I have a Long Boarded SS commuter, but for the days I take my CX, will it divert some of the tow path grit from my crack?

Some.

Not much.

Are you saying my cracks too big or the guard too small?

In my experience if you can stop them rattling round to one side they stop your bum getting too wet/mucky but your back & legs still get sprayed. Better than nothing but not that great.

It protects most of your crack, but not much else. Depends if you’re trying to stay dry (your back still gets splattered), out just sightly increase comfort (so you’re not sat on a soggy crack).

Yup, they stop your crack getting grit blasted.

They don’t offer much but it is something.

Mine worked not too badly, until it fell off never to be seen again.
And given it’d been trying hard to escape all its life i decided not to bother replacing it.

utterly useless and crap. what is the point in having a dry 1” strip of arse when the rest of you is splattered.

without a single shadow of doubt, proper mudguards are the most effective upgrade to any commuting/winter bike.

They’re crap. Don’t bother

Depends on the guard, you’re saddle and bike set up. Some are wider, longer and more secure than others. Some saddles don’t work with them. I commuted through last winter 150 miles a week with one after my flappy crappy Crud Racers fell to pieces.

I like them. Stops my arse getting wet. Don’t mind my upper body or legs getting a bit wet but keeping my lyrca/padded arse dry is essential as the padding soaks up the water.

They’re marginally useful if the roads just more than damp, no discernible use if it’s properly wet. Make your own out of a 4 pint milk container and see what you think.

without a single shadow of doubt, proper mudguards are the most effective upgrade to any commuting/winter bike

Totally. Riding a properly mudguarded bike in the wet is a revelation, nothing does more to make winter road riding tolerable.

Just look at it, there’s no way it can work.
Buy some proper full length guards and reinvent yourself as an elder statesman of cycling.

What Johannes said.

Quite handy if you want to take your summer bike out when you shouldn’t.

Get a Fendor Bendor 3. I think ass savers bought them out, but they are much better designed.

Your crack will stay dry, it’s the rest of you that’s going to get soaked if there’s standing water or crap about, I would reserve a guardless CX bike for bone dry commutes only and stick with your guarded SS the rest of the time.

Arriving at work dry is great, not having to pull on sodden clothes to ride home in the cold and dark even better, riding a slightly nicer bike in now and then during winter is way down the list…

No. Zefal swan is what I use on my CX bike on long rides – works really well and takes seconds to fit once set up. Through winter it is used a lot as I don’t care for riding around with a wet muddy arse.

Full mudguards on my winter roadie and commuter but they would be impractical in claggy mud and I’d need to take them off all the time for racing. HAd the clip on type but they just rattled on rough tracks and annoyed me.

As far as my experience goes only proper full length mudguards actually work and by full length I mean ones that go past the 9 o clock mark on the wheel. For riding on the road that’s fine but any kind of mud or a full sussser kyboshes that so my preference is waterproof shorts off road and a mucky nuts up front for the face spray.

+ whatever number we are up to regarding full length mudguards. They are fitted permanently to my Croix de Fer which is my commuter & winter bike. They’ll stop the vast majority of road spray, it’s usually only blasting through puddles that defeats them. I deal with that by having decent overshoes.

For the fat bike I’ve one of these: http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/pdw-daves-mud-shovel-fender-rear-2964-p.asp because if you think you get a muddy arse when riding a CX then a fat bike is an order of magnitude greater! 🙄

Your bike could look as good as mine.

i had a wider one…it was ok. Only lasted 2 hours then fell off never to be seen again!

Use RRP on the front and Ass-saver on the rear on the mtb. Works pretty good considering how minimal each guard is.