[x-bird]

Cool background mtbdudex--I used to write for Vette.
The side panels are mostly to prevent debris intrusion, very early on i slid it on it's side into a brush pile and stopped with a thick branch a couple inches from impaling my chest. In the races, they keep a lot of mud out of the the interior.

With the amount of travel (16 inches f/r) I have and as softly sprung as I run it, there isn't any flex from normal or even heavy riding .... the panels are bolted on mostly only in the corners and with oversize holes, the panels would just flex and not crease or anything of that nature if i did tweak this thing. When it was a bolt-together yerf, it was a shake, rattle n flex pig. Fixing that is what started the lunacy as to what it's become. There's an old youtube of a kid riding a 3203 where you can see the frame bowing over some washboard bumps. I fixed a lot of cracks in the frame and figured out and tackled its weaknesses through a lot of T&E.

Fenders have been off and on more times than you can imagine, as i change suspension designs they either stay off awhile, then get modded or relocated. if i'm modding/testing I tend to leave them off as they get in the way working on the front or back. The old front fenders now are just mount plates for the LTZ fenders.

Before i put on the fronts, I caught (literally) an old, heavy rusted door hinge that the front tire threw back at me in a corner. Snagged it out of the air headed right for my face. Unless i run out of time before a race, I prefer to have them on.

the nerf bars have saved the rear axle/rims countless times. I just wasted a front a-arm and opposing tie rod eating a 3-foot tall stump with the right-side, nerf on the left took out a chunk of a tree that the back end flew up into. that particular hit might have flexed something somewhere, but aside from the trashed upper A, tie rod, heim and rear fender, I haven't spotted anything amiss.

As far as rigidity goes, I did add diagonals to the original remains of the yerf frame, which was just the base floor pan tube, the mid rail run and the front short hoop. It gets more bracing effect from the 2x2 1/4 wall rear main tube at the base and fully perimeter welded floorpan along with all of the added cage work. There's still another set of main diagonals i want to add to support the center of the front upright hoop along with an upper lateral. A lot of the cage and the doors in the pic in this thread are gone.