I took my heelguards off this morning, made some fender supports, everything looks great, used high crabon rod for the supports so that they spring back if she rolls instead of bending and turning into crap.
After sitting on her, and riding her around, I'm feeling awfully vulnerable about my foot going behind the peg into the wheel or under the axle. There is much more open space here than any other machine I've had, and while I never worried before about not having heel guards, I find myself intimidated without them on my DS, especially since I jump a lot more with this quad than any other 3 or 4 wheeler I've had.
I made some customized cuts on my stock heelguards on a scroll saw, to make them more appealing to the eye, and they're going back on tomorrow. They look good, are safer, and the only downfall is that they will still collect several pounds of mud, but I don't race so I can live with that.
Heelguards or not, the most common foot slipping is off the side of the peg, and no heelguard will help you here. Peg extensions like the Baja has are a must if you don't want to buy aftermarket kick-ups. The baja pegs are $20 each from the dealer, for those of you who don't weld. Much cheeper than Roll Design, but three rungs of teeth is awesome, and worth the money too - not to mention they are works of art.

 

Bailey broke his stock pegs from all the hard landings, he made news ones but they arent near as pretty as the roll designs. It seems like the bigger the jumps we make the more bigger non breakable parts we go through, frame is next, its all thats left to replace.