Stupid, stupid plastic radiator guard

I think its primary purpose is to protect against a direct impact from a rock coming off the tire in the place it is most likely to hit. There isn't a lot of airflow right behind the tire itself, so it doesn't block nearly as much air as it might first appear.

Do not run without it. Many of us have added additional protection.
An easier way to remove it is to gently pry the two male tabs fromthe bottom first and then the top keeper clips are so ealy to remove. Reverse for re-installation,top clips first, the pry the lower studs into place.

Rad-Guard

Don't run without some sort of protection.

Broke mine last year. Ordered another from online BMW dealer. It came in broken. Then had to take pictures for them, but they sent a replacement.

Broke mine when I removed it to clean the radiator for my big 5000 mile trip. I was scheduled to leave about a week later. Ordered from max bmw and requested rush shipping (only cost a few $), anyway it arrived 3 days later. Great customer service. Agreed, that it's difficult to remove.

Used a Radguard combined with a Wunderlich fender extension on my 2020 GT with very good success. Easy to install and cooler stayed relatively clean.

I wash behind mine after every ride, you only have to look at the amount of small rocks and dirt that gathers behind the plastic to justify having that or some other form of protection there. It is a lot cheaper than buying a new radiator ,I had one repaced after an accident with one of my GTL and here in Asutaralia that radiator was around the $5,000.00 AUD so don`t leave it exposed unless you have lots of $$$$ to throw away and Iam sure you wont want to do that regardless.

Ask yourself this. Do I want all that crap it caught hitting my radiator directly? I’d run with it.
Not worth taking a chance.

All that debris you found behind that guard is probably nothing compared to what you will find when the radiator is removed.

Thanks for all of the input. The replacement should be in Friday, and I haven't run it without it. I have no desire to buy a new radiator!
This gives me a chance to clean in there a bit.

tuo cal said:

All that debris you found behind that guard is probably nothing compared to what you will find when the radiator is removed.

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That does not give me that warm, fuzzy feeling...

If you have an air compressor get a long nozzle wand (available at Harbor Freight) and blow through your radiator from the back to the front. This won't get it as clean as removing the radiator and spraying it at a car wash but it will help.

You could ride it to a car wash and spray the radiator from the back to the front. Just be careful to not damage the radiator fins with the spray wand itself. The water pressure shouldn't hurt the fins as I've used a car wash, after removing the radiator, a couple of times with no issue. There isn't much room behind the radiator, with the fan attached, so this method won't be as good as removing the radiator but again it's better than nothing. Concentrate at the bottom of the radiator, that is where most of the debris will accumulate.

What? These bikes overheat?

The one issue I haven't suffered... and my radiator looked like a gravel quarry.

I have a fender extender, plus I installed window screen netting between my radiation and the honeycomb grill. I also removed the louvered piece about 50,000 miles ago. My rad looks good.
Yes, I agree the louvered piece does not block much air movement at high speed since it’s behind the front wheel, and the front wheel may be acting as an air block anyway.
However, at slow speeds in heavy traffic when these bikes tend to overheat, that’s when you rely on the fan to pull air thru the rad. And that’s where the louvered piece does hinder airflow.

I dropped the lower fairings yesterday and it's amazing how much gravel those things caught. I'm just assuming that it came thru the radiator. I have some spare netting, I might follow your lead @atc250r and do the same thing. For now, I have other toys to install before I get there.

Without restricting air flow, there is little or nothing that you can do stop/reduce debris from clogging up the radiator. The only way to adequately clean the radiator is to remove it from the bike. Removal/cleaning is one of my end-of-year maintenance tasks.

Duane

They also make a fender

MikeB_30 said:

Well, I figured I'd remove the little louvered plastic radiator guard to clean behind it, and despite my best efforts, I managed to break it while removing it.
I did find quite the pile of residue and debris back there and cleaned it out. My question is, how bad is it to run without that piece? Am I asking for trouble?
It does seem to block a significant portion of the radiator.

I sourced a used one on ebay for not a lot of money, but before I put it back on, I'm wondering if anyone else just runs without it?

I attached a pic of the pile, it really does seem to collect a lot of debris.

Thanks in advance!

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they also make a fender extension for it