How much difference do mudguard mounts make?

[T4tomo]

I bodged a rear mudguard on my DIY 6-speed bike by zip-tying a length of scrap tyre onto its skinny rack...

View attachment 812743

I'll raise you half (lengthwise) a 2l fizzy pop bottle and some gaffer tape to attach to chain stays / seat tube.

 

[Punkawallah]

I'll raise you half (lengthwise) a 2l fizzy pop bottle and some gaffer tape to attach to chain stays / seat tube.

Slut :-)

 

[freiston]

If I wanted to use mudguards on a bike, then I would want the bike to be designed to have them fitted, including mounting points and clearance. If I was buying a bike that I wanted to use mudguards on, then it would be a deal breaker for me. If I was given one without mounts, then I might consider a workaround - but now I'm getting too hypothetical. All my bikes have mudguards. The closest I ever got to a bike without mudguards was late 70s, possibly early 80s (iirc) - when the bike came with those silly little ones that covered the brakes and not much else - I replaced them with ESGE chromoplastics

 

[wafter]

Quite a 'dangerous' mistake to make, that one; certainly in some scenarios :-)

I've not used the full-on, 'permanent' ceramic coating stuff. Mine is the Silca spray, applied with a microfibre cloth. I do it after a proper wash with shampoo and a mitt and it lasts in 'very effective' mode for a few weeks. In winter I'm probably re-doing it after 3-4 weeks and it's still working at that stage.

I've certainly considered compressed air, but not the idea of using my tubeless tyre cylinder: good idea :-) And as to drying, that's to avoid corrosion, rather than for water mark avoidance. And to avoid drips as the bike lives indoors.

Thanks for your concern but I'm quite safe as my life's not sufficiently interesting for me to be moving in circles where that distinction is important

Thanks for the the info on the Silca stuff; sounds like it's has a similar lifespan to the carnauba so I'll stick with this.

No worries re. the compressed air - there are all manner of fittings on ebay that should allow you to cobble something together... I originally planned to put a valve assy on top of a nitrous bottle to allow me to charge it with the track pump, with an outlet with a workshop air gun on it.. but as usual never got around to it. Could be really handy for getting the wet out of nooks and crannies however.

Alternatively if you're modding a tubeless tyre inflater it's probably a bit easier as you at least have the valve assy in place, but would probably need to lash something up with the hose / outlet valve assy to give you more control.

Also, I find that post wash, bouncing the bike up and down on the tyres (repeatedly lifting it a few inches off the floor and dropping it) will shake a lot of moisture off.

Fair point about drying... I think distilled water is intrinsically less corrosive but leaving a bike wet is never good! Drips aside it's probably less critical if it lives inside

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

The work bike has mudguards fitted ‘365’
Mindst you, they’re a bit split/cable-tied together, after sticks have got caught when l cut along the river (Calder) banking & through the woods

 

[Chislenko]

If you want mudguards, then quite important.

I bet there were people queuing up to write that....just my sort of humour.

 

[kingrollo]

I paid good money for a bike with proper mounts as my winter bike. However the mounts were very flimsy - you just pushed an threaded eye into a whole. Predictably these broke pretty quickly. Less predictable was where and when they broke - for me it was on a fast descent and the mudguard got wrapped around the real wheel - thankfully I was able to slow right down before before before dumped on a fairly soft grass verge .

This has tempered my desire properly fitting guards !!! - TBH the clip ons have improved massively - and with my limited winter riding these days these will suffice - I will put up with a few rattles to avoid another near death experience !!!

 

[simongt]

For me, mudguards are an essential.
Apart from the obvious of helping to keep mud & spray off you and the bike, they also serve to keep dust & road debris off the brakes mechanisms.

 

[honeybadger]

Having spent several years of getting sick and tired of the constant rubbing and rattling (no matter what fettling I did) of clip on mudguards when I got a new dedicated winter bike proper mounts were a must. Fitted some fend off and it was a revelation. Deathly quiet and kept the majority of the road spray off both myself and a lot of the components. I regularly go out on a group ride on a Sunday in all weathers. A lot of the young lads think their to cool to put guards on their posh summer bikes that they use all year round but guess who’s wheel they want to follow when the rain starts and we’re going through roads covered in cowshit ?

 

[simongt]

Whatever happened to the mini mudguards that were so popular aboyt sixty years ago - ?
Big enough to keep the dust & debris off the brakes mechs, but not so big as to be a nuisance - !
When I aquired Dawes Fox some years ago, I fashioned a pair of such mudguards from a couple of full sized steel ones and they're still doing good service thirty years later - !

 

[Punkawallah]

Whatever happened to the mini mudguards that were so popular aboyt sixty years ago - ?
Big enough to keep the dust & debris off the brakes mechs, but not so big as to be a nuisance - !
When I aquired Dawes Fox some years ago, I fashioned a pair of such mudguards from a couple of full sized steel ones and they're still doing good service thirty years later - !

I suspect people thought they would keep the wet off, and were disappointed? Or perhaps it was just as easy to clean the crud off the brakes?
I have a pair in the garage rafters in case a likely bike comes in

 

[Venod]

One of my pet hates is a bike frame that has clearance for a decent set of mudguards but no mudguard eyes, I have a OnOne Pickenflick, ok it was sold as CX bike but has loads of clearance for mudguards, I have run it with SKS longboards as a winter bike with a bit of creative bodging.
Another of my pet hates is calling mudguards, fenders.

 

[Punkawallah]

One of my pet hates is a bike frame that has clearance for a decent of mudguards but no mudguard eyes, I have a OnOne Pickenflick, ok it was sold as CX bike but has loads of clearance for mudguards, I have run it with SKS longboards as a winter bike with a bit of creative bodging.
Another of my pet hates is calling mudguards, fenders.

Like a lot of American words, it is from the older (more English) language they took with them - probably from the same root as ‘defender’ - whereas ‘mudguard’ is one of our English/French combinations.

 

[Seevio]

Although the word 'fender' goes back a long way, it does not appear to have been used in relation to wheels until the early 20th century. This was some time after 'mudguard' was coined in the UK.

 

[Happy_Days]

Thanks for all the advice, which has persuaded me that mudguard mounts are worth having.

Are there any particular mudguards that you’d recommend for a road bike? Or any to avoid?