Honda 919 Tail Section Modification
Part 1:  Tail Section Trimming

May 2002

Most motorcycles come from the factory with a rather large rear fender.  A common modification is to remove some of this fender to give the bike a more sporty look.  This is Part 1 of the modification I have performed to my tail section.  It is very simple and is great for those that want to trim the rear fender, but don't want to have to relocate the turn signals.  The only tools you'll need are a dremel tool with cut off wheel, drill and 5/16th drill bit, a couple of wrenches, a pencil, and a ruler or tape measure. 

Begin by removing the reflectors on the rear fender.  These are held on with small nuts on the inside of the fender.  Using a tape measure or ruler, measure down to the point you want to cut.  Make several measurements at different points marking them with the pencil.  This will help you to keep your line straight as you can align the ruler across the points and make a nice line to cut on.  To add a little bit of "factory" look, I angled mine up on the sides to match the stock Honda fender. 

Next, remove the license plate bracket and relocate it, centered under the license plate lamp.  I used a 5/16th drill bit to drill the license plate bracket bolt holes into the fender.  There are plastic beams behind the fender to give it some rigidity, so you'll have to use your dremel to cut out some of those beams to allow room for the license plate bracket nuts.  Be careful not to cut your turn signal wires as they run close to this area.  Remount your license plate and if you choose trim the sides of the license plate bracket so that they don't stick out past the license plate.  In this picture I had not trimmed the bracket.  I later did so and it improved the appearance quite a bit.  I did not remove the rear fender to perform any cuts or to drill holes.  In hindsight, removing the fender would have made the job much easier.

That's all there is to it.  The entire project took me about 1 hour.  Add about another 30 minutes to this if you remove the rear fender to perform the work.  This is a cheap and simple modification for those that don't want to change out the stock turn signals, but still want to remove some of the rear fender. 

-Speedy919