What would the repurcussions be if I decided to cut off the fork gaiters/boots? Are they absolutely neccessary to protect and the keep the forks clean?
If you cut off and destroyed perfectly good gaitors, many would direct ire (or disgust) in your direction and perhaps question your intelligence.
/jk
Fork seals last longest sliding over a smooth surface. Stone chips in the chrome, dust & dirt, are all abrasive to both the fork metal and the lip seal rubber. Dust and dirt you can keep at bay with daily wipe downs of the forks. Stone chips can still happen.
The gaitors also keep water from pooling on top of the fork and rusting the seal retainers. In 77 Honda switched to a dust cap on the forks to keep the water from pooling. But, this made the forks susceptible to stone chipping and dust/dirt accumulation. It also made it easier to see when the seals started leaking.
To install the later dust caps, requires fork removal. So, there is no need to cut off the gaitors, as they can be removed during that process of fork removal. The upper fork chrome covers have a feature to capture the upper part of the gaitor. This piece is exposed without the gaitors and some view that as unsightly.
Gaitors aren't "absolutely" neccessary for the next ride, but you might wish you had retained them on the 1000th to 10,000th ride when fork oil loss becomes an issue.
Then again if you have another method for keeping stones, dust, dirt, and water from getting at the forks, then of course gaitors aren't "neccessary".
Cheers,
