I made front mudflaps for all my bikes barring the folding bikes about two years ago and they really do make a difference. The type of tyre will make a difference to how wide the front mudflap needs to be to catch the side spray. I made mine out of 2mm nitrile rubber sheet and though really effective, all of them have recently started to fail, cracking and splitting at the top near the fixing to the mudguard. For my newest bike, which I picked up only 10 days ago, I decided to buy one and got the Fahrer Latz Urban - it looks really smart on my SKS (almost typed ESGE then!) Edge 56mm mudguards (covering Mondial 50mm tyres) and stops a lot but some spray is caught by my trousers/feet, though the bike is well protected; I was cycling on a fast single carriageway in the rain with mud on the road from farm vehicles at the time and didn't notice any spray at other times on the journey - there wasn't a lot on my trousers/shoes and I don't think I would have noticed if it wasn't for the muddy brown colour of the splatter. I might replace the mudflaps on other bikes with the RAW ones - they look interesting.
