R1200GS “Crud Catcher” / Spray Guard
– to be or not to be?

By AndyW May2007

Many people ditch the “crud catcher” (BMW refer to it as a Spray Guard) on the back of the R1200GS because they don’t like the look?!  Personally, as far as appearance goes I don’t mind it that much, it fits in well with the GS’s slightly ‘quirky’ appearance. As for function, it does a superb job of reducing spray from wet roads and dirt thrown up over the back end of the bike from the tyre. And so to me it makes no sense to ditch it.
Replacing it with a hugger is a compromise – sure a hugger gives great protection to the rear suspension and mid section of the bike but alone it’s no substitute for the “crud catcher”

I’ve not seen or heard of anyone else that has done this to date but I decided on fitting a hugger AND keeping the Spray Guard / “crud catcher”.  Ordinarily, certainly with the mounting method used for the Motorrad Concepts hugger, there is no scope for keeping the “crud catcher”. However, some carful adaptation of the “crud catcher” with the trusty Dremel and a small hole drilled through the alloy hugger mounting bracket to take a small bolt and hey presto!………….
NB: Of course there is a caution to note – a replacement “crud catcher” may be required if you change huggers or on selling the bike wish to take the hugger off and return the bike to stock setup.

A question of taste possibly but one time where personally I prefer function over form!

And the adaptations to the mounting section of the “crud catcher”

….and shots of an unmodified splash guard for comparison