[ConqSoft]

Submitted by: Chain

OK, so you want to rid your pretty little Nine-Five-Four of the abortion of a mud flap hanging down in back? I don’t blame you. Without spending a ton of money on a difficult to install aftermarket undertray or fender eliminator (been there, done that, albeit on other bikes), you can attain sano good looks with some simple hand tools and a little bit of patience.

• Unbolt the turn signals and let hang.
• Remove the front seat.
• Remove the rear seat.
• Use a plastic zip-tie to hold the spring-loaded seat hinge in down position.
• Remove single recessed nut which is screwed onto the threaded post holding the rear reflector on. (I recall it might have been a 8 or 9mm nut, but don't hold me to that.) You can access the nut by craning your head a bit and peering down into the trunk, looking rearward toward (and somewhat under) the tail light.
• Remove two allen headed bolts from front of tailpiece (the ones way up toward the midsection of the bike).
• Remove two allens from midpoint between front/rear seats (the so-called “Frankenbolts”).
• Remove two steel Phillips headed screws from the lip of the tailpiece where rear seat resides.
• Remove two plastic Phillips headed fasteners from the midpoint in the inner fender/undertray/whatever you like to call it (Note: You'll have to carefully pry these up a bit with a flat bladed screwdriver, then grasp them with the tips of a set of needle nose pliers and pull out).
• Use your hands to gently pull out on the opposite sides of the tailpiece at about the midway point between the tail light and the trunk lock. This will allow you to wiggle the entire tailpiece up far enough to give you room to access the wiring harness for the signals.
• That wiring harness is going to be on the right side of the bike. Once you wiggle the tailpiece up far enough (just an inch or two should be enough), you'll be able to pull the wires and plugs down below the bottom edge of the tail on the right side. Disconnect the left and right signals (orange and blue plugs) and the license plate light as well (the third plug -- forgot the color, sorry <wink>).
• With careful pulling on the wires at the point the go into the signals, you'll manage to get the individual wiring pulled through the rather circuitous route that they are laid from the place they plug into the harness, through the subframe rails, through the holes in the plastic undertray, and finally out the holes in the signal mounting tabs.
• Once both signals are on the workbench, the flap will fall off. The only things holding the flap on are the signals themselves and that solo nut/threaded post on the reflector you've already taken off.
• You'll have a set of metal oval spacers that Honda put between the plastic mounting points for the signals and the nuts that held the signals on.
• By flipping them over (they won't work in their stock position… try and you'll see why) and keeping them on the inside of the plastic mounting surface, you'll still be able to get the signal nuts threaded on. Not very far, but they'll go. A little bit of Locktite and you'll be fine. I feel that the metal spacers give you rigidity that you would otherwise lose if you chose to keep the spacers out.
• Re-route the wiring for both signals up through the undertray and plug them back into the loom. Plug them in and carefully wiggle the entire tailpiece back into place. This took me at least five minutes of fiddling. Don't get discouraged. It'll go, just be careful.

From there I think you'll be able to put everything back together. You can mount your plate in the area where the rear reflector once was, or you can fab a plate bracket and hide the plate farther up under the tail. (I had a leftover plate mount from an old Hotbodies Racing undertray kit which I used for this very purpose.)

Oh, one more thing. Most states mandate that the license plate be illuminated at dark. Lighted plate bolts? Not a bad choice and better than nothing. I had a set on a past bike. They're less than remarkable, but they'll likely keep you in technical compliance with the law. On the other hand and if you're interested, I've found at least one Fireblades.org member who simply reinstalled the OEM plate light in place of the rear reflector for a very factory look but without the ugly mud flap.