New Crud Road Bike Specific Mudguards

stuj15

Hi all, first time poster but have visited for a while to get some tips when I started commuting seriously back in March this year.

After the first deluge of rain this autumn I soon began to realise that my Push Sprint Mudguard wasn't going to cut it at all, it was bloody useless if I'm being honest. So, I was seriously considering getting the SKS raceblades, until I saw this thread at the beginning of the week.

I was sceptical that they would fit on my Scott S30 with 28c Armadillos at first but a quick email to Mr Crud (Pete, if you read this, sorry I thought I had 32c's! :oops:) put my fears to rest so I purchased a pair on the way home last night.

Now, maybe putting these on in a dark garage with car headlights as your light source isn't the best practice but they fitted a charm and it took me around 30/45 minutes - note to self though, try not to drop a nut on the floor without having a good sweep up first! That was 10 minutes wasted just there. I had some issues with the front piece of the front guard. I couldn't get it to stay straight and aligned with the tyre and it also bent over too much and rubbed, as per Cruds tip/tricks video I tried swapping the side the cable tie was put on the guard but this didn't seem to help. After some adjustments the best I got it was 'just' off centre so I was happy to leave it as it was. Also as per the video I managed to sort out the rubbing by fitting some folded over insulation tape to the underside of the front piece to push it up.

So, this morning on my 16 mile commute was the first test. Although not raining at the time of the ride, it had poured down overnight so the roads were damp and there were plenty of puddles to test the Cruds out on. My biggest concern was how they would run while going over the usual crappy sections of London road and I have to say I was very impressed. The little movement that happened did make the slightest of sounds but because of their weight/material it wasn't anything compared to the clanging you hear off of some touring bikes. I found myself constantly checking them every time I stopped as I'd read here about the nuts coming loose and pieces falling off, at the end of the commute one final check and I noticed just one of the nuts had come slightly loose.

I also noticed that the front guard alignment had righted itself after about 2 miles - bonus .

I'd definitely recommend these to anyone and I even had another bike commuter ask me about them at a set of lights.

Overall, one of the best £25s I've ever spent!


Stu.

Matt.K

More excellent customer service from Mr Crud last week.

Posted my broken front guard on Thursday lunchtime, so must have arrived Friday morning.
Postie turns up on Saturday morning with the replacement part!

Thankyou Mr Crud, you and your staff are truly amazing.

woodchips69

Before I buy some, has anybody tried these on a Ribble Carbon Sportive? It looks very tight from the bottom of thye rear wishbone to the tyre!

richara3

You only need a few mm clearance once the guards are fitted on...If youve got 5 mm or so to start with i would give it a go.. Have a look at the official site ( I havent ) there may well be some info there.


Andy

d.n.f

60 miles in and my front extention piece has fallen off!

Didn't realise that's what the noise was until I got home and there it was, gone. Did I hear a rumour that MR Crud will replace lost parts to us nice forum people?

Other than that, good performance, nice close fit on 2010 Allez and pretty quiet - silent infact on nice smooth tarmac!

saladfunky

Several comutes in the rain and what a difference to not have a wet backside. I don't notice they are on in the dry and they fit the Kiron Scandium perfect. Very tight fit but very quiet unless there is some dirt on the road. Don't try to tighten the hand screws too much as they are only plastic and the threads will go. They seem fragile but so far so good.

vmakris

I just received mine but one of the main fenders is broken in three pieces :-(. Can i fix it with epoxy or something else? Advice please!!!

benno68

Lookup "mr.crud" on here and send him a message, their customer service is very good and I'm sure they will sort out the problem.

If you can't find him through the search - goto page 17 on this thread as he's posted on that page.

Or goto their website, this link may help:

http://www.crudproducts.com/products/spares/roadracer

tailwindhome

Just ordered a set from Wiggle after today's ride through melting snow - never has an ar5e been so cold and wet.

Hope the turn up, they were the last set shown in stock

chopperHarris

Been waiting 2 weeks for my replacement parts for my crud racers, they are only the tips so not stopping me from using the bike or the gueards but expected better after all the good comments on this thread about how speedy they are.

Alinshearah

Just experienced the Mr Crud service treatment today. I had a 'moment' with my front guard this morning which resulted in the guard losing the fight. I sent a pm to Mr Crud and got a reply within the hour and those stories of his generosity are true. All I can say is that I have been very impressed with the Roadracers, but I am even more impressed with the service back up. I could not recommend them highly enough. Well Done Mr Crud

woodchips69

Bought some of these a couple of months ago for my Ribble Carbon Sportive and struggled to fit them. The problem was the short extensions which go in front of the brake cable tie mounting points which dug into the tyre. However, after a bit of fudging (cut the extension bits off front and rear just before the cable tie) they now work a treat. They are well worth £20, half that of the SKS's, which look ancient now in comparison.

fnegroni

woodchips69 wrote:

Bought some of these a couple of months ago for my Ribble Carbon Sportive and struggled to fit them. The problem was the short extensions which go in front of the brake cable tie mounting points which dug into the tyre. However, after a bit of fudging (cut the extension bits off front and rear just before the cable tie) they now work a treat. They are well worth £20, half that of the SKS's, which look ancient now in comparison.

This has been reported regularly on this same thread I think, but admittedly reading 20 pages of posts can be daunting.

Essentially, if the front lip of the rear mudguard digs into the tyre, you have pulled the zip tie too tight on the brake mount. Releasing such zip tie a knot will do the trick.

Myself and many others had same problem.

It is actually written on the instructions *not* too tie it up too tight, and Mr Crud himself pointed that out in a few posts.

el_presidente

Mine are still going storng 4 monhts after I fitted them and have needed no adjustment. £20 well spent.

[Tim]

Like many I too managed to lose both 'tails' from front and rear guards but having been sent new ones (for the bargain cost of a stamp) I am now avoiding it happening again by glueing them on with some loctitie. Seems to do the trick.

Ian.B

Alinshearah wrote:

Just experienced the Mr Crud service treatment today. I had a 'moment' with my front guard this morning which resulted in the guard losing the fight. I sent a pm to Mr Crud and got a reply within the hour and those stories of his generosity are true. All I can say is that I have been very impressed with the Roadracers, but I am even more impressed with the service back up. I could not recommend them highly enough. Well Done Mr Crud

+1, I just got the same service - a replacement part winged its way to me in no time after a breakage

Clever Pun

there seems to be a lot of breakage for the cruds... has anyone compared them with the sks guards?

pete54

Clever Pun wrote:

there seems to be a lot of breakage for the cruds... has anyone compared them with the sks guards?

I have both. The Road Racers are made from a much thinner, much more brittle material. I caught the front one with my foot when manoeuvring in slow traffic and it shattered instantly. To be fair, Crud sent me replacement parts for free, but they do seem pretty flimsy.

mr.crud

We have purposely made the Roadracers on the delicate side. There are many documented instances of well-made 'guards that wouldn't 'let go' in extreme circumstances, with often tragic consequences.
Our mudguards are designed to basically fall apart if foreign objects enter the wheel. I am afraid your foot qualifies as a foreign object Pete54.
We are happy to replace broken parts by-return in exchange for a few stamps(see our website).

pete54

mr.crud wrote:

Our mudguards are designed to basically fall apart if foreign objects enter the wheel. I am afraid your foot qualifies as a foreign object Pete54.

It certainly does, and I shouldn't have been so clumsy.

I'm also having the issue others have described where the guard started wearing away the underside of my fork. There was a rough patch on the corresponding area of the guard as well. Probably only cosmetic, but annoying none the less. I have put a round frame protector sticker over the offending area, but I need to take the guards off again to check that the underside of the brake callipers aren't being worn away too. I'm not sure how you would protect these.

I like the Road Racers but they definitely seem to be a work in progress.

woodchips69

fnegroni wrote:

woodchips69 wrote:

Bought some of these a couple of months ago for my Ribble Carbon Sportive and struggled to fit them. The problem was the short extensions which go in front of the brake cable tie mounting points which dug into the tyre. However, after a bit of fudging (cut the extension bits off front and rear just before the cable tie) they now work a treat. They are well worth £20, half that of the SKS's, which look ancient now in comparison.

This has been reported regularly on this same thread I think, but admittedly reading 20 pages of posts can be daunting.

Essentially, if the front lip of the rear mudguard digs into the tyre, you have pulled the zip tie too tight on the brake mount. Releasing such zip tie a knot will do the trick.

Myself and many others had same problem.

It is actually written on the instructions *not* too tie it up too tight, and Mr Crud himself pointed that out in a few posts.

As you stated I haven't read all the posts, but I did try not to over-tighten the cable tie. However, it started rattling a bit and still rubbed the tyre, which was very annoying. Also, as has been reported, this could possibly mean the guard and cable tie rubbing constantly against the brake bolt.
Is this problem only relevant to bikes with wishbone stays like my Ribble, which has tiny amounts of clearance above the tyre?

Aidy

Now had both the front and rear guards go the same way.

The bit which the zip tie fastens through breaks, and then the mudguard kinda flaps about a bit uselessly. It does seem like a bit of an obvious weak point.

To be fair, this is after approx. 2k miles, and I would kinda expect a certain amount of fatigue after being bullied over London's potholed roads

Curious if anyone else has had them fail the same way?

MonkeyMonster

have any of you looked at the sks raceblades?

got a set under me desk - look rather similar to the crud ones...

lost_in_thought

MonkeyMonster wrote:

have any of you looked at the sks raceblades?

got a set under me desk - look rather similar to the crud ones...

They are, in that they're a guard that can be mounted to a road-style bike, but they're a) not as long, b) a lot bulkier, and c) nowhere near as pretty.

stuaff

lost_in_thought wrote:

MonkeyMonster wrote:

have any of you looked at the sks raceblades?

got a set under me desk - look rather similar to the crud ones...

They are, in that they're a guard that can be mounted to a road-style bike, but they're a) not as long, b) a lot bulkier, and c) nowhere near as pretty.

And they just don't work as well. My Cadenza has them (a Dahon-special 26" version), and though they keep the crud off much of the bike and me, they don't keep the brakes clean. The bike's first owner had them fitted, I'd probably have gone for full-length guards on it as the bike'll take them.

mattrsa

I have just got a set of these and fitted them fine. Altho sods law it has not rained since.

scoobers

I fitted Road Racers to my Giant, they worked well after a lot of fidlding about.
I've now fitted them to my Giant TCR C2 and can't get the front one set up right. The guard touches they tyre and I get a constant rubbing noise - see pics below;
any ideas how I can get around this?


[/img]

mr.crud

Tighten the nuts, then lift the guard away from the tyre in the area you have ringed. The guard will form an arc to match the tyre, and will hold this arc (unless you have the cabletie too tight, this distorts the guard)
Hope this helps

Mr CRUD

PS we have strengthened the cabletie are, and now include small pads to stop wear in this area also. If yours didn't come with them,they are available as an add-on from our website for the cost of a couple of stamps.
Feedback from users is always looked into. We have actually changed the tooling minutely in 8 different ways since this product was released, to improve longevity.

boondog

Hi scoobers, I had this on my px. Fixed it by moving the connectors on the front forks up slightly. If the noise comes back, a slight pull upwards on the connector arms clears it again.

Aidy

mr.crud wrote:

PS we have strengthened the cabletie are, and now include small pads to stop wear in this area also. If yours didn't come with them,they are available as an add-on from our website for the cost of a couple of stamps.
Feedback from users is always looked into. We have actually changed the tooling minutely in 8 different ways since this product was released, to improve longevity.

Bit late now

I think I'm going to glue some bits of zip tie over the gap, and attach via that.

It would be good if there were two or three attachment bridges there, so that at least if one breaks, you can just reattach using one of the others - rather than having to puzzle out how best to carry it home.