On later model bikes, there are the black plastic fork protectors. If you want to remove these for installing a fork brace or other modifications, these come off very easily. If you are careful, you can also save these for future use should you ever need to reinstall them. So…don’t just go ripping things apart. Be patient (this really only takes about 10 minutes) and you will have a nice finished product…meaning your forks not all scarred up and fork protectors that can be reused.


FIRST, protect your front fender from accidental slips and dings. You can either remove it (not required) or simply place some protective paper, cardboard, or rags over the fender.  I chose several layers of really thick packing paper.



SECOND, get yourself a hammer and a small piece of wood.  Use wood because the wood will deform before the fork tube and will not scar or damage your fork.  I used a wooden clothes pin.



THIRD, start by lightly hammering the wood against the bottom edge of the plastic fork protector. Once you have a few hits in, you will see the fork protector starting to shift up and you should start seeing the channel that it sits in. The channel is only about 1mm or so deep, so it doesn’t take much to get it to start sliding up.  



FOURTH, once you have the protector sliding up, make sure to keep working all the way around the fork to nudge the protector up somewhat evenly.  You can’t get all of the way around to the inside of the fender area, but as long as you get as reasonably close as you can it will work itself up.



FIFTH, if you have patiently worked at it, you should have the protector all of the way off of the fork tube. To completely remove it from the bike, you can slide it all of the way off the top IF you are already planning to take the triple tree apart.  In most cases, you probably aren’t taking the forks apart, so all you need to do is get a sharp and sturdy utility knife (not a cheap one that will break) and carefully make a cut down the backside of the fork protector to split it apart. Be careful to place something under it so you have something to bear down on besides the top of the fork. You don’t want to slip and either gouge the fork or possibly cut into the rubber fork seal. *Note: I do not have pictures of this cutting process as I left mine on as I am experimenting with reusing them with my fork brace installed.  If I find a viable solution, I will post that in my corresponding TKAT fork brace installation tutorial.



FINALLY, you can clean the tubes up with some cleaner or polish and this is your finished product with the fork protectors removed.