Pipe and Boot Saver For Floorboard Equipped Bikes

By Vincent Allen, Tom (T-Bone) Norton, and Wolf Malkin

Big feet, fat pipes, wide floorboards or any combination almost guarantees some contact between the heel/sole of a riders boot and those steaming hot headers. The result is usually a mess of black goo on the pipes that's hard to remove and damage to the riders boots.

Vincent Allen has come up with this terrific solution that should work with most any floorboard equipped bike as long as you have 1/8th of an inch of space between the floorboard and your header.

First, Vincent's creation shown above.

What You'll Need

• 4-5 inches of stainless steel or aluminum flat stock the thickness of your floorboard plus enough to cover the heel of your boot. The dimension is going to change from bike to bike, rider to rider. See instructions below.
• 2 - Bolts (preferably button head) long enough to go through your metal strip, the floorboard edge and be secured by a locking nut.
• 2 - Lock Nuts
• 2 - Washers (between lock nut and inside surface of floorboard)
• or, if you can't use nuts under the floorboard a tap to make threads for your bolt in the side of the floorboard

How To Do It

1. Use a piece of thin cardboard (shoebox cardboard is perfect) to make a template. Place your riding boot on the floorboard in the position it's most likely to occupy and cut the cardboard so it's a strip long enough and high enough to protect the heel and sole from your pipe.
2. When you're happy with the size and contour of your template, transfer the pattern to your metal strip. Cut and bend the strip to shape then polish if desired. You're going to end up with something similar to the photos below:
3. If you can easily drill two holes from the underside of your floorboard with the board still attached to the bike then you're one of the lucky ones. If not remove your floorboard.
4. Clamp your strip to the floorboard and drill holes for the bolts. Attach the strip either with bolts and nuts or by tapping (threading) the floorboard holes for your bolts and if necessary put your floorboard back on the bike.

Now T-Bone's alternative

What You'll Need

• 1 - 20 inch strip of aluminum or stainless steel (you'll be cutting pieces from this strip to make brackets)
• 2- Short bolts, nuts and lock washers for assembly

How To Do It

The guard itself is 13 inches long with a U bend at one end, and a curve at the other to accommodate the boot heel.

The Vertical Bracket leg is 5 and 1/4 inches long, and the bottom bracket piece is 2 and 1/4 inches.

The Vertical bracket has to be twisted 90 degrees (photo 3) to line up with the guard as shown.

Use existing bolts on the floorboard to attach front of horizontal strip and vertical support

Finally, Wolf's Simple Idea

You're done, go ride!