Due to endless rain, riding my cross bike on the road (or the river that passes as the roads here currently), Yesterday, after 40k all my kit and bike were muddy like an MTB ride! Boardman CX does have eyelets but as it’s a temp (hopefully) conversion to road tyres, was just going with SKS RaceBlades (not the long ones). Loads of clearance both ends, but these look like the simplest solution.
On-and-off-ability is more important than full protection. Any reason not to go the SKS route?
I used SKS raceblades for a while, they do tend to mark the paint a bit unless you tape first. Now I use zefal swan and croozer set which keeps me dry, goes on and off in seconds and is fine with 35c tyres. No use in a bunch ride though as they throw a lot behind.
I had mine on yesterday to save another day of being soaking wet
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They are a bit imprecise in terms of fit, but seem quite happy being bent into a more conducive shape if you need to. I’d echo the comment ^ about marking the paint too … but that said, I’ve found them fine for the occasional bit of use, and they are quite versatile – mine get used on a ‘traditional’ skinny tubed steel road bike (on 700×25’s) and equally happily sit on my Peregrine on it’s 35CX tires. They’ve had to be repaired a couple of times, but a bit of duct-tape and a zip-tie here and there are ok.
You know what they look like, but here’s a picture from yesterdays outing anyway. 😉
That set-up did a decent enough job of keeping most of the muck off (off me at least). My instinct is that they are more likely to sacrifice themselves if they get hooked up on something, rather than result in a crash (he says, entirely unscientifically … 🙄 )
I’d love to se something as dry as that. Still googling around for options. Zefal pair makes the race blades look pretty but they seem to get good reviews.
Alex, the zefals are great. The straps on the dowtube one perish but swop out with some crud style rubber bands. Quick to put on and take off and do a a remarkably good job