Fitting SKS Mudguards to CAADX 105 Disc (Picture heavy)

[Yellow Saddle]

The rear mudguard is perfect.

The top of the front mudguard is nice and rigid now and silent. The problem is that these are incredibly long mudguards (hence the name - Longboards!) which is great from the point of view of protecting my feet and the transmission from crap thrown up by the front wheel, but it means there is a lot of mudguard to flop about.

This picture summarises the problem...

View attachment 439254
The problem is that the bottom end can flap from side to side and it is proving difficult to stop it. If the bottom stays were a little longer then I could push the flap further away from the wheel, but there isn't a lot of scope for that, though I could try. (I think the noise is mainly coming from the flap contacting the wheel when riding over bumpy surfaces at speed.) I could cut the flap down or even remove it but it would be a real pity to do that because the mudguard is giving so much protection as it is.

My other idea is to stiffen the mudguard by attaching something down the back of it. Since the guard is pretty rigid at the top stay, if I could stop the guard twisting then it wouldn't be able to move sideways.

In my view, that's too much mudguard. You'll be fine if everything only goes up to the point where the plastic flap currently starts.

I replaced my plastic flap with a piece of leather, it is rigid enough to do the job but flexes when hitting obstacles.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

In my view, that's too much mudguard. You'll be fine if everything only goes up to the point where the plastic flap currently starts.

I replaced my plastic flap with a piece of leather, it is rigid enough to do the job but flexes when hitting obstacles.

My front one is no longer that length, a kerb saw to that

 

[ColinJ]

In my view, that's too much mudguard. You'll be fine if everything only goes up to the point where the plastic flap currently starts.

I replaced my plastic flap with a piece of leather, it is rigid enough to do the job but flexes when hitting obstacles.

I think that you are probably right but I didn't want to cut more off the flap and then decide that I had shortened it too much.

I like the idea of replacing it with something more flexible so I will experiment. I'll trim the flap down a few more mm and check that it still gives adequate protection. When I have come up with the ideal length then I might well replace it with a flexible flap that long.

 

[ColinJ]

I cut another 13 mm off that flap and did a test ride through a few mucky puddles. My feet were still dry afterwards so I haven't cut too much off it (yet).

As for the residual rattling noises ... The sound of the flap catching on the tyre was pretty obvious (and has been stopped), but it was proving a bit tricky trying to track down where more subtle noises were coming from. Then I had a flash of inspiration and I think that I have now cracked the problem!

The weather is pretty unpleasant here so I'll skip a test ride until tomorrow, but the bike is now passing my 'drop test' which is to lift the front wheel way off the ground and let go. Before, the front of the bike rattled; now it doesn't.

I'll give you a clue - it was NOT the front mudguard!

PS As you may be able to see - there are 3 spacers to above the stem. The original owner of the bike had set it to quite an upright position which felt odd to me compared to my other bikes so I moved those spacers and like the lower position. I may be able to lower the stem further by 1, 2 or all 3 of the remaining spacers. I will try that before messing about with the cables. Once I have settled on my final position I will have to decide whether to shorten the steerer tube to be able to remove some of the redundant spacers. I probably won't ever resell the bike so I don't really have to consider anyone else's future positional needs.

Here's another clue ...

You can't quite see in that picture, but the exposed cables are a bit of a rat's nest behind the handlebar. I suspected that the cable outers were rattling against each other and tested my theory by using duct tape to fasten them securely together. The rattling stopped!

I'll do a proper ride tomorrow, but I am pretty confident that the bike will now be quiet enough to no longer irritate me.

Ideally, I would shorten some of the cables and untangle them. I'll look into that in the morning. Alternatively, I will tape them together more tidily.