Yeah, see, I’ve now seen the picture and that’s way too short. Would be absolutely useless in a club ride situation where you need to prevent spray into the riders eyes behind. In the photo the guard, or a additional flap would need to extend to about the top of the first course of masonry. Also It’s just going to dump rubbish onto the chainset. The front would need to be sufficiently long to avoid doing this too. Full length mudguards.

Dunno if the pic will work, but it’s Hamish Haynes with his ‘6 hours in the winter’ ‘guards…

I’d be prepared to try it out for you MrCrud 🙂 Its long enough for me (I commute alone!).

Yeah have to agree that is too short for a rear guard. It will keep your ass dry (but then a shorter raceblade does to) but it won’t do anything for someone riding behind you which is a big factor for a lot of roadies. As Mugsys said it needs to extend down to the first mortar line in the pic to stop spray going backwards.

I’ve had something stick under an SKS mudguard and the quick release stays quick release. It meant the wheel suddenly slowed down and I sort of ground to a halt – like if the brake suddenly stuck half on, but no over the bar worries. It turned out to be one of those snap on plastic wrist bracelet things – it had somehow snapped onto my tyre. Removing it and putting the mudguard back in the clips everything was fine again.

Joe

I’ve had them close enough that eventually the grit rubbing wore through the rivet. My main worry was that even with safety clips the clearance wouldn’t have let a folded mudguard through so could’ve jammed…

But that’s probably not got much to do with the new mystery product.

They look like a reasonable alternative to race-blades, but it’s nice to see many stating that “proper” mudguardds are essential for group riding!

This is how i mount my rear guard on the commuter (pompino), prob just as much faff as using plastic safety clips on the rear but this way my mudguard is always in the right place for the wheel position 😀 (well apart from the bit which is bolted to the frame obviously)

I have an idea for a guard that would be more than light enough, would not have things jam in it if they went up and would weigh bugger all. It’s a little unconventional though.

But having said that, I’ve ridden over obstacles that have on more than one occasion jammed in my forks, and thats on an MTB with sus forks!

I’ve always thought a “flint catcher” would be a very good idea based on the amount of sharp stones and road debris my winter tyres pick up due to their soft compound. If designed correctly it could also spring the safety stays earlier.

I’ve got some flint catchers in my box. Must work out how to get them fixed…

Old-skool roadieness. 🙂

Oh yeah, my front guard is sort of bent to get through, because of limited clearance, and the safety stays still worked, so I guess I’m the lucky one.

Joe

I’ve had a front guard get something caught under it, which jammed the wheel (on a descent :-O) till the stays popped out, but then the bracket had snapped by this point and the whole guard rotated forward and jammed again. I shat bricks, but came to a safe halt cos of the extra stopping time the safety stays gave me. I think a proper safety release is essential, and I think it’s not just a freak occurrence, it can and will happen.

Do flint catchers actually rub the tyre? Are they spring-loaded?

Flintcatchers used to hover above the tyre as close as poss. If they touch they wear out in a few rides. This was in the ’60s.

Thanks IA above, I think you have summed it up nicely for me.

Ah. I wondered if the design of a flint catcher could be modified to ‘scrape’ the water/road grime off a road tyre with a cowl that diverts the scraped water away.I guess it would have to be mounted fairly low, well away from the brake arch and be made of extremely hard material to be of any use…..

*gets paranoid*

I’m pretty sure the full guards on my cxommuter don’t have any plastic safety clips or anything, they’re just bolted straight on.

How do conventional safety clips work? I might try to bodge some up if its not going to increase the risk of failure in the first instance.

ADH – they are plastic clips that you push the “fork” end of the stays into, and then bolt to the fork end. It does take a reasonable amount of force to pull the stays out. I’d have thought alot of lbs would have some kicking around.

ADH you can buy the SKS ones from St John Street Cycles. You push in the loop that the bolt goes through basically, so you will probably be able to retrofit very easily.

Cool, I’ll go pilfer some.

Mate rolled off a ramped kerb from a deadstop behind me last year, flicked a twig into his front wheel and stopped the bike dead. Think the mudgaurd stays acually kept the branch nicely square in the spokes long enough to hit the forks – face plant, broken arm/elbow from about 2mph top speed. The safety things didn’t pop out in time. Concertinered the front guard.

That was on an old curly Hetchins frame so massive space under fork crown.

But I’d certainly buy that rear guard. If you can get a front one working I’d have one of those too.

Oh, and a wide 29er ones too for the commuter – add me to that list too!

Thanx for the response everybody… I have done some major mods to the design thisafternoon, and think I have overcome all probs.
This probably reads like a marketing exercise, but I have got a lot from this forum and really appreciate the input.

Bring back the originals!

Ive still got a pair like these ^^^ but im missing one of the rear stays 😥