Hello, good evening and welcome

hondafanatic

Hello chaps and chapettes...

Just thought i'd say hello. I've made the decision to switch from the light into the darkness by buying a not-mountain bike bike.

I've been commuting on my decent MTB since June and it's costing me more than my car to maintain, so I made a stupid late night decision yesterday and bought a Specialized Tricross Singlespeed 2009 and I'm picking it up on Saturday.

So I'll probably be popping into this forum time to time discussing cog combinations etc etc. Based on this thread alone, that's not something I expect anyone to excited about...

However, I do have a question...

As it's a commute bike and I go along a muddy canal path, I need mudguards, so does anyone recommend any specific guards and the less geek like the better...

Cheers
David

Mister W

SKS Chromoplastic guards are the ones you want. They come in different widths so make sure you get the ones that are wide enough to cover your tyres but narrow enough to fit on the bike.

alfablue

Agree - SKS is all you need to know, P35's for tyres up to 28, or p45 etc for wider tyres.

hondafanatic

Mister W wrote:

SKS Chromoplastic guards are the ones you want. They come in different widths so make sure you get the ones that are wide enough to cover your tyres but narrow enough to fit on the bike.

Great stuff...thanks, I'm sure the shop will have some when I pick up the bike on Saturday...

cheers
David

hondafanatic

Actually, if anyone knows off the top of their head, these are the tyres that they need to fit...
Specialized Houffalize Sport CX, 700x32C, wire bead, 60TPI

STEFANOS4784

alfablue wrote:

p45 etc for wider tyres.

blorg

Here's mine with P45s. I put them on for flexibility, generally use 700x25 Continental Gatorskins but have the stock tyres on for the snowy weather. I would definitely change the stock tyres to slicks for on-road use, the cross tyres are great off road but painful on, they really make it much more of an effort. I am running 42-15 fixed, had to remove one link out of the chain for this.

If buying the mudguards with the bike, maybe ring in advance and get the shop to put them on as it is a damn fiddly job! Also get them to cut down the stays on the front- as you can see in the photo the front guard could be closer to the wheel and the bottom stays poke out and can hit your foot (there is a fair bit of toe overlap on mine.)