Not for racing, but for those rides that mix up the road and the trail.

I’m a mudguard fanboi, but obviously full length guards will be all over the shop off-road.

What I was thinking was maybe getting some full length guards and cutting them down so that they’re fixed to the frame and fork at the bridges/crown, but not via stays. So the rear would be cut at roughly 12 o’clock and the front at, say, 10 o’clock (looking from the drive side of the bike). Clearance should be plenty, so no worries about getting trail nuggetry caught up in the guards.

My theory is that this should largely keep the crud off my back and out of my face, but should also be stable enough to take off-roading (even if I have to cobble together a second bracket at the fork crown).

Anyone cut guards before? I have a sneaking suspicion that Chromoplastics will delaminate if cut, and I don’t want to toss £30 or so on a failed experiment. (Perhaps melting the ends might help?) Any alternatives I’ve not considered?

Raceblades?

I’ve full length Chromoplastics on my CX (I’m assuming that this is a CX bike you are fitting them to) and they are fine when on the canal tow path. Not done anything seriously off-road on the bike though.

Raceblades? Nah. Got a pair of those: they can’t even manage to stay put on the road, let alone off 🙂

Got full-length Chromos on a couple of bikes and I can knock the stays against the tyres on the local lanes: if they go off-road with knobby tyres they’ll be lethal.

Mudhuggers are pretty good at stopping spray from the back wheel and you can heat them to bend them to the shape you want round the stays etc (I ‘adjusted’ a 29er one to fit my fat bike). They’re far more stable when fitted than a crudcatcher type solution.

edit: you can cut the plastic too (I snapped a bit off the end of mine in a stupid ‘bounce the bike to get the mud off. Oh it’s landed with all it’s weight on the guard’ moment and had to trim it a bit) so if you needed to trim for length or take a bit off the front to fit through forks etc it would be ok.

I don’t think the rear would keep the mud off your back if you cut it at 12 o’clock. Don’t forget that the stuff comes off your wheel at a tangent to the tyre.

Thanks. Interesting, and I haven’t seen those before, though I’d prefer to take advantage of the frame mountings than zip-tie something on.

I can understand – seems a shame to have mounts that there isn’t a product for. Do use helicopter tape if you fit them – it stops paint rub/damage through any slight movement of the gaurds once fitted.

I don’t think the rear would keep the mud off your back if you cut it at 12 o’clock. Don’t forget that the stuff comes off your wheel at a tangent to the tyre.

Yeah, but also I’d be going so awesomely fast that it wouldn’t catch up with me 😉

But yes, it would be a case of seeing how much of a cantilevered bit of guard I could get away with before it started bouncing into the tyre. Trial and error. 12 o’clock is just a guess.

I’m not a fan of mudguards generally but at this time of year they’re a necessary evil.

On my CX bike I’ve put one of those RRP bum guards under the seat and their CX guard on the front. The front one is very minimal but keeps some spray and suchlike off your face. The rear keeps your bum dry but you still get mud thrown up onto your back. It’s good enough for me though and isn’t as aesthetically offensive as proper mudguards.

Zefal Trail Hybrid City Mudguard Set, great on my cx bike..

I ride a fixed wheel Surly Crosscheck to work and elsewhere with off-road detours and have a homebrew rear mudguard that might be up your street.

Raceblades may be rubbish, but the brackets are not.

Mine fell apart in no time, so I took what was left of the guard out of the bracket and binned it. Then I used a hacksaw to cut down a broken slightly wider Chromoplastic and – with brute force – rammed it through the too-narrow Raceblade brackets, screwed in some short japanned screws for good measure and cut off the sharp end points.

Guard length is from roughly the seatstays down far enough to keep crud off anyone sitting on my wheel. The Raceblade bracket means it’ll take a bit of abuse and a bit of mud in there without breaking and is easy to remove. Easy wide enough for 33mm CX tyres. Still going strong after at least 4 years, maybe more.

Are you talking about Raceblade Longs or Raceblades/Raceblade XLs? (I have the latter.)

So you cut down Chromoplastics? Did they survive? (I’m sure I recall reading accounts of people trimming Chromoplastics and having them subsequently delaminate, but I may well be imagining it.)

Can’t remember which Raceblades they were, its only the rear bracket that survives.

Yeah, just cut carefully with no issue.

Here’s what it looks like:

What are you trying to achieve through cutting them down? If it’s getting clogged with mud, not a lot will help as you’ll still have a reasonable length of guard at a similar distance from the wheel – crud catchers or similar would be my approach but obviously not quite as good.
If it’s catching on steps and things I reckon if you cut them back around the lowest stay position you’d still be slightly better off than with crud catcher type things.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Chromoplastics will delaminate if cut,

I don’t think they will, based on the fact that my rear Chromoplastic snapped at the seatstay bridge, so I binned the rear section as it was flapping around and for about 4 months kept the bit from the seatstay down to the chainstay and it was fine. Only issue is, you need more length over the rear wheel to keep your bum dry

Shame this thread didn’t appear earlier as only last week I removed the bust section and fitted a new guard. So I could have experimented on cutting the old bit, but I think it’s all gone to the tip now.

I was toying with the same original problem though and I’m thinking of getting those Crud RacePac 29er guards for when wanting to offroad the CX bike.

I don’t think they will, based on the fact that my rear Chromoplastic snapped at the seatstay bridge, so I binned the rear section as it was flapping around and for about 4 months kept the bit from the seatstay down to the chainstay and it was fine. Only issue is, you need more length over the rear wheel to keep your bum dry

You can drill them and rivet them together to make an only slightly shorter mudguard. (But you’re right they generally don’t delaminate – you can drill them when fitting for example.)

Go full length.

New commuter by Notoriously Bad Typist, on Flickr

Fitted by the nice man Jon @ Bicycle Smithy, my excellent LBS, but the principle is there. I mostly hammer it along canal towpaths but have ridden several of my local trails with little ill effect other than pinch punctures trying to keep up with a mate on his 29+ bike

I have always just used normal SKS road guards. Get the biggest your frame can take. Don’t bugger about with half hearted affairs, do it properly. Mine very occasionally rattle but its not even on a weekly basis and the bike gets a 22 mile gravel etc run 4or 5 times a week.
Add a whopping great flap front and rear.

What are you trying to achieve through cutting them down?

I want to avoid the need to fit stays, because I don’t want them moving sideways at speed and catching on knobby tyres (as above, I can get them to hit the tyre on rough roads anyway). Hence I’d like to use the chainstay, seatstay and crown mounts to support as much guard as I can get away with before it needs additional support.

Sounds like cutting down some Chromos may be viable, though, so I might just go with that. I can give them a go full-length first to see if I’m just being paranoid, and then cut them down if need be.

Cheers all 😉

My chromoplastics survive fine offroad, the main issue ive had was pooping the rivets on the metal brackets. Drilled out and replaced with small bolts and they have been good. Also didnt use the crappy folding metal seatstay bracket as they allow rattling, instead I drill a hole in guard and bolt a solid metal 90 degree bracket to attach to the bridge, much better connection (in this case an old tortec rack-stay bracket). Watch for the front rubber mud flap offroad as if its long it can catch, i keep meaning to replace it with some longer thinner plastic so it bends out the way easier.

I run mine with schwalbe landcruisers so tyre with pronounced side knobs may catch i suppose, but ive also run with winter spiked tyres and they dont snag, just sound a bit rattly.

You don’t want to be pooping rivets, that’s for sure.

Mudguards for “CX” (bear with me)

Just make the bear sit behind you. Their fur is waterproof. Job’s a good ‘un. 😀

I’ve just fitted a pair of the Whyte 50mm guards to my Whyte Saxon Cross.
They where a bit of a faff to fit due to the lack of seat stay and chain stay bridges, but I’m really pleased with the results.
I’ve just got back from a few rough offroad miles on the Quantocks and suffered no tyre rub at all.

Zefal Swan set works a treat for what your looking for :

these ones

mine are on my CDF much of the time and do a great job of keeping me dry, with no mud clearance issues. My riding mates on road say that they get wet behind me though….. 🙂

I’ve cut chromoplastics, and they haven’t delaminated.

You’ll need way more length than your initial suggestions.

I’d try full length and see how they go, you can shorten them if nec, maybe using both stays for stiffness.

I have a cut-down SKS bluemels I use on the back. It goes from the usual point on the chainstays to a few inches beyond the seat stays, about 11 o’clock. It doesn’t keep me dry but it keeps a lot of crud off the drivetrain.

I’d have though that if you get the widest guards you can and tweak the stays out away from the tyre then you would easily get enough clearance avoid snagging the stays.