Help! I’ve got a Dolan Preffisio with Alpina winter forks and have just got myself a set of SKS Cromoplastic guards to fit. I’m having trouble fitting the front – when I tighten the front brake caliper mounting bolt the wheel binds against the mudguard. I think I can extend the hole in mounting bracket which should give a bit more clearance – any other suggestions if this doesn’t work?

I mount the mudguard with one of the brake washers between brake and mudguard mount. Then lift the guard as high as it will go before tightening. Finally shortening the bottom stay length will bring the mudguard in at the bottom. You want the mudguardto be tangential underneath the fork. adjusting the profile at the bottom can help with alignment. If they are shallow drop brakes, then itwill be a tight fit.

I have carbon forks with mudguard eyelets and long drop brakes and had no problems with P35s. I fitted some to tighter road carbon forks and it was a squeeze.

Thanks, i’ll have another go when i’m feeling more patient! My brakes are normal/shallow drop so I guess that’s not helping.

Then it will always be tight. Chromoplastics have a flat top profile and that can stop them fitting right up under the arch of the fork. Check this with the wheel removed. Blumells have a rounder profile and may fit better. The angle that the mudguard makes under the fork is critical. Just keep fiddling 😉

What tyres are you running? I found 23c Schwalbe to be oversized and would rub. 23c Mavics are narrower and fit fine with shallow drops.

Hmmm, think the tyres are 25c………….might be on to a loser here?!

23 x 700 tires with 28mm SKS Commuter Road Mudguards on my Prefissio.
You probably need 57mm long drop brakes too.

Any more update / pointers on this setup, chaps? I’ve just ordered a Preffisio frame to be built up with spare parts I have, as a winter bike. As yet, tyres and guards are TBC. Any suggestions on straightforward parts combos would be much appreciated.

I was planning to use standard drop Tiagra brakes, but in theory this could be addressed if needed.

Now it’s appeared and is just begging to be built up…:

The Dolan Preffisio by theflatboy, on Flickr

any pointers from those with hands on experience would be appreciated. It seems that they offer regular drop brakes with 23mm tyres on their builds of them, but people suggest that the Alpina fork is hard to get the guards mounted correctly on?

If the fork is for regular rather than long drop brakes, you will struggle to get chromoplastics under the fork bridge. I have managed some Topeaks under a Ritchey fork, but only with 23c tyres and it was never perfect.

SKS Raceblade Longs, however are the answer to every roadman and woman’s prayers. I have 30 pairs being used by our club.

Cheers, I’ll take a look, though feel resistant to ignoring the mudguard mounts now I’ve actually got them!

I ended up getting some SKS Bluemels which fitted fine with 25c tyres and standard drop Tiagra brakes. Top bike – enjoy!

tommy, that’s great and pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear! Thanks buddy.

I have to say that, for the price, when it turned up I was seriously impressed about the quality of it – the paintjob and the painted, embossed logos are very classy.

Starting to have second thoughts about the build it’s going to get!

And in fact here is said finished build (NB stem to be dropped a little and steerer cut again (and in fact mudguards not yet fitted despite the above!))

[url=https://flic.kr/p/o7gueu]Dolan Preffisio – the finished bike.[/url] by theflatboy, on Flickr

Dug this out from the back of google…

How did you get on with the guards Flatboy?
I’ve got a Dolan frame, was just about to get some chromoplastics, bluemels a better fit?