in praise of proper mudguards

[shouldbeinbed]

Just put proper guards back onto my winter hack as this week has proven the shorty plastic ones have proved worse than useless when confronted with Schwalbe snow stud tyres and the mucky wet slush this week.

Fiddly to get aligned perfectly but worth it for my new tready grippy tyres.

 

[Banjo]

Been using sks chromoplastic full legth guards for a month now. Havent needed to adjust them since fitting. Make a huge difference to bike and rider.Performance loss is probably negligeable for an ordinary rider.

 

[screenman]

I have had mudguards on at least one of my road bikes since 1989, seems before then I washed both the bike and kit more often.

 

[jayonabike]

I have full SKS Chromoplastics on my Dawes, never had to adjust them in the 4 years of having the bike.

 

[the_mikey]

SKS guards on my kinesis T2, never going back to winter riding without 'em

 

[Drago]

SKS on my commuter. Still on normal Conti road tyres, no problem as yet.

 

[biggs682]

SKS on my commuter. Still on normal Conti road tyres, no problem as yet.

lets hope the exhaust last longer on the commuter

 

[S.Giles]

There's a good reason that nearly all bicycles used to have mudguards (the clue is in the name). Then someone decided they were too heavy, aerodynamically unviable and just plain surplus to requirements. Now we ride around with a dirty wet stripe all up our backs and road-muck clogging up our bikes' carefully adjusted mechanisms.

It's called 'progress', I believe.

Steve

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Yes, it was my bad TBH, the bike was a write off I got for £10 and rebuilt from bits I had around, the plastic guards were a cheap and cheerful set from son 1s long dead MTB, they haven't done too bad just in the rain and on slicker tyres but this week and heavy tread tyres has overwhelmed them. Totally agree with comments on proper guards, all my others are well protected the roadie never has its roadracer 2s off even in the summer. I'm not a fan of the explosive diarrhoea look.

 

[PaulSecteur]

SKS aint bad, but real guards are steel

 

[cosmicbike]

SKS aint bad, but real guards are steel

Nice, what are they? Looking for some for my Boardman CX.

 

[stephec]

SKS guards on my kinesis T2, never going back to winter riding without 'em

Same here, a winter bike doesn't look right without them.

 

[MontyVeda]

SKS aint bad, but real guards are steel

Nice... where does one buy them?

 

[shouldbeinbed]

SKS aint bad, but real guards are steel

They look the part.

Recycled stealth bomber?

 

[PaulSecteur]

Nice, what are they? Looking for some for my Boardman CX.

Nice... where does one buy them?

These particular ones are only available on the Spesh AWOL, however, similar and more aesthetically pleasing ones can be had from...

http://www.jitensha.com/eng/fndrs_e.html

http://www.freshtripe.co.uk/Freshtripe/Mudguards & Racks.html

http://www.gillesberthoud.fr/anglais/accessoires/resultat.php

Though it may take a bit of researching to get a UK supplier.

Recycled stealth bomber?

No, more like recycled panzer tank. This bike gets used a lot along tow paths, and there are a lot of anti-motorbike obstacles where you have to lift the front wheel up to head height and walk it through on the rear wheel. Originally the rear guard was too long and made this awkward so I shortened it by about 4 inches - much easier to wheel around now. But cutting it was too much for my dremel, I had to use one of my dads vibrating cutting saws and even that took a while to chew through the edges where they are folded over making them double thickness.