I’m struggling to appreciate my Gravel bike at the moment.  I’m not sure if its due to the fact I don’t have / do long Gravel rides, or more to do with the mudguards, or the fact it feels like a cruiserweight road bike.

Hear’s how it looks with ‘guards (although now it has non tan wall Panaracer SK’s)

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2htKnaw]20191012_101324[/url]

Show yours and convince me they are a good thing before I pop out for an early morning ride tomorrow on something which is/was supposed to be this….

I personally think bike look better with full mud guards than the clip on variety. That’s if I understand you correctly that its an aesthetics problem?

“Appreciation” and Race Blades, yeah I think it’s to do with the mudguards : )

Needs some proper full guards with good lines, front and rear flaps for top marks. They’ll eventually jam with mud and leaves in winter but that’s when I’m using the gravel bike as a winter lanes bike more than an off-roader. Just the odd byway cut-through.

…using the gravel bike as a winter lanes bike more than an off-roader.

Thats how I use this.   Any recommendations for some decent aesthetic proper guards?   I’m happy to leave them on full time so no issued with quick release although that may be a handy choice to have.

I’m not sure if its due to the fact I don’t have / do long Gravel rides

A quick check on komoot and you would be surprised what you can find dude. I live in SE London and have a few short morning loops planned that take in a few woodland areas. Tip is to just point komoot at random destination and tell it you want to do a mountain bike ride.

ive had to fit ‘clip on’ as i cant find anything that will fit my 50mm tyres. i would be much happier with blades….lot less cleaning!

Technically cyclocross not gravel but given that I raced once on it (spare bike at Welsh champs last year) it’s done more miles audaxing than anything else. Trying out some prototype carbon guards for a mate.

Was glad of them the last few rides through the lanes.

If it’s aesthetics you’re not liking, I’d agree with the people above, raceblades are a purely functional product, they don’t work as well, or imo, look as good as full length guards.
If you only want clip ons so you can take em off quick on a nice day just get a 90s style crud catcher front and rear, they’ll work about as well.
‘Cruiser weight’ I’ve had bikes with this problem before, i ended up getting rid.
Gravel bikes are a bit of a jack of all trades, you need to pick your terrain wisely to get the best from them.
You wouldn’t take a DH bike on a 30 mile road trip, it’d feel **** horrible, and you wouldn’t take a full on TT bike on gravel roads for the same reasons.
Choose your trails wisely.
Fwiw, i think your bike looks great apart from those particular guards.
Those carbon guards look superb!!

miles audaxing

aren’t those rims a bit overkill for audaxing? I’ve got them on my flaremax :-)!

This is my “gravel” bike kitted out for winter. spends most of its time on road though.

full guard can be a fiddle to fit the first time but once set up don’t take long to take on an off, biggest hassle is removing the wheels. ~ 5min.

I’ve got some edge 45 aluminium guards on my Decade Tripster. I’m currently planning a new ti gravel bike and I’ll be putting something similar on there.

Mud guards are brilliant and as above a good full guard can add to a classic look.

it feels like a cruiserweight road bike.

A good term and that is exactly why I don’t like them and ride a road bike with narrower tyres on gravel. As soon as handling gets more relaxed, tyres get bigger and bigger it just feels less agile and more like an MTB which is not what I want for road and gravel.

I don’t use mudguards though, I just get in a mess although if very wet do use a very ugly mudguard that clips onto seatpost and just try and make sure I never look at the bike!

Any recommendations for some decent aesthetic proper guards?

Kinesis fend off

I think a lot of bikes look strange without guards. There are some aesthetic issues with yours, and they’ll not be strong enough for any decent gravel anyway.

I run SKS Edge 46s and think they look good. If you commute or tour they’re also strong enough to support a subtle rack. The best thing I can say about them is that I don’t ever notice them, even riding singletrack and rougher trails. They don’t rattle, ping about or break. They only seem to be in stock at Bike24 in 46mm gravel bike size just now.

If I were you and concerned about the look of the thing I’d also drop the stem a bit and swap the tanwall tyres which clash horribly with that like green for black. And mount the light on a go pro mount or under the bar instead of on top. Then you’ll feel more attached to it.

I would have no hesitation in using appropriately sized PDW guards for gravel, they look great, seem to be super robust and I’ve fitted a set of them over my 40mm tyres no problem.

Only reason I haven’t is that gravel seems to be blurring into CX for me at this time of year, have been suffering some horrendous cloggage on certain trails although I think my cantilever brakes might be partly to blame. Clip on seatpost guard and waterproof spray shorts are the answer I think.

when mudguards look cool https://www.instagram.com/p/CGZ3XQEl5aW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link. I really should get some for my bike but just cant be bothered right now.

@slackboy yes overkill for Audax I suppose but I like the dtswiss xc rims in general and this pair were built as a tough as old boots set up for whatever and wherever I did and went. So pro4 hub at the back and son dynamo up front with 32 spokes apiece. They’ve not let me down on any rough stuff rides and I did a local 30 mile loop including the Twrch at Cwmcarn on them with 43c tyres on with no issues.

There were mixed surfaces on a recent diy 100

Here’s my Fairlight in winter trim.

Commuter with 40mm tyres and 45mm City PDW guards.

Thinking about it, they would be tight with 40mm gravel tyres and a bit of mud and grit, guess you’d just need to space them off the tyre a bit.

If you’re going to have full guards on, you might as well have the protect as much of the bike as possible, rather than those silly things which stop short of the seatpost.
Mudguards are the dullest thing in the whole world of bikes though.

@shedbrewed
Get that barend plugged. Some nasty injuries have come from bar ends.

Mudguards are the dullest thing in the whole world of bikes though.

Couldn’t disagree more! Once you fit a good set it’s just ridiculous how much additional riding it opens up, you can ride through conditions that previously would have been utterly wretched, means you can experience weather conditions on the road and enjoy them rather than just survive them.

(maybe trying to add a silver lining to riding through a typical Scottish winter…)

Here’s mine from last winter. SKS Edge AL, covering 650×1.9 Gravel King SKs. Loved not getting muddy on the morning ride! Bike has gone but still have the guards and they’ll be going on my new Niner RLT this week.

Kinesis fend off

I’ve just fitted some to my Thorn Audax – they look to be robust and smart, but I would say 30mm is the maximum tyre width.

Mudguards are the dullest thing in the whole world of bikes though.

They certainly are if getting a soaking wet barse whilst eating sloppy dog-shit is high on the fun-list!

I ride some fairly horrible (in a good way) winter routes in Hertfordshire. Full on slop, gravel, bridles & single track in the woods if not too terrible conditions.

I use a Mudhugger gravel specific rear guard and a simple old crud catcher on the front which works fine for me.

My roots are MTB (have a full susser and Hardtail) and personally speaking can’t stand the look of commuter looking guards.

Anyway here’s how my rig looks. Cheers

Brooks flap, too.

Any recommendations for some decent aesthetic proper guards?

Those SKS Edge Als that damitamit posted look like the best at the moment unless you gat get a PDW 45s a good 12mm or more above a 40mm tyre. I have some Velo Orange Al guards on my audax bike, they’re good. A friend has the 650B versions on his Arkose and rates them.

On my gravel bike I have some Taiwan co guards over 650B Byways, they’re the external/Honjo style stay fittings, really good guards. Evans used to sell them under Pinnacle spares but don’t think they were re-ordered.

@shedbrewed, make those with external hoop stays rather than the SKS internal (crud-snagging) type and I have £ waiting.

They certainly are if getting a soaking wet barse whilst eating sloppy dog-shit is high on the fun-list!

Discussing mudguards doesn’t actually stop anything getting wet, muddy or covered in shit.

Mudguards are the dullest thing in the whole world of bikes though.

I’ll raise you ‘damping technology’

For me most of the full cover mudguards are not an option as on 40cc Nano’s(actually measure more like 43’s) I’d just end up clogging up and stopping to clear the guards too often

I think you have to accept that you/the bike will get covered in crud no matter what this time of year. If you are not riding such bad terrain then maybe the full cover guards are your best option

Still do not like the look of em tho!

another fan of full guards here

Fitted mudguards to my gravel bike last weekend.
I had forgotten just how good they are at keeping me dry and clean.

I’ll raise you ‘damping technology’

I’m going all in with ‘clamping technology’

Aye, it’s going to depend on your terrain/soil. I can get away with full SKS guards on 47mm Byways for most of my riding – granite/sandy soil, mostly pine litter. If I’m going anywhere that is more likely to be clay/peat or deciduous tree litter then I’ll do without guards. Those Crudcatchers look like a good idea though.

@slackboy what guards are those and is the rear a clip on?

Agree those SKS Edge Al’s look good – ordered a set from merlin to give me something to do over the weekend!

Kryton, I’ve just built up something very similar to your Bergamont and have fitted an SKS Bluemels 45 on the rear, although I’ve still to trim the stays and replace the cable tie fixing it to the seatstay bridge. Tyres are Hutchinson Override 35mm and the mudguards are a good fit. The front is going to need 2 tiny angle brackets and some work with a dremmel, but I value to protection full length ‘proper’ mudguards give through the wetter months. (i.e. all year!)

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