Unbreakable SKS mudguards?

amaferanga

Just broke my second set while out riding. Both times in almost the same place - several inches behind the rear brake. Both times a clean break. Both times after I've had extra weight on the end of the guard (this time a mudflap, last time a light).

Is it just me or are these mudguards actually quite easily broken?

JohnnyAllez

Maybe they arn`t designed to take the weight of anything? Probably bouncing up and down on the road causing the mudguard to flex at that specific point, fatigue sets in and the plastic snaps right there.

Fit rear light to your seatpost. Forget the mudflap, or try some longer `guards if that`s what you need?

amaferanga

SKS mudguards usually come with a reflector on the back anyway so there is some weight already. I don't have a light on the guards now, but I do have a mudflap. Given the claims of SKS that they're unbreakable I'm just surprised that all it takes is a mudflap to break them!

notsoracy rich

I have the same problem. I have an old set of sks guards fitted to an old 531 race frame which have lasted for years. I bought a Giant SCR with muguard clearance and room for 28mm tyres, and am on my 3rd set of SKS guards, they break about 6" behind the brake bridge. I thought it may be because the Giant is an XSmall compact frame so the mudguard bridge is further away from the stays--who knows.

Anyway, the 3rd set I fitted a full length reinforcing aluminium strip pop rivetted to under side of mudguard--(aluminium carpet trim from Wilkinsons). The mudguard has now cracked at exactly the same place as the others, but only at the edges, the part with the alu strip fitted is still OK.

I don't know if its the compact frame ,or if SKS guards are now like a lot of things and made to a price. Just remembered I have a long mudflap fitted as well( to both bikes) to prevent following cyclists from spray.

Rich (everyone laughs at my mudflap)!!!!

Wappygixer

I'm wondering if they have been fitted 100% right.
Maybe to much tension on then and the vibration is cracking them.
I fit loads of these had other than accidents I've never seen a set break

Captain Fagor

My SKS mudguards keep breaking at the flimsy metallic rear mount with the brake. The chromoplastic mudguard itself is fine - it's the mount which fatigues through, leaving an annoying rattling mugduard. The most recent one lasted only about two hundred miles!

Any pointers for avoiding this would be gratefully appreciated.

Fat Head

My front guard broke in exactly the same way Captain Fagor describe after one year.

notsoracy rich

My SKS mudguards keep breaking at the flimsy metallic rear mount with the brake. The chromoplastic mudguard itself is fine - it's the mount which fatigues through, leaving an annoying rattling mugduard. The most recent one lasted only about two hundred miles!

Any pointers for avoiding this would be gratefully appreciated.

Remove broken mounting bracket.
Drill 2 holes in centre of mudguard either side of brake bridge, then attach mudguard to brake bridge with 2 cable ties ,one each side of brake mounting bolt. Job done.

Captain Fagor

notsoracy rich wrote:

My SKS mudguards keep breaking at the flimsy metallic rear mount with the brake. The chromoplastic mudguard itself is fine - it's the mount which fatigues through, leaving an annoying rattling mugduard. The most recent one lasted only about two hundred miles!

Any pointers for avoiding this would be gratefully appreciated.

Remove broken mounting bracket.
Drill 2 holes in centre of mudguard either side of brake bridge, then attach mudguard to brake bridge with 2 cable ties ,one each side of brake mounting bolt. Job done.

Top tip - great idea! I'll be putting that to the top of my to-do list. Thanks very much.

canamdad

Yup, mine broke in the same place as the OP's. I bought some of that aluminum mesh that is used to fix car bodies (Halford's) and epoxied it over the mudguard and then rolled the edges under the mudguard and epoxied them. At least 3000 miles on them since. Doesn't look really nice but does the job.

Wappygixer

If they are cracking its because they are being strained.
You need to let them keep the original shape.
Sometimes in order to do this you need to bend the brake fitting bracket but don't use the mudguard to do this use a vice or mole grips.
If you don't strain them they will work for years to come
Don't force them onto the mounts

ronthechef

Captain Fagor wrote:

notsoracy rich wrote:

My SKS mudguards keep breaking at the flimsy metallic rear mount with the brake. The chromoplastic mudguard itself is fine - it's the mount which fatigues through, leaving an annoying rattling mugduard. The most recent one lasted only about two hundred miles!

Any pointers for avoiding this would be gratefully appreciated.

Remove broken mounting bracket.
Drill 2 holes in centre of mudguard either side of brake bridge, then attach mudguard to brake bridge with 2 cable ties ,one each side of brake mounting bolt. Job done.

Top tip - great idea! I'll be putting that to the top of my to-do list. Thanks very much.

I done this today, didn't bother with the drill, just heated up an old small flat head screw driver over a gas burner, then made 2 holes in each guard, works a treat

chrisonabike

The metal mount ('bridge') of mine broke too, where it connects behind the rear brakes. It's made of very thin aluminium and just fatigues from road vibration I think. I bought two of these to replace it from Edinburgh Cycle Cooperative. I ground away the outer prongs from one, glued them together with the ground-down one as a support, and am now using both. This should be much stronger.

At the same time, I spotted that the chromoplastic guards themselves were cracking around the same point. I've fixed these with some strips cut from an old credit card glued with Araldite across the split.

I've done a few thousand miles since and all looks good :-)

amaferanga

Wappygixer wrote:

If they are cracking its because they are being strained.
You need to let them keep the original shape.
Sometimes in order to do this you need to bend the brake fitting bracket but don't use the mudguard to do this use a vice or mole grips.
If you don't strain them they will work for years to come
Don't force them onto the mounts

Not in my case. If it was under strain then when the two ends split they wouldn't meet again without being again put under strain. I rejoined the two bits using epoxy last night and only needed a little bit of tape to hold the two bits in place while the epoxy set.

TornadoTom

Well I got a rear puncture yesterday on my training bike. So flipped the bike (shifters+saddle are both crashed damaged so I don't care about them too much now) to take the wheel out.

Turns out my SKS had cracked - a clean break where the metal bit holds the guards onto the brake bridgee.

AlanW

Yes, I know that its a really old thread, but a quck search found it out.

My rear one has snapped again for the second time in four months!

In the exact same place, just behind the flimsy mounting stay, or underneath the brake caliper.

Just a thought but looking at the mounting bracket with the four little tags on that you fold onto the mudguard, but does it matter which way it faces? And does it matter which side of teh brake bridge you mount it?

In fact, do you need to fit it at all?

The bottom of the mudguard is secure adjacent to the bottom bracket after all?

fish156

notsoracy rich wrote:

My SKS mudguards keep breaking at the flimsy metallic rear mount with the brake. The chromoplastic mudguard itself is fine - it's the mount which fatigues through, leaving an annoying rattling mugduard. The most recent one lasted only about two hundred miles!

Any pointers for avoiding this would be gratefully appreciated.

Remove broken mounting bracket.
Drill 2 holes in centre of mudguard either side of brake bridge, then attach mudguard to brake bridge with 2 cable ties ,one each side of brake mounting bolt. Job done.

+1
I've had 2 rear guards break near the brake (break?) bridge.
I found that drilling a couple of holes, and "splinting" with a piece of Mecano & cable ties keeps the guards serviceable.

El Gordo

fish156 wrote:

notsoracy rich wrote:

My SKS mudguards keep breaking at the flimsy metallic rear mount with the brake. The chromoplastic mudguard itself is fine - it's the mount which fatigues through, leaving an annoying rattling mugduard. The most recent one lasted only about two hundred miles!

Any pointers for avoiding this would be gratefully appreciated.

Remove broken mounting bracket.
Drill 2 holes in centre of mudguard either side of brake bridge, then attach mudguard to brake bridge with 2 cable ties ,one each side of brake mounting bolt. Job done.

+1
I've had 2 rear guards break near the brake (break?) bridge.
I found that drilling a couple of holes, and "splinting" with a piece of Mecano & cable ties keeps the guards serviceable.

I've also had two sets break on me over the years (one just shook itself to bits, the other caught on a bike rack and snapped (OK, that was my fault but they are certainly not unbreakable)

I fixed it by buying a set from Tortec which are much much better (nicer brackets, stainless, nyloc nuts etc.). I don't see why people rave about SKS so much.

MichaelW

Ive had a front fender crack just above the lower metalwork assembly. It had been through a couple of crashes and took 5 years hard use so I'm not complaining.
SKS mounting hardware has become cheap and nasty. The special widget bolts can be broken by over-tightening. If you have some old SKS, keep the old mounting hardware.
I use zip ties at the chainstay bridge, with one hole, about 1cm from the tip.

joey54321

Had the rear and now the front gone in under 9 months of light use. Seem like terrible mudguards so far tbh.

marcusjb

Never broken the mudguards - but broken a few bridges on the rear.

Eventually I turned a replacement around and added the remains of another bridge to strengthen the mounting hole.

Not broken one since - and have a heavy old Buddy Flap on the rear as well.

Red Hippo

This may be an issue with compact frames breaking mudguards rather than a particular brand. My Giant Defy 3 (otherwise a great bike) broke a Giant specific guard within a few weeks, then an SKS one within another few weeks. In both cases it was preceded by obvious vibration, possibly caused by the extra amount of mudguard extending beyond the seatstays, which enter the seat tube lower down on a compact. Incidentally I have been fitting mudguards for 35 years with no previous problems so it is unlikely to be user error. I will try repairing it - thanks for the ideas! Another option a friend did was to add an extra mudguard stay to his son's compact bike. I won't buy another compact frame for this reason, as I always use full guards.

vorsprung

Here's my blog post from nearly 4 years ago moaning about this very issue

http://audaxing.wordpress.com/2010/06/1 ... kest-part/

And you know what? I still haven't got around to trying out the stainless steel mudguards listed in the article