I’ve decided that I’ve had enough; no more soaking feet and gritty bum crack for me! I want to put mudguards on my old faithful 2005 Kona Jake the Snake. Any recommendations for some that won’t rattle, shake loose or fail to divert water? I don’t mind if they take a while to fit, I intend to keep them on all winter…

can look ok. Depends whether you want just for road, or in my case some bumpier stuff as well. I have the Zefal Swan ones :

dont know the frame, but (esge) sks chromoplastics have always been the goto solution.

tighter tolerance will help with water, but hinder if you get in the mud n muck.

What soobalis said +1, chromoplastics for water, something else for mud.

SKS blumells are pretty much the same as chromoplastics but go upto bigger sizes, 29×2.1 looks daft but fit’s into the biggest ones, and are slightly cheaper (they don’t get the QR front mounts).

Not bothered about mud. I have mountain bikes for that 😉

I have chromoplastics on my 80s Columbia roadie, leave them on all year round for commuting and weekend riding, run 35mm tyres which is very tight on clearance, no good for mud that big but fine for water.

Time to scare the children.

SKS Chromo or Longboard, as on my bike below (if you can find them and are sticking to tarmac only).

I have two sets. Clip on SKS ones which are ok on the road and smooth off road (gravel NCN stuff). They rattle like crazy on the few trips I’ve taken them on anything rough. I mainly use them after Jan when my CX becomes my winter road bike.

I also have the swan/croozer from Zefal. Look ugly but on really long rides they keep the mud off and are robust enough. Worthwhile on my last ride which was over 200km off road.

Tend to leave them off for short stuff, although I use them to get me to races and warming up so I don’t start the race muddy.

IMG_20150223_131605736 by Notoriously Bad Typist, on Flickr

SKS I think? Fitted when i bought the bike. Been great for keeping my arse dry, feet were soaked when I got home last night though

If you want dry feet most mudguards aren’t the full answer as the spray still gets you when steering. Those longboards look like they would do a better job than most though, or for a traditional roadie solution a long flap made of a strip of pop bottle helps.

I have Chromoplastics on my go-to bike. Can be expensive and awkward to fit, but faff free once on and last for years.

edit – NBT’s bike is nice. I went for one stay on the disk brake side to avoid the caliper, on mine and Mrs Tthew’s bike, and they still work fine.

I was looking for some too and saw these on the Merlin bikes, but they don’t seem to sell them on their own

http://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-x20-105-11-speed-alloy-cx-bike-commuter-model-75206.html

Or possibly these?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raceplate-Alloy-Length-Mudguard-Fender/dp/B00W3YR6H6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441294436&sr=8-1&keywords=rsp+mudguards

I use on of the narrower MTB ones that just clips on your saddle. Just enough to keep your vitals dry while plowing through stuff. I haven’t used anything on the front though and I tend to abandon my feet to whatever comes.

Put off any idea of ‘proper’ guards for off roading after watching a friend come to a very sudden stop with a stick wedged in the rear mudguard.

If you want dry feet most mudguards aren’t the full answer as the spray still gets you when steering.

Mudguards can work fine for keeping your feet dry but the front needs to be long at the back and also be fitted with a mudflap so the the wheel is covered almost down to the ground. STATO’s bike looks like it’ll keep your feet dry.

Chromo’s!
Add a long plastic flap front and rear and maybe a bit around the front mech. Get the widest that will go in. Been using them for years on my rough stuff bikes.

SKS +1

[url=https://flic.kr/p/fhE7DX]DSC_0134[/url] by ir_bandito, on Flickr

Cross bike with 28mm tyres

My feet stay dry.

Pdw ftw . Like my use of tla’s 😉

Good luck.

I bought a set of Chromoplasts last winter for my X, and they sucked. They were a sod to install with general bracket alterations and once installed rattled annoyingly and made distracting splatting noises bouncing off the tops of my tyres every time I hopped something. The back one kept coming loose at the front clip.

If you ride something with generic 20yo read geometry and side pull Road calipers theyre probably fine, although some have told me they aren’t really sure why they keep being recommended as they really don’t fit anything.

If I bother with anything this year it will probably be mucky nuts folding guards. They’re surprisingly effective.

Urban Velo guards.

Sorry, not feeling well – the above are actually Velo Orange guards. Oops.

I bought a set of Chromoplasts last winter for my X, and they sucked.

Got them on my Plug3. Before used them on Inbred 29er.

No problems whatsoever and they seems to be more resilient than Bluemels that I used to use on now retired, old Peugeot.

Cheers!
I.

I used Blackburn Cloudburst guards on my CX last winter and I expect they’l be going back on some time soon. 🙁

Long boards ftw

The only issues i ever had with sks mudguards was customers buying them and fitting them selves and making a hash of it as per above.

Never ever had a single problem on a shop fitted set of sks – and we only sold sks full length guards.

Oh and Mucky nuts….. Not really much use as a mudguard ime, they really as as much use as tits on a bull.

Oh and Mucky nuts….. Not really much use as a mudguard ime, they really as as much use as tits on a bull.

They’re OK on a mountainbike, keeps the mud off your saddle and face. The great thing about proper guards of any brand is they extend down to the BB on the rear which channels the water away from you, anything else just sprays onto your legs (ditto the need for a front ‘mud’flap’).

I’ve 2 sets of chromoplastics for 28mm and 32mm tyres, a set of blumells for 2″ tyres and raceblades (which aren’t as good but better than the alternatives) spread around various bikes, barely a rattle or a squeek from any of them.

If you like a wet muddy arse, then no. If you don’t, then yes.

/end thread.

*Edit, ah now I read the content of thread as opposed to the title! As you were.

(I bought some Halfords quick-release full length jobbies for my hybrid/gravel/touring/road/mtb frankenbike. They looked solid and the colour was a good match. The front wobbles up and down. Annoying, need replacements). The old SKS chromoplastic ones worked a treat, might put them back on.

“The great thing about proper guards of any brand is they extend down to the BB on the rear which channels the water away from you, anything else just sprays onto your legs”

This is why the best place for a crud catcher is on the back of the downtube chanelling it down.

I suppose it depends what you use your CX bike for. I’ll put a grud guard / crud catcher on mine in the winter to keep some crud off and to keep my bum dry. That’s for mixed road / off road rides though rather than pure road. I probably won’t do much in the way of just road riding but if I was going to then I suppose I’d consider full guards although the aesthetics (or lack of), really put me off. I might just get a decent turbo trainer instead. That doesn’t help if you need to commute by bike of course.

As everyone says, SKS, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the Longboards for offroading. I put them on my commuter, and I found the front was just too long and the stiff flap would catch when bumping over kerbs or small steps. Eventually the guards fatigued and snapped at the rivets. I’ve overlapped the broken section and bolted it back in place, and now it gives good protection without catching on things.
Standard SKS with a long, flexible flap fitted might be a better bet.

Any recommendations for some that won’t rattle, shake loose or fail to divert water?

I’ve been using sks chromoplastics and longboards since I bought a jake the snake in 2007, it’s my winter/wet day commuter. I’ve found the quality of sks guards has gone down over the last couple of years so I went for a set of pdw ‘full metal fenders ‘ a month or so ago. They’ve been great, really happy with them. They’re £39 from triton cycles which is by far the cheapest you’ll find them, delivery was very quick.

Just to add a different option, I found the Cycraguard Road to work pretty well for a frame without mudguard mounts and 35c tyres.