Finally,rattle free full mudguards. Pletscher Aluminium Fenders R80

After breaking four sets of SKS 65mm Bluemels over the past few years I’ve finally found a solid set of rattle free full mudguards for my rigid 29er which does the off-road commute, XC, bridleway exploring etc etc….

I know, full mudguards are a bit niche for MTB but it’s nice not to turn up to work covered in filth and soaking wet and I’m thinking there may be others who have had similar problems with what’s available from the usual suppliers as they just don’t last when used off road.

Anyway. After much searching and then translating of German forums I found these

https://www.pletscher.ch/index.php/en/products-en/fenders-en/fenders-en

Specifically the 29er 80mm wide versions. Solid aluminium, anodised black and can even carry panniers with the supplied bracket.

The price….. £120!

I’ve spent that already on the sets of SKS guards I’ve destroyed so thought it was worth a shot if they were as solid as the seemed to be.

Found a supplier in Germany and took a punt

https://www.720-bike.de/produkte/schutzbleche/?p=1

Fitted yesterday and first off road ride out today. I’m seriously impressed. Not one squeak or rattle. The guards themselves seemed to be extruded 3mm aluminium and the stays are 8mm aluminium rods all held together with stainless bolts.

Downside? The are obviously quite a bit heavier than the plastic SKS guards they’ve replaced and the cost obviously but honestly I can’t see me breaking these anytime soon. They barely move when riding.

There’s no UK supplier I could find and the only info on these is on a German ebike forum so thought I’d post this up for us English speaking full mudguard lovers!

Pitchers?

Superb. A good find and thanks for sharing.

List of Fender and Mudguard Manufacturers for Bicycle Touring

They’re on the list here too.

Good stuff. How did the Bluemells break?

The brackets which the stays attach to usually rip out leaving a big hole or the same with the brackets that attach to frame and fork. Also killed a few when using off road and due to the movement/flex they would catch the tyre and fold up.

I know they aren’t intended for the grief I was giving them so was happy at the time just to replace with the same.

Good find, thanks for sharing.

Interesting, SKS ones may be better than Bluemels?

Heh. I do like Cycling About, and not just for the wealth of information on there:

“I have four sets [of SKS guards]: one of them has done over 40,000km of touring around the world including 10+ flights, lots of trains, buses and cars, and it’s still going strong. My other sets have been on other touring/city bikes for close to 10 years, without failure.”

I do tend to boggle a bit when I see so many people on here complaining about how inevtiable it is that they regularly break their SKS guards 🙂

Anyway, those Pletschers look nice, not least for the ability to hang bags from them. Not quite Take £120 Of My Actual Money nice, admittedly, but nice.

What Bez said, hence my point above.

Also, jury is out until the Pletchers last longer than SKS…aluminium isn’t has a fatigue limit.

Time will tell on the life of the pletscher guards but they passed a good test for me at the weekend by staying silent on very rough/rocky descents. Liking the extra width as well as it fully covers, with room to spare, the 2.3 tyres I use.

I’m not saying the SKS were bad guards as such but for how I use the bike they were on, they weren’t up to the job.

I had SKS 65mm jobs on my MTB / gravel 29er for a while. I can see how they’d last a squillion miles for touring use. They are good.
MTB use is perhaps a bit beyond their remit though. What I found is that they waggle around enough to catch the knobs on a 2.25 tyre. IT was pretty clear to my ears that they were getting a rough time. I never broke them, but they weren’t on very long. I found the racket too upsetting, snowflake that I am.

@survivor how are you getting on? Would be interested to know as Pletscher seem to be the only manufacturer making 29x 80mm wide mudguards

It looks like there’s a profile/ ledge with a central gap to the oustside of the guard.

I can see that being really good for containing road water splashback, but won’t that back section just completely fill up with mud?

Broke another rear P35. Will look for something more aluminium.

I have not used these guards but IME aluminium ones rattle far worse than plastic

Would the R60 cover Race King 2.2s?

The other ones I’ve been looking at are the stainless steel Gilles Berthoud ones, they look great and come in really wide widths and are waaaay cheaper than Pletchers. What’s the catch? Super heavy?

@shermer75 Guards are still solid as rocks and rattle free 7 months on. They’ve had all sorts of abuse this summer and not needed touching once. Worth every penny but again they aren’t lightweight. I did get a surprise when I picked the box up when they were delivered. They are 3mm thick solid aluminium full coverage guards and are very wide. There is no escaping that.

@nedrapier yeah they do have those channels in. Think they are for running light/dynamo cables along but I’d rather do without them for reduced weight. I intended to cut them out when I got the guards but access proved tricky so I just ran a bead of silicone sealant along which has blocked them off.

@tjagain you couldn’t be more wrong there bud. Your underestimating how solid these are. Not a peep has been heard since I installed them. I also put bits of amalgamated tape where they touch the fork crown and the chainstays to deaden the contact points.

@MalvernRider I’d take a guess and say yes. I’ve got a 2,6 up front now and the 80mm covers that fine with room to spare. Just…. In hindsight I would of bought the 65mm, saving a bit of weight as I’ll probably drop back to a 2.3 tyre at some point. The 2.3 I have on the back has loads of room either side.

Have pdw stopped making theirs.

Aluminium rattle free guards for years here.

IME aluminium ones rattle far worse than plastic

Polar opposite of my experience.

If you use rubber washers, tape the contact points and use plastic fittings where supplied then no guards should rattle. I fitted some Bluemels to my Vagabond and fashioned standoff bolts/locknuts with rubber and felt washers for the drilled holes in the guards and…no rattles on regular woodland trails or rocky roads.

I don’t find they rattle in the sense of rattly hardware, it’s the lack of stiffness in plastic guards which makes the guards themselves audible. Generally it’s not a problem, and I use plastic guards off-road without much complaint, but for instance if I take one hand off the bars while riding at a reasonable speed, the rear section of a plastic front guard will clatter about like crazy, whereas my aluminium ones are nice and solid.

I confess I’ve not tried fabric washers etc, though.

My experience as well Bez and better explained than my rattle description

This lack of stiffness would then lead to the stays or guards themselves fouling on the tyres eventually, usually on some rough DH singletrack, and folding up, ripping themselves to pieces…

Again I’ll point out that I know blummels were never designed for the abuse I would give them so went looking for a solution to my specific needs.

The pletscher guards do not have the plasticity stiffness issues due to the thicker aluminium extrusion. They do not move at all..

Ideal product would be a much thicker plastic guard in the same shape and size as the pletscher thus reducing their weight.

These come close https://www.sks-germany.com/en/products/bluemels-75-u/ but if you look at pics of them on a bike they aren’t full coverage on the rear and still have the spindly stays as the normal blummels.

The other ones I’ve been looking at are the stainless steel Gilles Berthoud ones, they look great and come in really wide widths and are waaaay cheaper than Pletchers. What’s the catch? Super heavy?

I have them on my Thorn audax. They’re not heavy and don’t rattle. They’re a PITA to fit though, and any debris makes more noise than with plastic guards. Overall, they’re great but set aside an hour or two to fit them. Once fitted they shouldn’t need touching again.

old thread, but for interest – max radius pletschers R80 over vee speedsters 29×2.8:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bpqfykP9JwTMJS1x5

old thread, but for interest – max radius pletschers R80 over vee speedsters 29×2.8:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bpqfykP9JwTMJS1x5

Welcome to the massive mudguard club 👍

What do you think then?

I’ve since modified mine slightly and by modified I mean took an angle grinder to then and lopped bits off.

I’ve removed the “cable channels” on the inside face of the guards as I’d never use them. Takes a bit of weight out of them as well.

no these are massive!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6riAoeL9sqm6QDsd7

Over bonty 29×3 XR2s

Were they from an American fabricator that is no longer selling them?

Look familiar?

hiya,

they (both) are actually the rear fender from this thing:
https://www.icetrikes.co/products/full-fat

needed a bit of dremmel work to clear the fork legs and chain/seat stays.

i like the pletschers, but my word they are heavy! they are silent though unless stones are getting rattle around inside them, also the front does need a flap, and the pannier rails don’t work that well with 2.8 tyres, which is outside their spec so no surprising – had to space out to to give pannier mount to tyre clearance. also the rear fender is not rigid enough to support just using one pannier at a time so works best when using two and in balance.

Thanks for the recommendation.

I am sick of my front SKS Bluemel mudguard rattling, despite being meticulously installed (and re-installed) with rubber washers and dampening everywhere that would prevent any inherent movement.

The problem with the SKS mudguards is that the stays are made of staineless steel. If only they provided any option to upgrade the stays to aluminium. You know, the match the guards themselves.

Of course, stainless steel is cheaper. And most cyclists probably don’t care. But I do. And commuting every day along Britain’s atrocious road surfaces with rattling mudguards really irritates.

I will report back once I have a pair of these Pletschers installed. I might just start with the front first, as this is where most of the action happens, for me. Thanks again for the heads up.

For what it’s worth, my PDW Fenders have been rattle free and look like a bargain!

FWIW my SKS Bluemels are just fine – and rattle free.

After perusing the Pletscher stock in more detail, it is clear that they are not designed for proper road usage.

I then found the Portland Cycle Works Full Metal Mudguards and have purchased a set today.

The aluminium stays are clearly more robust than the 3mm stainless steel stays on the SKSs.

I will report back once they are fitted, with some videos to show before and after.

Anyone who says that their SKSs do not rattle is clearly not cycling hard enough.

What we need here is some old school diy jobbies made from a bit of traffic cone. Was it you years ago @tjagain who made some?

it was indeed. I have also made them from thermoplastic greenhouse guttering

Oh go on, show us the photos.

I am sick of my front SKS Bluemel mudguard rattling, despite being meticulously installed (and re-installed) with rubber washers and dampening everywhere that would prevent any inherent movement.

Front fitted to the fork with the plastic security clip? That was where most of the flex was in the set I had. Swapping to a plain looped stay helped, just need to think about what happens if something jams in the wheel. After that mod they still had more side-side flex than the Velo Orange guards I have now – the plastic guard just isn’t as stiff.
So much of guard fitting is in a rigid triangulated stay though, whatever the guard is made from.

Doh!