I had an old XR250 I was planning to make street legal. Plans change, I brought a 2012 KLX250S home instead. Since I already had the kit, I thought I would tack it on the back and replace that big bulky tail light assembly that comes stock. The prior owner had already trimmed the bottom end off (nicely), and trimmed the reflectors from the plate hanger, but it just wasn't enough for me. The first pic is the finished result, next to my buddy's bike (same make/model/year, without any mods at all). The second pic is from a day of riding outside of Pottsville, PA.

 

Nice work. I hated the plastic rear end, it always moved and rattled off road, even when trimmed down...it had to go.

 

I was mostly afraid of breaking the blinkers off and smashing the brake light when I eventually fall in the rougher trails. A skid plate is on the list, but it's gotta wait a little...

 

It depends on the kind of riding you're doing, but for me skid plate was #1 on the list and handguards (with the aluminum reinforcing 'backbone') was #2. I do mostly single-track woods trails with lots of rocks and roots and trees.

 

I have the Tusk handguards from the XR, that's next. Riding without a skidplate is probably tempting fate, though. Where did you get yours?

 

Mine is an Emperor Racing (used to be Scorpion), thick and tough as nails.

 

these guys-damn near indestructible
Kawasaki KLX250S & KLX300 Aluminum Skid Plate | Ricochet Off-Road

 

What's the advantage of this plate over just bolting a 3/16" plate of aluminum to the bike, aside from the wings that protect the engine sides?

 

Some (a lot?) of us would probably have difficulty sourcing that bit of aluminium () plate. Then there are the holes to be drilled in just the right spots, bends that have to be correct; it's a whole lot easier to buy it as a bolt-on kit.

 

Ricochet, Utah, and Moose sell what appears to be the same bash plate under their names.

Some KF members have made their own plates. I remember one in particular that was very protective. But don't plan to save a lot of money on materials unless you just have it laying around, and plan to spend a lot of time fabricating something. If you're good at fabricating stuff like this, let's see what you can do. I like a good DIY project.

I just found a very lightly used bash plate for the KDX on ebay for about half price of new, a deal that's very hard to beat!