Custom made carbon fibre mudguards anyone?

A friend of mine has provided me with a pair of these very lovely carbon mudguards to try out. Honestly, if the only advantage is that they just look sublime they would be worth whatever he ends up charging for them. But they are also a few hundred grams lighter than typical and they are very stiff, so they don’t flap around and rub on the tyres.

Swarf?

Like. A lot.

God I’m getting old. But – they’re very nice. How the hell much though?

They are very nice. Do they attach at the rear brake?? It’s hard to tell from those pictures.

Swarf indeed 😀

As to how much, these are prototypes and while they are so good I was happy to pay for them, the final price is still to be decided.

They are very nice. Do they attach at the rear brake?? It’s hard to tell from those pictures.

They screw into the underside of the seat stay bridge and into the back of the chainstay bridge. It’s very neat.

Not sure I’d get my 2.4 rubber queens in so I’m out.

Any idea of the weight? I think my SKS Chromoplastics that are currently off the bike for the fortnight of “summer” have slimmed a pound or more off its weight.

200g without the fittings

They do look very nice indeed.

Slightly perturbed by the moving bollard in first pic though.

Just checked the SKS and they’re 488g for the P35. What width tyre are you running with those? Can’t recall if mine are P35 or 45 though… When you say fittings, do you mean the stays or just the nuts and bolts?

The moving ‘bollard’ is actually an old black bin we use to keep all the garden toys in. Works well!

Gonetothehills – I’m running 25c Conti Four Seasons. They come up reasonably large, certainly larger than the 25c Vittorias I have on my race bike.

I’m pretty sure you’d get a 28c tyre in there.

The weight is just for the guards themselves, as a pair. Swarf are also working on carbon mounting stays that would be another weight saving. Personally I like the steel stays as they look classy.

Cool, thanks – just found Swarf on FB and their webpage[/url]. Looks like they’re based where I grew up and first rode mountain bikes in the 90s! One of the shots on Portland can’t be far from where I nearly rode a Breezer demo bike off a cliff trying to dodge my brother on his pink Gary Fisher. Well over 20 years ago…

Ady is the guy behind the company. He’s making some pretty tasty hardtails and full suss trail frames as his main focus; these may be a sideline but I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up making and selling a lot of these.

Apart from being one of the fastest guys on a mountain bike I’ve every tried to follow, he’s also one of the nicest.

I need a pair of those bad boys 😯

I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up making and selling a lot of these.

Neither would I if the price was right. UD finish? Interested.

Apart from being one of the fastest guys on a mountain bike I’ve every tried to follow*, he’s also one of the nicest.

guided us @ Bikeverbier in 2012, him on his homemade proto full susser (carbon rear, steel front). Thoroughly nice guy, and a super quick, smooth and flowy rider.

*as a guide he was basically being paid not to lose me, which helped 🙂

has gilles berthoud stopeed making them, he was the go to guy ,the americans said they were shite though and no better than a plastic 20 quid mudguard

Pimp my ride.

Beautiful, but there’s no way I’ leave my commuter locked up with apair of those on it; it’d be stripped for the ‘guards!

Price price price. £50-60 would be the maximum I’d spend, and that’s double a pair of SKS guards.

I’d really love carbon fibre crud-style guards though; the plastic deforms and deteriorates over time.

Interested too, look lovely

I’ve made Adrian at Swarf aware that people are expressing an interest here. Hopefully he will be along to let you guys know what the deal is.

guided us @ Bikeverbier in 2012, him on his homemade proto full susser (carbon rear, steel front). Thoroughly nice guy, and a super quick, smooth and flowy rider.

I met him the year before when he was there with his fiance for a holiday and on that home made proto as well. I followed him down Brazillian over in Crans Montana; if you know the track it’s quite long with straights and big hair pins and lots of rocks. I was riding at ten tenths and was still only just able to see him for a second between turns.

Hi all Adrian here from Swarf, I’m a singletrack lurker, I rarely get involved so go easy on me!

Ok so a bit more info as there seems to be a reasonable level of interest.
The guards on geetee’s bike are 35mm wide internally and weigh 200g, we’re also working on a slightly wider version and a slightly narrower version.

We are also developing a mounting kit which will include carbon stays and we have come up with a method for fitting to race bikes without rack mounts. The prototype stays with fittings were 30g each.

We want to make sure things work well and are as light and strong as possible before we start selling these properly. I’ll keep the Swarf Facebook page up to date with all progress…..

And finally the main thing you all care about, price….. Well until we have finalised all the details we don’t yet know how much they will retail for. I can say that they will be more costly than mass produced products! Composites are relatively expensive and very labour intensive. We will be making by hand one pair at a time rather than churned out……

Hope that helps

Adrian