Cylinder Head Bracket

[John Boat]

Does anyone know what this bracket is for? I have looked it up and nothing. What attaches to it? May be a silly question.

[saddlebum]

It's so if the bike falls over you have a grab handle to pull it back on its wheels. You may wanna down your Wheaties 1st though..

Edited October 10, 2022 by saddlebum

[Marcarl]

It's there to make little boys ask questions.

[John Boat]

10 hours ago, Marcarl said:

It's there to make little boys ask questions.

Not sure how to take this! I was looking for a answer.

[John Boat]

23 hours ago, saddlebum said:

It's so if the bike falls over you have a grab handle to pull it back on its wheels. You may wanna down your Wheaties 1st though..

I have dropped it once, grabbed it by the seat and the handle bars and pushed it back up. The handle theory seems legit, but there isn't a lot of room under it to get your fingers there and if was hot not sure.

[vzuden]

It’s unfortunate you didn’t get a serious response.   I have had these bikes since 2006 and have wondered the same thing as I don’t see a purpose for it.  

[Marcarl]

Sorry about that, it's just for decoration I think, looks impressive maybe.

[John Boat]

One of life's great mysteries, like mosquitoes and gnats they serve some purpose or God wouldn't have made them!

[Du-Rron]

I would call it a heat shield.

[M61A1MECH]

Many years back I asked the Yamaha reps at Bike Week in Daytona what that was for and they told it was a deflector to fuel that could get spilled, it supposed to keep the raw fuel off the hot engine parts.

It is supposed to be on the left side, One of the bikes on display that year someone had put it on the right ride, when I pointed that out to them they got all red faced and took the bike off display to fix it, the next day it was back with the deflector on the correct side.

 

I also know that the wire part of that is there to keep you from putting your leg on the valve cover, because if you wearing shorts and your leg touches that wire, you pull back before you can close to the valve cover, it gets plenty hot.

[John Boat]

3 hours ago, M61A1MECH said:

Many years back I asked the Yamaha reps at Bike Week in Daytona what that was for and they told it was a deflector to fuel that could get spilled, it supposed to keep the raw fuel off the hot engine parts.

It is supposed to be on the left side, One of the bikes on display that year someone had put it on the right ride, when I pointed that out to them they got all red faced and took the bike off display to fix it, the next day it was back with the deflector on the correct side.

 

I also know that the wire part of that is there to keep you from putting your leg on the valve cover, because if you wearing shorts and your leg touches that wire, you pull back before you can close to the valve cover, it gets plenty hot.

Yea I figured the shield out, but the wire bracket was puzzling me. I was at my local bike shop tonight and they had a beautiful pearl white 06 RSTD and it had the same brackets on it. I figured it must be a lift bracket from the factory as the engine would be hanging from a hoist of some type before it was married to the frame so it seemed practical to have a bracket that they could just leave there so why not make it look good. Just my thoughts.

[BadCatClassics]

Took mine off years ago. Also cleaned up some other brackets, the front reflector and rear bracket under the rear fender. The fasteners are way to light to be used for engine installs. Mainly some engineering overkill as far as I can tell with shielding. 25,000 miles on mine without, no negative effects and much easier to clean up without. One fastener has to be shortened up 3mm or so to make it work for the valve cover.