Fitting SKS mudguards to a Specialised Sirrus - Help

Floristhebadger

Can anyone help, Please.

I am trying to fit SKS mudguards to a Sirrus, with a carbon fork, the type with the rubber inserts.

I am having real difficulty getting the front mud guard to fit around the wheel, the bracket that attaches to the fork has slot to allow adjustment, but there is no room in the fork crown to allow the adjustment to slide any higher.

I now have a guard that touches the wheel at the front but sits a couple of inches away from the wheel at the bottom. The only thing I can think of is to shorten the stays to allow the bottom of the mudguard to sit closer to the wheel, and therefore pivot away from the wheel at the front,

However, before I reach for the hacksaw has anyone got other any suggestions that might prevent me having to invalidate the warranty before they are even on the bike?

Wooliferkins

If you have the required clearance through the forks then what you describe is right. Loosen the nuts at the top of the stays and adjust to fit. You'll only need to shorten the stays if they overlap your toes or they really offend the eyes.

Floristhebadger

Cheers Neil.

The little plastic holders at the end of the stays are stopping me moving the guard closers to the wheel.

I have checked the clerance between the guard and tire under the fork, and it is approx 10-12 mm, which seems ok.

Do you recommend snipping the end off the plastic holders so I can slide the stays all the way through?

Floristhebadger

I have sussed it now, think I was having a senior moment. :oops:

Anyway I have nicked the ends off the plastic bits, pushed the stays through to the required position and hay pesto job done.

There is a bit more stay showing than I hoped but easily trimmed down if I need to.

BigLee1

I cut about 10mm off my stays so they would fit nicely in the black plastic ends. I cant see how cutting the ends can affect the warranty?

blorg

Yes, you will end up with the stays protruding a bit on the lower front. I think I have the same fork as you:



Like this my shoe does occasionally hit the protruding stay and I blame it for slicing open the front of my overshoes. On that topic what have you guys used to cut the stays? I tried a hacksaw that sliced through aluminium rack fittings fine but wasn't having a lot of luck with these which I presume are stainless steel.

wheezee

Yep, I cut through mine with a hacksaw, so that I could get the little caps back on.

I also cut two of them too short, and only good fortune (a mate who happened not to have chucked his old ones away, after replacing his guards) saved me from a complete cock-up. :oops:

wheezee

Fool-up? That's not what I wrote!

There's some kind of auto-censor working on here?

Fuck me!

blorg

Haha yes, there are a few things like that...

Paul Smith *edit: I see that one works now

How did you cut the stays with a hacksaw, did you put them in a vice? I tried with them on the bike and the blade just wasn't making any progress. Difficult to keep at it in the same place too.

gabriel959

My solution was to cut through the stays using a pair of £9 Bolt croppers from B&Q. They work a treat IME.

alfablue

I used a pipe cutter - neat job.

BigLee1

Whip them off and pop them in a vice for ease of cutting! I wouldn`t use pipe cutters as AFAIK they`re designed to cut copper pipe not stainless steel :shock:

alfablue

You're probably right, though mine were made to cut steel steerer tubes.

wheezee

I used a workmate to grip them in the end. (after what seemed like days sawing at them whilst holding them still with my foot.)

blorg

@gabriel- do you reckon this would do the job?

elcani

I used a cheap adjustable pipe cutter. It was quite slow going and I ended up snapping the ends off with pliers when the cut was about halfway through. The break was quite clean and the ends of the stays are covered by the plastic caps anyway.

gabriel959

blorg wrote:

@gabriel- do you reckon this would do the job?

I think that will work - it is pretty similar to what I have got. It will take a bit of going through the metal but you will get there in the end.