that uses a 19" front wheel, I used the blade off a CB900F from the early 80s, 900FZ being the best one, the FA and onwards had a air scoop incorporated in the blade to deflect air onto the oil cooler and this can cause problems when fitted to a 500/550. The upside is that corrosion is a thing of the past being ABS plastic, the downside is you need to get it sprayed to suit the colour of the bike.

Even if you don't use the brace it can be useful to others who are planning to do something similar.

Pic of the guard, as the bike was being restored, guard still in silver



And after being sprayed to match the bike, the guard is still pretty much pristine even after 40 odd years but the front was an experiment that Dream Machine who sprayed it really mucked up. I intend to have it repainted to get rid of the front part.



Just remembered that the pic above was taken in the street Mick Hucknall (Simply Red) grew up in.

[philward]

I used the DS genuine guard on my 500k2 build and from memory, it fitted fine - not sure the difference to the earlier model 500's. I have a DS repo on my 750k2 and that was good quality too (was about 8 years ago when I built the 750 though)

[Sesman]

I used the ‘genuine’ guard from DS and it fitted just fine. It was indistinguishable from the front it replaced in terms of appearance and fit.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I used the ‘genuine’ guard from DS and it fitted just fine. It was indistinguishable from the front I took of in terms of appearance and fit.

I've ordered the front fender today from DS genuine part, thanks to a link from Simon I took delivery this afternoon of a pretty decent UK rear mud guard/fender with an acceptable chrome finish no need to re-chrome for a few years if ever.