Raceblade long / Road Racer Franken guards

[PaulSecteur]

Hi,

Santas little helper (in a royal mail van) delivered a set of SKS raceblade long mudguards - not to be confused with their raceblade XL. These guards are very similar to their chromo plastic ones but with the ability to be easily removed. As I have to take both wheel and hence any attached guards off to get the bike in the back of my fiesta this appealed to me. I have used the crud road racers and have been very happy with them, except for the fiddly little screws that are easily lost on a car park when fitting and removing them, and the re-usable cable ties that are a pain to undo.

PLEASE bear in mind these are designed for bikes without mudguard provision and tight clearances. If your bike can take proper guards then the chromo plastics will be better unless you need them to be easily removable.

Here are the details of the SKS guards...

And here is how they fit...



One area they are not as good as the cruds is in the section of the rear guard that is near the seattube. It is a poor effort that will allow spray onto legs, feet and the front mech.

That did get me wondering... is there a way to combine the best of both sets?

As luck would have it, yes.

Using the shortest clip attachment for the rear SKS piece, the crud road racer fits very neatly to it. You can see it at about 17 seconds into this quick video...



I did a quick 10 miler and they were excellent. No rattle or rubs and although it was dry - ish today I did go through a few puddles and everything seemed to stay dry.

Are they perfect? No.

They dont cover the brakes calipers, and there is the chance that there could be some toe overlap on the front with my size 10s. However, I could shorten the stays to get rid of that BUT I think these might be able to take a 25mm tyre. I will try it in a few days.

Am I happy? Very.

When buying this type of bike with no provision for guards there will always be some compromise. I was happy with the cruds keeping my butt dry, but these are a definate step up, esp[ecially with the Crud bit protecting the front mech.

If you have a set of crud MK2 knocking around that you are not really happy with and have the front mech bit then these could be all the guard you need for a bike not designed to take guards.

If you dont have the crud front mech bit then the standard SKS seat tube bit is lacking and a definate weakness as far as protection goes. £40 for these, plus £20 for the cruds is ver expensive. However, if crud sells the front mech bit seperatly and cheaply...

 

[judder]

I have these and they are a lot better than cruds.imho
I do like your crud sks combo over the back wheel which I will be trying. . Thanks..
One thing that has been an issue where the long rear guard clips in under the brake caliper. Just check over time that the plastic clip on the under side of the guard does not start to run and wear down on the tyre . As eventually the clip will not work and the guard could become loose..

 

[potsy]

I have done similar with the normal Race blades and the mentioned part of a st of Cruds, doesn't look quite as neat as I used a cable tie but does a good job of keeping the front mech clean.

Fancied the 'long' version only the way they attach to the skewer put me off.

 

[Andrew_P]

Are yours like the top image with the fork to skewer? They recalled that version. I noticed a few online retailers still selling the originals.

They are good, my top tip would be on the front one make sure the last support is close to the flap as the plastic has snapped on mine. Also email SKS and ask for spare under brake bits' I had one break mid ride and had to leave it I hid it but was gone when I went back.

Lastly overtime the bit that attaches to the under brake bit gets too much crack in it and it will not click back on, so always give it a wash out every now and again.

I like them but they are a bit flawed

 

[PaulSecteur]

Are yours like the top image with the fork to skewer?

No, mine are the circular ones that the QR axkle has to go through.

 

[JuanLobbe]

Hi PaulSecteur - will these guards fit a Secteur with 25mm tyres? ta

 

[PaulSecteur]

I will try 25s at the weekend and let you know.

 

[Andrew_P]

Hi PaulSecteur - will these guards fit a Secteur with 25mm tyres? ta

I am running a Specialized Armidillo 25mm on the rear at the moment and they seem to come up a bit bigger than most 25mm and its no problem.

 

[JuanLobbe]

thanks both

 

[PaulSecteur]

Hi PaulSecteur - will these guards fit a Secteur with 25mm tyres? ta

Short answer, yes. Long answer... possibly.

I have just trued some Specialized all condition 25mm tyres. The guards fit, but they are much closer to the tyre than with 23mm tyres. Also, I had to slid the stays out a little to get them to fit without rubbing. So going over broken tarmac there is some noise that wasnt there before. As it happend, today was not the ideal day to test mudguards as it was dry, but I did search out a few wet patches and notices that when larger bits of gravel were stuck to the trye they also rubbed, but only for 1 rotation.

As said, spesh tyre generally come up larger than the equivelent from other brands so Im hoping that a pro4 or gp4000s 25mm will be halfway between a normal 23mm and a spesh 25mm

 

[JuanLobbe]

Thanks Paul. Will give them a go!

 

[PaulSecteur]

Thanks Paul. Will give them a go!

Post up some pics when you have.

Also, could you let me know what size tyres you are using, and if they rub or not. Ta.

 

[GlasgowGaryH]

I was looking at these mudguards in Evans last week and thinking of doing something like this to my bike. I have got the Crud 2 mudguard fitted ok on my road bike on the front but can only get the Crud 2 fitted up to brake caliper on rear. It stops my backside getting wet but would prefer a fuller mudguard on the back. You have got me thinking again

 

[Stuart1987]

I've got a pair of the curds, but can't get any clearance at all on the front mudguard, anyone else have this problem ?

 

[crazyjoe101]

@PaulSecteur, thanks for this idea, I've done the same using the replacement kit from Crud.

I also saw that in the replacement kit there was another chunk of mudguard, I used this to extend my front guard further, if anyone wants to do the same some loose instructions are below.

Step one is to place the spare crud part against your mudguard and estimate how far you want it to stick down, if in doubt cut it long and shorten afterwards.
Mine looked like this:

Then you have to cut the front rubber mudflap as shown:

That join stops the flap going on to the guard too far but it needs to be open to insert the extra Crud piece.

Next slot the crud part in between the mudflap and the SKS mudguard as shown to check if the length is OK:

When you are happy with how far the crud part protrudes out the bottom then mark the place for the hole, through the existing SKS hole.

After the hole's made re-insert the crud part between the SKS parts:

To finish, bolt it together using a thin flathead bolt:

This keeps virtually all frontal spray off of me, however it does clip the doorsteps etc if I'm not careful. I was surprised, however to find that I can drop off most London curbs without it catching.