We initially thought it was our Mark’s fault for taking off his winter tyres on his car, but we’ve since found out it’s Chris Porter, Fabien Barel and Paul Walton who are to blame – just so they can launch a mud guard.
Read on for a full confession:
“The new DFender from POWA Products is the first fruit of the collaboration between Chris Porter from Mojo Suspension and Fabien Barel’s long time mechanic and buddy Paul Walton.
In an attempt to keep spray to a minimum at wet races Paul came up with the plan to put the front mudguard on the brace right over the tyre. Chris tried Paul’s lashed up, zip tied guard during testing over two years ago and was so impressed he decided to work with Paul to make a saleable version!
Because of the low position and length of the DFender the spray which comes off the tyre at the front and which the rider would normally just ride into is slashed to zero – the spray from the rear of the tyre which normally covers the bike and rider is caught by the guard too.
Over the course of two seasons (he was busy racing too!) Paul tweaked the design and tested prototypes until a strong, light, flexible system was settled upon. The guard itself is the same whichever fork you are fitting it to, but there is a rubber adaptor and clamp system to tailor the fit to the Fox 32, 36 or 40 fork. There is also an Alps fitment (Fox’s evolution range) and RockShox mounts are to follow.
Every single part from prototypes, to tooling to finished parts and even nuts and bolts and packaging are all made in the UK, it’s something that more companies should try! There are still skills in the UK!
With impeccable timing, the guys have got it ready just in time for the summer! But as Jenn mentioned in her wet, wet, wet article this month, even when it’s not raining in Britain you often need to keep mouths closed to avoid tasting, er, dirty water when riding past farms! EEEuuuurrggghhhh….
The DFender retails at £59 and you can get them at www.powa-products.com
Shred the Gnarr!
Fitting (The bit where Matt cuts his finger tip off)
We’ve got some coming for test (we can’t believe how timely it is as we look at the slush outside) we’ll let you know how we get on with them.
Comments (15)
Comments Closed
£59 for a mudguard?!
A mudguard that will only fit a limited range of forks?!
You’re 4 days late….
£59? Think I’ll just close my mouth
Here’s a thought: what do Topeak think about the name?
£59…..lol!!!
a sheet of 1mm polyboard from paperchase and a bit of sissor action will do thanks, £2.50 + 30mins.
£59……it must have life time warrenty!!!!!!
“Life Time Warranty” = as soon as its broken, its life has expired, therefore so does the warranty…
With nice sticky Somerset mud that would reduce the already useless mud clearance that my fork has. Not for me.
£59.00?
Is the decimal point in the wrong place?
£59 – even I’m LOL’ing hahahahahaha
mudguards!
Think I must have a dog egg in my eye, just read that as £59?
Either that or it’s still April 1st in singletrackworld
“a saleable version!”
at £59.00?
And people say those RRP guards are a rip-off ..
“spray from the rear of the tyre which normally covers the bike and rider is caught”
I find that hard to believe. My ‘full’ length/width SKS ‘fenders’ (with that extra little curved parallelogram bit on the bottom) on my commuter still gives me wet feet
So is this a spray guard and not a mud guard then? The pics show a 2.35″? HR, which is fairly small. Stick in an on trend 2.3″ Conti Baron for mud for eg and the clearance is going to be minimal. Ride it in anything remotely claggy and this has potential to lock (or at least slow up) the front wheel no?
I cant tell from the pics whether this completely obscures you view of your front wheel or not. If so, Ive found not being able to see your front wheel made it harder to ride, at least mentally
Also, it looks to be a tools required semi-involved fitting affair, (unlike many others), which if you are one of the many who put their bikes in their cars (and remove wheels) then this is only going to get in the way and likely need removing/refitting all the time?
Mojo in overpriced product shock…….
Crud catcher and a bit of old inner tube would do the same job for 50 quid less.
Mucky Nutz Bender Fender for £8 vs this for £60?
Almost rendered speechless that a mudguard (and a gopping one at that) costs more than an XT rear mech!
Yup – 4 days late!
That is one ugly mudguard! And £59 – that’s a laugh!
As said above (and if you really want a mudguard), just use a crud catcher/bender fender; nice and minimalist.
Gopping.
No reply from mojo or stw suggests we’ve been taken for mugs lol…