I recently had the heatshield off my XP..pulled it off to paint it,I had done a quicky job on it before and the pressure washer was getting the best of it..anyway the idea struck me to trim the heatshield(or possible remove it all together) so it only covers the parts closest to the exhaust..in other words you wouldn't really see it. I also though about leaving the black plastic at the ends of the grab bar off (I'd cap the bar). This opens everything up in the back and looks like clean up in that area would be alot easier...
I've had some ideas before that I intially thought looked good and later looked at it and wonderd what I was thinking..lol.. This one has me torn I think it loos ok..but haven't convinced myself..I just really like how open it is..
What do y'all think? Look good or dumb idea? See any problems I might run into(other than it might cause melting..I've thought of that and would actually run it without the heatshield at all before cutting to see how hot things get and where..I don't think it will be an issue though)
Be honest....I can take it lol..

Here is basically what it would look like..

 

I see you have the HMF back on. Did they give you a differnt muffler?
Or did you modify it your self?
What keeps it from melting the plastic again?
I think it looks a lot cleaner. But mine hasn't looked that clean since it was new.LOL
I know my heatsheild rattles, would be nice to eliminate it.
You could use electrical box plugs on the end of the grab bar. Thats what i used to cap my bumpers on my old 700.

 

I never took mine off..apparently mine wasn't as bad as the other gentleman's was. I just spaced it out a little at the bottom which rotated the inlet down slightly and removed the upward pressure it was putting on the header pipe. I'm glad HMF listen and fixed the issue so quickly..they offered to replace it but to me it wasn't a priority as I had already fixed mine.

I think it looks clean too..and definitely more open..easier to clean up. Just need to ride it a little and see how hot everything gets before I decide to leave it off completely. Haven't had the time yet..packing up for a trip.

 

I think it's going to get set a-blaze like a roman candle. LOL LOL

It sure looks good, and I'm sure you will be watching closely for any melting or any other negatives.

Do you think it's a wise idea to do this just before your "big trip"?

 

LOL.. oh I'll be taking the heat shield with me if I in fact leave it off at all..at this point it's just an idea..like I said I had it off for paint anyway...only took a couple of minutes to throw the exhaust back on to see what it would look like. I fired it up and rode it around for about 20 minutes..let it idle for about 10..the only thing that even got warm was the right side of the storage box..but yes I'll be keeping a real close eye on it if I leave it off and go on a long ride..even packed up some heat tape incase it gets too hot back there and I need to get it back to the cabin.
BTW..I have seen another XP with no heatshield..so I can't claim it is an original idea..but it didn't occur to me at the time to take mine off. That bike has a different exhaust and is a radical mud bike.