Sportives - any need for mudguards?

Caer caradoc
Caer caradoc Posts: 71
edited May 2010 in Sportives/audaxes/training rides
Is there a requirement for the use of mudguards on any sportives?

I have ridden audaxes for years and I know that most have dropped this arcain rule. So I hope that sportives are the equally up to date.

Comments

  • TheBikeBoy
    TheBikeBoy Posts: 41
    i don't know if there are any hard and fast rules but if its raining, the guy behind you will wish you had fitted some :)
  • Cliffter1970
    Cliffter1970 Posts: 18
    Caer caradoc wrote:
    Is there a requirement for the use of mudguards on any sportives?

    I have ridden audaxes for years and I know that most have dropped this arcain rule. So I hope that sportives are the equally up to date.

    Just did the etape caledonia, does that count as a sportive? Certainly no need for mudguards on that event
    Cycle fatboy cycle.
  • Wallace1492
    Wallace1492 Posts: 3,707
    Cliffter1970 wrote:
    Caer caradoc wrote:
    Is there a requirement for the use of mudguards on any sportives?

    I have ridden audaxes for years and I know that most have dropped this arcain rule. So I hope that sportives are the equally up to date.

    Just did the etape caledonia, does that count as a sportive? Certainly no need for mudguards on that event

    No need for them as it was dry!! However, I would think that they would be very useful in the wet!!
    "Encyclopaedia is a fetish for very small bicycles"
  • nickwill
    nickwill Posts: 2,735
    I don't think I've ever seen them on a sportive!
    http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/
  • andy162
    andy162 Posts: 634
    Never bothered with 'em myself.
  • twotyred
    twotyred Posts: 822
    I've seen them used in a (dry) sportive. Personally if it was raining I'd use them. 100 miles with a wet bum is not good for morale.
  • DaveMoss
    DaveMoss Posts: 236
    Bikes with no mudguards are always allowed in sportives.

    I have a theory that the absence of any such rule at the time when the rule often or always applied to audaxes was a key factor in the birth of the UK sportive scene. Along with individual times it was the significant difference. The other things we now expect,like clear route marking, feed stations, first aid and mechanical support kind of grew and developed afterwards.

    So by definition, you do not need mudguards in a sportive, if an organiser applied a must have mudguards rule it would no longer be a sportive. (but unlike a road race, you can have them if you want)
    Sportives and tours, 100% for charity, http://www.tearfundcycling.btck.co.uk
  • mrushton
    mrushton Posts: 5,182
    No need but if the forecast was for wet weather I'd consider those crudracers if only to keep myself dry
    M.Rushton
  • Mccaria
    Mccaria Posts: 869
    I will confess to using mudguards for sportives and will most probably be using them this weekend for the King of the Downs

    Reason is that I have light weight mudguards and sturdier wheels on my winter/training bike. The roads have been so bad around Surrey this year that I have preferred to ride the winter bike with the stronger wheels rather than the weight weenie summer bike and I cannot be bothered to take off the mudguards.
  • andy_wrx
    andy_wrx Posts: 3,396
    Mudguards are a requirement by some organisers on some audaxes, but it's actually pretty rare nowadays.

    It's worth noting that it's actually not for your or your fellow audaxers benefit - audaxes regularly have controls in cafes, it's so that you don't go in there filthy and wet and make a mess of their chairs !

    As sportives don't go near caffs, not a problem, and no sportive I've ever heard of has stipulated them.

    On the other hand, I've done a couple of sportives on really wet days, used my Raceblades and been grateful for it.
  • Brewsterwmb
    Brewsterwmb Posts: 145
    Only ever used them on the Exmoor Beast, but thats in October (i think)

    Needed them for the first half of the Black Rat weekend just gone and likewise for the firstof the Forest of Dean. But then the sun came out :D

    I've taken my raceblades of my best bike as I've found that the very small vibrations have actually worn away the paint! tut tut

    You can get wet, but depending on time of year, wet and cold V wet and cold at the start, but soon the pace goes up and I dont notice the 'wet bum' problem. Just vary what I am wearing to suit!
    “Look where you want to go. Not where you are going”
  • Philby
    Philby Posts: 328
    Wish I hadn't taken my Raceblades off after the Forest of Dean Classic - forgot about putting them on last weekend and didn't have time on Sunday morning before the Black Rat as was running very late. Was quite uncomfortable for the first half of the ride and made the bike much harder to clean this week.
  • FransJacques
    FransJacques Posts: 2,148
    If your question is "are they mandated"? Then no, i've never seen it.

    It's a personal choice. In some cases it's a good idea:

    - this year's Flanders sportive would have been a LOT better with a rear fender. the drops were bouncing upwards from the road they were so big.

    - I took them on the HHH and fricken regretted it, the roads were bad enuf to make them rattle like those things they give to babies, you know, the sticks with the big balls on the end filled with dried beans that make a noise when the baby shakes it? what are they called again?

    To be frank I feel like a f'ing pussy riding with them. It's an outdoor sport. But when it's wet, it can make a big difference to core temperature and vision/safety. Often a rear is all you require...
    When a cyclist has a disagreement with a car; it's not who's right, it's who's left.
  • batch78
    batch78 Posts: 1,320
    What, those big rattley things that make a rattling noise when you rattle them?

    They'd be rattles! :lol:

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