After I was done installing the quad-bag rear suspension it was time to reinstall the T-skirts – always a real pain in the ‘neck’. I had read about someone else who had the idea to hinge the T-skirts at the top and make some kind of an easy-to-release connection at the bottom. I bought a length of stainless steel piano hinge and used some 1/8″ aluminum bar as backing for the fiberglass. I didn’t use every hole in the hinge – not necessary – and I threaded the aluminum bar to accept the screws. It was a little tough to get installed but it always was hard to install the T-skirts anyway. The original steel/rubber straps at the bottom had to be modified to fit through the quad-bag bracket and it wasn’t quite long enough so I just attached some large washers to the end with tie-wraps and used the original bolts. Now I can just remove the bolts and the skirt hinges up out of the way and can be held in place with a bungee cord attached to the rain gutter.

T-skirt with stainless hinge
  The photo on the left shows the finished product.  The hinge does show but is hardly noticeable.

view of hinge in open position
  On the right is the hinge with the T-skirt in the open or up position.  You can see that not every hole was used – very few actually.

aluminum backing plate
  Back on the left you can see the inside of the T-skirt with the aluminum backing plate and threaded holes.

easy to get out of the way
  Using a bungee cord connected to the rain gutter is a handy way to keep the T-skirt out of the way while you work.  This will be handy for the disc brake and reaction arm upgrade which I will be doing soon (July 2011).

attachment for bolt
  The last photo shows how I modified the original steel and rubber strap at the bottom of the skirt so that it would fit inside the quad-bag frame.  It almost reaches the original bolt but the addition of a large washer and a tie-wrap make it just right.