Mudguards on “gravel” bike?

Hi, I am wondering about peoples experience running full coverage mudguards on a bike with bigger tires, and using it on farm tracks, bridleways and other muddy, rocky, or grassy places.

Do you have problems hitting the front fender when going over drops (either riding or walking), mud, sticks or grass clogging up the guard/wheel?

Well, if it’s very muddy and you start picking up stones, twigs and grass then you certainly risk getting them jammed in the mudguard and a potential fall.

I have SKS Bluemels on my “gravel” bike most of the time but remove them if the terrain is likely to be a problem, or for longer/multi-day rides where a lot of off-road is involved.

I had pdw on my shand when I ran 35mm tyres, worked fine unless it was gonna be really muddy and then I took them off

One problem with mudguards is you don’t get that hard-core fashionable emulsified dogshit speckles on your face. How will people know you’re gnarr?

The other problem is that very few of them fit properly.

Haha, very true! The road into the park behind me is closed in winter, and not plowed. So people walk their dogs there a lot, and apparently, if your dog craps in the snow, you don’t have to pick it up. As the snow is melting, the frozen dog crap is turning into lovely puddles of liquid poop!

Which full coverage mudguards are easily removable? The ones I have installed took several bolts, and then some time adjusting, not something I would want to undo and redo regularly.

I run SKS Edge Al metal mudguards on my gravel bike- I use the 46s with 42 or 40c tyres. I do around 70 miles a week on that bike, half on and half off road, and once a week head out to the hills and ride single-track on it that o also enjoy riding on my mountain bike.

They’re excellent. I’ve had plastic guards snap and cause all sorts of problems but these are just so robust. I never take them off and they have a sort of emergency quick release where the stays attach to the guard in case you got a stick in them.

Once that come off easily I don’t find provide enough coverage, aren’t very stable and look awful.

Once set up, the Bluemels can be removed and re-fitted in a couple of minutes. It’s four bolts for the rear, three for the front. The stays are cut to length on first install and don’t change.

All good for me. A little too overlap at times, but never really been caught out properly.

Admittedly on the faster rather than gnarer edge of the gravel spectrum, but mudguards just make sense if you ride all year, and in all weathers.

I can recommend SKS ‘Speedrockers’. They’re the most stable gravel/light off road bike mudguards I’ve tried so far, and they’re quite easy to fit and remove. Having said that, the amount of dog shit on my local paths means they don’t get removed very often.

Another SKS bluemels user here. If you plan on swapping between large and smaller tyres then set up for the larger tyres and both will fit ok. If very muddy then yes they clog but normally at the point where walking is a better idea.

I have Speedrockers on my Camino, and they work ok with 47mm Byways. Quick to fit and remove, too …

Rule no 7.

Gravel Riding – The Rules (There are no rules)

Another SKS Edge AL user here, 56mm ones with 700×50 Clement XPlor MSOs which are only just covered width-wise. Seriously robust but not that heavy and a huge improvement in rigidity over bumpy stuff than the Chromoplastics I used before, despite bodge-fitting my front one to forks without any eyelets.

Not had any problems with clogging at all, and I don’t go gnar enough on it for drops to be an issue. No plans to ever remove them. Had a stick dislodge the ’emergency release’ on the front guard on Monday morning – simple clip the guard back into place in seconds.

SKS Edge AL 56 here too. Had them on for maybe 6 two hour rides now. Work a treat, no rattling.

Pictured with 650b x 1.9 Gravelking SKs

Speedrockers for me.