[thaflyinfatman]

Here's a pic of mine that I made for a weekend at Buller. Derailleur still ended up broken haha... but not the way I expected, and not in any way that I think the guard could have protected it from. Cost me: $half an hour

Basically it's attached to the chainstay, and any rocks that hit it just scrape along it and don't catch on the derailleur. Worked well in that respect, but I'm fairly sure I landed the derailleur on something directly (basically straight down on top of a rock I think) going by how it broke. Anyway, worth a shot.

 

[thaflyinfatman]

Here's another good one: http://www.richiev.net/gallery/mtbnats04rnd5/index.php?img=257

 

[James | Go-Ride]

This isn't going to help your cause at all but it might be interesting to think about (and I apologize in advance for yet another MX reference provided by yours truly). You know how some MX and almost all off-road bikes have a couple bolts on the bottom of the swingarm for the disc rotor guard? The stock guard is usually a plastic POS but you can get aftermarket ones that are machined aluminum. Scott's old Army (circa 2001, if I recall) had tabs welded on by Jan to run something similar. Scott used this big sharkfin that was angled to deflect stuff away from the rear derailleur, although it didn't actually cover it much, if at all. It would be sweet to start seeing those tabs on all production DH bikes. I suppose for a temporary solution you could use hose clamps on the chainstay to hold something on, it would be a lot stronger than zip ties anyway. I'll try and find a pic tomorrow when I'm back at the shop of the fin Scotty had.