MRP AMg

You can even get a carbon back plate for it if you want even moar lite-weight.

Or put a burlier top guide on it.

there's still shims for aligning it to your chainline, though.

 

Absolute Black makes the lightest bash guide at about 70g. I run it on my Ripmo.

 

can try 77designz, bash and guide around 50g

 

Yikes. Sorry guys I guess I really mis-named my thread. I said "lightweight", when I really meant "simple"...All these gram weights... I couldn't care less about what a scale says for a top guide/bashguard; it's getting strapped to a Ripmo AF that weighs probably 38#. (I don't weigh my bikes, but this thing is a boat anchor)
I see now that my first "point of contention" started off with a weight....I don't care what it weighs on a scale.. I'm pointing out that for something that is a solid steel ring, it bent like a pepsi can and the screws stripped. I also remembered later that I had to replace one of the mounting bolts after the head sheared off after removal for cleaning/maintenence following a muddy race in October.

Points #2 and #3 are far more important to me: essentially, ease of installation and setup.

 

I doubt thats solid steel.
Anywy i have the oneup and am happy with it. The outer plate of guide flips ip so you can remove/drop chain easily. With my crank/chainrings i can fit a tool to undo the iscg bolts without removing cranks, but thats a function of the chainring since the iscg bolts are in the same place regardless of brand of guard.

 

nah, bud. It’s steel. I stuck a magnet to it. Everything ‘metal’ in that pic in the first post.

I can reach the ISCG bolts on the e13 too, it’s the bash guard bolts that suck. They screw in from the outboard side, which is dumb, IMO for a removable guard. Like pulling the crank off to replace a (broken) plastic taco is silly.

I appreciate the input about the OneUp. I have several of their droppers and levers, a pair of bars, a stem, the EDC…back in the day I had their add-on 42t cog. They make good stuff.

 

I like the MRP AMg - the aluminum plate is plenty burly and the skid can take a lot of abuse.

As far as setup goes, you're going to install it once, perhaps twice, in its functional lifetime. Shims are the least complicated way to design around chainline variations, I don't think you're going to be able to get away from them. The AMg skid bolts in from the inboard side, I haven't had to remove one yet, but it seems a fairly simple task.

If you just want the basher, MRP makes a couple versions of just that piece too.

 

Most manufacturers I’ve seen also make guides and bad tacos separately. Not sure if you’d be able to use them together for a more modular solution or not

 

I did some digging, FUNN states that the Chain guide and the Zippa Bash guard are sold separately but can be used together.
95% sure this is the route I'll take. buy the Zippa bash guard and run that- if I start dropping chains, I can add the guide later.

 

Money on you won’t need a guide, just a bash.
That is if you’re running a correctly set up drivetrain that includes a n/w ring.
=sParty

 

I use the Oneup bash guard, works fine.