I really hate that the leading edge of the rear fender stops short of the swing arm. It allows dirt: rocks, mud, dust to  gather on the swing arm, drivebelt and engine. Not anymore. I made a flap from an old floor mat and bolted it to the inside of the fender.
BTW, Black Betty has original paint and with the camera's flash you can see the multi coloured metalic specs on the side cover  in the top right side cornor of the pic.

I did a similar thing...but I used the fender mounting bolts

Savage_Rob wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:


There are 2 things that you can't see on mine.  First, I made 2 stainless "fingers" that I put behind the flap to keep the flap from rubbing on the swingarm.  One on each bolt.  They can't be seen from the front either, but they hold the flap in towards the tire...about 3/4" away from the tire.  That way the dirt is aimed downward and away from the swingarm.

Second, because I used the fender mounting bolts, I still needed to be able to apply a good torque on the bolts while not crushing the rubber flap.  So I made 2 sleeves that slide over the bolts and the same thickness as the flap.  Then with the flap sandwiched between the fingers and the flat washers, I was able to properly tighten the bolts.  I also used Locktite on the bolts...just in case.

Either method has to be better than mud or rocks on the swingarm.  Like the petc0ck issue the fender is another sort of "form vs function" oversight by Suzuki.