New bike arriving soon and thinking about guards. Happy to use SKS chromoplastic P35’s when touring but what about off road ? I do have some zefal ones somewhere that I used on my Jake on road – front one is like a mini downtube crud catcher and rear is the swan one, but I think it would be too large and flimsy.

So what do folk use ? Or is it a MTFU and get muddy ? .:-)

I’ve got some of these which seem ok so far. Had a good test on the road in recent monsoon and solid off-road
http://www.topeak.com/products/Fenders/defender_rc1rc11

You need a lot of clearance for 35Cs and proper guards off-road ime, risk of jamming etc. 50-55mm wide guards and maybe 15-20mm gap – not many CX-type bikes have that. Trimmed-down Cruds worked ok on my CX SS.

thanks, think I will see what I can do with some cruds

Zefal Swan (road) works pretty well on my CX bike

I’ve been using sks guards on my Fargo, not cx, but I use it for similar trails. They’ve been faultless.

mcmoonter – do they clog up much ? any pics ?

Cheers

i use a crud catcher up front, and a seatpost mounted one on the rear (cant remember which brand) keeps the worst off.
doesnt keep the bike clean, and still get splattered by spray blowing backwards off the front wheel, but hey, its winter . . .

I run a Zefal clamp-on Swan thing, road one, on the back and it works fine. And I have a Mucky Nutz on the front, ditto.

SKS with 35Cs on my Day One for commuting, tho my route has been chosen to be claggy mud free and it’s not rocky enough to rattle the guards to death in a matter of days. Do get a bit of mud build up occasionally, enough to slightly rub the tyre but not often and easy to clear.

For proper riding/claggy mud yeah prob not what you want but for winter commuting full guards are essential IMO. (the alternative is pricey waterproof keks and leaving a trail of mud behind you when you walk in to work)

excellent info thanks, I checked and the old back one I have is a zefal swan, so will ressurect that. Also have the front crud style version that went with it, and a spare mucky nutz gut fender, so should be able to sort out. cheers

Donk – it’s for playing not commuting, but still like to keep the mud off as much as I can 🙂

lets see some pics of muddy mudguarded CX bikes …..

You got a pic of the Mucky Nutz fitted, BWD? I contacted Mucky Nutz about options for a CX and they said:

…sorry the current fenders won’t fit, as they require a forward facing fork….

…but:

we are getting a cx in very soon and will be developing fenders from that.

I’d be keen to see what Mucky Nutz come up with too, as love the bender fender/gut fender combo on my mtb