My problem with the Bluemels is lack of horizontal rigidity, they move around too much and end up contacting the tires if you jump or hit rough sections. Also it’d look better with a fender using just one beefier..strut? instead of two on each side.

Caveat is that they need to be customized to fit around my BB7 disc brakes, anything off the shelf that could work or could I get fully custom forks anywhere?

freshtripe. all kinds of guards.

freshtripe. all kinds of guards.

Blimey, they’re still going?! 🙂

Thanks ton, they have the Velo Orange 52mm zeppelin mudguards which COULD work, my Bluemels are 53mm and it’s a tight fit, my tires 49mm wide. But why must they use leather? Arg.

http://freshtripe.co.uk/velo-orange-52mm-zeppelin-mudguards-650b/

It may just be that the Bluemels profile and thickness of plastic is simply not sufficiently rigid to meet your usage requirements, but before you ditch them, I would make the following suggestions/observations:

1. SKS supply two different types of quick release systems for the stays of their front mudguards. You have the version that is supplied as standard with the Bluemels range. I think that the version supplied with the SKS chromoplastic range (Secuclip) is potentially more rigid and resistant to side to side swaying. You can even increase the tightness of the fit of the stay in the Secuclip by bending the stays apart a bit.

2. It might help improve the rigidity a bit if you increase the distance separating the stays by fitting extra spacers on both sides of the fixing at the fork dropout (not just enough to clear the disc brake on one side). In other words, widen the base of the effective triangle/trapezoid of which the stays form the sides. I doubt this will have a great effect, but if you have to replace the stays in order to fit Secuclips anyway, it won’t hurt to do this.

3. Two stays either side are likely to be more rigid than a single stay design, all other things being equal.

Failing that, Planet Bike Cascadia Fenders seem to be well regarded and are available in a metal version, but are not cheap and you will have to pay import duties.

Thanks Slowster. from what I’ve felt, two thin stays is much much less rigid than one beefy “all the way around the fender” one (from feeling up various display bikes :S), but yes also depends on the angle.

I found this bike with 2.00″ tires and the Oranges – looking spiffy!

To clarify/emphasise my comments above about the two types of SKS/Bluemels quick release, I have a set of new Bluemels mudguards for a planned new build. I’ve just had a look at them and I can feel quite a bit of side to side or angular play in the movement of the eye of the QR component. It may not be so apparent when the mudguards are fitted, but if you undo the bolt securing the mudguard to the fork dropout, you will then be able to waggle the eye and see how much movement there is for yourself. I’m pretty sure there is not so much play/movement of a stay in a Secuclip fastening.

I tried to hold the qr in place and it didn’t seem to make too much difference.

I tried to hold the qr in place and it didn’t seem to make too much difference.

Hmm. I’ve just unbolted a Secuclip from one of my bikes and compared the amount of movement/play with the Bluemels ASR joint. I would estimate that both have sufficient play to move through an angle of around 10 degrees, but the ASR joint feels much looser/the Secuclip has a bit more friction resistance to movement, although that might be neither here nor there for your purposes if the force of a jump or rough section puts significant sideways force on the mudguards.

I am doubtful that beefier stays (as opposed to fastenings) are the answer to your problem: the problem exists mainly because the wider the distance the between the stays where they fasten to the mudguard, the inherently less rigid the structure. With narrow tyres and correspondingly narrow mudguards, the stays will be more akin to two sides of a triangle (i.e. a very rigid shape). The wider the mudguards, the more the stays will be like two sides of a parallelogram (=not a rigid shape). I suspect it’s less likely to be bending along the length of  the stays themselves that’s the problem than movement at the fastening points of the stays (i.e. the corners of the parallelogram/trapezoid).

The Planet Bike Cascadia mudguards do seem to be the preferred mudguard for wide tyre bikes like the Surly Ogre, as per Surly’s own website instruction on fitting mudguards to the Ogre here, so it might be worth googling for reviews to see if people report better experience with them compared with Bluemels.

It’s hard to say, I’ve asked fresh stripe what they think (biased?) but from just manually trying to flex fenders the models with beefy stays seem better given the same fender width. If the stays were beefy enough there would be absolutely 0 horizontal play if directly affixed to the fork/frame I think that follows logically.

If the stays were beefy enough there would be absolutely 0 horizontal play if directly affixed to the fork/frame

Agreed, but to what extent would that be due to the elimination of the movement introduced by the Secuclip/ASR joint, rather than thicker stay material? More importantly, do you want to fit stays directly to the fork without an emergency release device, especially on a bike that is ridden off road and is therefore more likely to pick up dirt, mud, twigs etc. on the front tyre that could jam in the mudguard and lock the front wheel?

I’ve fitted the Brick Lane Bikes 700c equivalent of those Velo Orange guards before and despite me presuming they would be noisy and not very stable they seemed sturdy to me. That was test riding on a rough road rather than offroad but they seemed pretty decent.

I’ve been very impressed with my Bluemels, about 4000miles on and offroad with no issues and still going strong. I thought they would fall apart on the first section offoard but worked fine, only minor issue is if I take one hand off the bars they can rattle a little. I’m running 35mm guards with Schwalbe S-One 30mm tyres, which is too narrow a guard for the tyre but it looks better :P. I’m running them on a gravel bike so it gets a high speed hammering on the smoother offroad but rougher bridleways I take it slow.

The width of the guards could be a factor in how they’ve worked for both of us.

I’m also looking for more 27.5 x 2 options for my new bike, i’ll let you know if I find anything.

I do bend my stays differently, it probably doesn’t help but I prefer the way it looks.

Nice thanks for sharing. The last pair of Velo Oranges ordered, they said horizontal stiffness should be way better than the bluemels (from beefier stays and metal construction).

Aesthetically it’ll be an upgrade to IMO, bluemels look a bit flimsy on a 2″ tire bruiser!

Can you report back, I’ve got chromoplastics which are wobbling on my new frame, it has bolts a third the way up inside of seatstay, the wire stay is full length to get the clearance so it’s hitting the tyre on bumps.

The Metal guards weigh a ton and completely contradict the carbon frame and weight weenie carbon wheels on my new bike.. but i’m a total mudguard convert and would like something to tide me over until the weather improves at least.

<span style=”font-size: 12.8px;”>Yer mini review would be great please :P</span>

Velo Oranges installed and holy they look good. I look at the bluemels with utter disgust now.

2 x quicker than bluemels to install, no need to bend anything around the disc brakes even using P clamps on the rear!

2 x better horizontal stiffness = no bashing the side of the tire even though clearance is 1 mm lower.

10 x better looking, photos coming soon.

Furthermore you can adjust the curve of the fender by bending the metal so it’s a lot easier to get a perfect curve around the tire. I also noticed the Bluemels already had a crack after just 3 months, I will try to get a replacement and sell it : p

Fibre, check your frame where the mudguard bridge clips on. Mine wore through the outer layer of carbon, down to the fibreglass core. I tape it now but of course, the horse has bolted.

Cheers Bob. I helitape the crap out of everything nowadays so it’s all good. I wish more bikes would come with it as stock in critical areas.

How long are the Velo stays? Pics would be great.

End result, really happy. Didn’t measure stays before I cut them, but more than long enough for this bike. Should probably run a slightly narrower tire, but works very well. Used p clamps and drilled and threaded a hole in the seatstay to mount it on the rear.

Bonus bacterian camel shot