Most high-performance bikes of the past decade have had no mudguard provision, and those of us who use our race bikes all year round have only had a couple of options: either fit SKS’s clever but minimal Race Blades, or ‘man up’ and deal with a wet arse and dirty face from September to March.
Now the Roadracer has stepped into the breach. These are designed to fit simply and as close as possible to your race machine so that they not only work at their optimum but also appear not to be there at all.
Fitting is simple and relatively quick; they certainly take less time to fit than SKS’s market leading quick-fit system for bikes with no eyelets. They’re also flexible so you can bend them into a shape that won’t interfere with the wheel spinning below.
The thumbscrew fittings are easy to adjust but the reusable zip-ties that fit behind the brake on the bolts feel somewhat underdeveloped. Noise and movement is effectively dampened by stick-on brush pads on the stay tops.
The use of super flexi-plastic and quick-release stays mean these won’t catch or stick and force the wheel to stop, and Crud will send replacement components if you put this safety feature into action.
When you need a mudguard to work, they do a superb job. On wet and rainy rides we have returned remarkably stripe-free, front and rear.
But though this all sounds ideal, sadly it’s not – we fitted these to a bike equipped with super-svelte sub-23mm Continental tyres, but when trying them on the same bike equipped with 25mm tyres we couldn’t get them to stop fouling the wheel, no matter how much tweaking or adjusting we did.
If you use 23mm tyres then you should be fine, but we can’t vouch for universal compatibility; some more built-in tolerance would be welcome.
On the plus side, because of their all-plastic construction they will never corrode, and their weight of just 182g a pair – 180g claimed – is so minimal you won’t notice them.
Overall they’re a great design, but the small spectrum of fitting could be an issue. If they work on your bike, you’ll love them; if they don’t they’re a pain in the (wet) arse.
