Maximum thickness means maximum robustness. But also the maximum weight.

We have thus diversified with the bottom and the lower front part of a thickness of 5mm.

The sides and the highest part of the skid plate instead have a thickness of 3mm. We recently made shims for an off road VW van and the thickness of the engine skid plate for this 2 tonne vehicle was the same as our motorcycle skid plates which weigh ten times less. But we prefer not to risk it.

We know that you then rightly treat motorbikes very badly.

One problem that arose when we started mass-producing skid plates was the tendency of modern motorcycles to overheat.

Increasingly stringent anti-pollution regulations require solutions that have the effect of heating the engine and exhaust unknown to motorcycles from twenty years ago.

Enthusiasts wanted skid plates that were as “closed” and protective as possible.

But closed it meant heating up the engine a lot. We invented solutions such as fins which manage to produce a “lamination” of the air flow, that is, to eliminate part of the turbulence and to guarantee an almost total passage of air.

The choice to create V-shapes of the skid plate under the radiator not only has an aesthetic value but serves to try to convey as much air as possible around the engine block and help its cooling.

Actual and comparative tests in summer under severe conditions proved us right. To ventilate more than the Thor you have to ride without a skid plate and maybe that’s not enough.