SlimmerAndFitter.com

A.K.A. How I Lost The Filthy Wet Stripe Up My Back!

(For my American readers – what you call ‘bicycle fenders’, we call ‘bicycle mudguards’!)

Crud Roadracers

I have been using Crud products on my mountain bike for several years now (a Crudcatcher and a Crud Raceguard) so when the company announced that they were going to manufacture a new type of mudguard for road bikes, I was interested to see if they would be suitable for my Basso, my road bike of choice for poor weather conditions.

The Roadracers are plastic mudguards designed to be fitted to road bikes which don’t have the fittings for conventional guards. They are lightweight, stylish, don’t require a lot of clearance and are inexpensive. Since my Basso doesn’t have eyelets for mudguards, is heavy enough already, is fairly stylish and I’d like to keep it that way, doesn’t have a lot of clearance and I’m pretty hard up, they sounded like just the thing for me! [In a hurry? Jump to Conclusions]

I spotted the Roadracers on sale in my local bike shop a couple of weeks ago. They certainly looked stylish. Well, as stylish as bits of black plastic can – we aren’t talking Designer Fashion here! I could imagine them looking okay on my bike and that’s all that bothered me about their appearance.

They immediately passed my ‘pick them up and see if they feel heavy’ test – I did and they don’t! They only weigh about 180 g (or 6.5 ounces, for those of us still stuck using imperial units). You really aren’t going to get lighter guards for your bike but even if you could, you wouldn’t feel the difference. Unless you are racing, don’t worry about the weight. If you are racing, don’t fit mudguards! That makes the name a bit of a misnomer doesn’t it – Roadracer – the mudguard for bikes that aren’t raced on the road!

Will they fit my bike?

How would I know – I haven’t seen your bike! The word from ‘Mister Crud’ himself is that if you can slide a 5 mm hex (allen) key between the tyres and the brake callipers, you’ll be okay. You will probably be okay with 4 mm of clearance. 3 mm isn’t really enough. If you have large tyres and insufficient clearance, going down a tyre size may well help. I currently ride 23C tyres on my Basso and had enough clearance. I used to ride 25C tyres and I think they might have been a bit too big. The product packaging suggests that you can use the Roadracers with 25C tyres, but I’d strongly suggest that you – test front and back for clearance with a 5 mm hex key before purchasing. Your bike may be very tight for clearance. The guards would definitely not have fitted my old Bianchi which only had about 2 mm of clearance when using 23C tyres and didn’t have clearance to even fit 25C tyres.

Something you ought to be aware of – the geometry of many racing bikes is such that you may well experience ‘toeclip overlap’ after fitting guards to your bike (any guards, not just the Roadracers). It means that the front of your feet may contact the rear of the guards when making slow turns. At normal speeds, you won’t be turning the front wheel enough for it to be a problem. It happens on my Basso but it doesn’t bother me – the guards just deflect a little when they contact the tips of my shoes. I’ve only had it happen when zig-zagging up steep hills, and now I just turn a little less sharply.

Easy fixing system: No tools needed

It’s says it right there on the packaging – No tools needed – so why did I reach for my screwdriver? I only went and overtightened one of the screws and snapped the head off it! Do as the instructions say and “tighten all thumbnuts as hard as you can by hand”. They do say that you can use pliers on the nuts if you don’t have a strong grip, but from my experience I’d say be careful not to overtighten them. Fortunately I had a spare screw in my junk box so I was able to complete the installation.

Fitting is really straightforward and the instructions are pretty clear – if you bother to read them (see above!). Take special note of the warning not to overtighten the cable ties (zip ties) which hold the guards below the brake callipers. If those ties are overtightened they distort the shape of the guards. Also – the ties are reusable so don’t cut the ends off unless you are going to leave the guards on permanently. To be honest, they are so light and unobtrusive that I think I’ll probably do that. I can always ride my guard-free Cannondale on sunny days.

I took my time fitting the guards and I was finished in under 30 minutes. I think you could do it in about 10 minutes if you read the instructions beforehand and didn’t mess about snapping screws!

Crud Roadracer Mudguards (Fenders) fitted to my bike

How well do they work?

I’ve done two rides in the rain since fitting the Roadracers to my bike. They were 100% effective at keeping the spray from the rear wheel off my back. They significantly reduced the amount of water getting on my feet and bike ‘transmission’ but didn’t completely eliminate that. To be honest, I’ve ridden other bikes fitted with conventional guards (and flaps) in the wet and I still ended up with wet feet so I think the Roadracers are doing a pretty good job up front too. The rear guard doesn’t cover much of the front part of the rear wheel so some of the spray coming off the rear wheel did hit the back of the seat tube and run down over the bottom bracket area. Not much of it hit me, and that’s what I was concerned about. Just clean your bike when you get home!

The guards are supplied with little adhesive pilestrips which you must stick to the insides of the guards, located so that they contact the rims of the wheels should the guards move from side to side while you are riding. This is a very simple but effective way of eliminating rattling sounds.

When I first set off, I’d got the alignment of the guards wrong and I could hear the sound of some part of the rear guard rubbing on my tyre. I only had to pull the stays up a few mm and that fixed the problem.

Safety

The Roadracer guards are designed so that the stays will break away and/or shatter should any debris from the road get caught by your wheels. I obviously haven’t put that to the test, but the manufacturers have. Spares are available from them should they be required.

Shortcomings?

The only real shortcoming I found is that the rear guard does not provide complete protection for a rider immediately behind you. The guard doesn’t extend down far enough for that. I usually ride alone in wet weather, but this might be a problem for you on wet group rides.

Conclusions

If your bike is suitable, and you are not concerned about the length of the rear guard then I highly recommend this product. Fit Roadracers to your bike and don’t let rain stop you riding it.

Available from…

You can buy your Crud Roadracer bicycle mudguards from this website. Many of my readers have already bought Crud Roadracers through that link – thanks folks! (There’s loads of other good cycling kit on that site so don’t forget to have a good look around while you are there )

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