Now that the Crudracer mk2 honeymoon period is over

Raffles

I took a lot of stick for having LBS guy do the fitting on my 2012 caad8, as I knew if I installed the cruds it would be disastrous. Well after a lot of weeks usage I can say that I hate the crud 2`s and I think they are just hype. The amount of constant adjusting is just ridiculous and makes the cruds a total pain in the @rse to live with in my opinion. The slightest bump in the road and the rear crud starts making rubbing sounds against the tyre, stop the bike and move the crud and start riding.........another bump and its rubbing again :roll: There are very contrasting views on the crud 2 `s if you read online reviews, but Im siding with those who are fed up with the constant rubbing and need for adjustment. On the day I had them fitted I rode the bike to work and when I got there one of the plastic nuts which secures one of the arms in place had fallen off onto the road and into oblivion.

Says it all for me :roll:

gloomyandy

Had mine a few months now and they are working fine. Yes they catch from time to time, but it usually sorts its self out after a short time. They are a little tricky to fit, especially on a compact frame like my Planet X, but they work, and I'm not sure any other guard will fit.

markyone

I had these and in the cold weather they got brittle and snapped.
I now use race blades

napoleond

Never had a problem with cruds. Fantastic bits of kit if fitted properly. Good luck with race blades.

fish156

Raffles wrote:

I took a lot of stick for having LBS guy do the fitting on my 2012 caad8, ... On the day I had them fitted I rode the bike to work and when I got there one of the plastic nuts which secures one of the arms in place had fallen off onto the road and into oblivion.

I hope you got the shop to fix this free of charge? They'd simply not done the job properly.

NapoleonD wrote:

Never had a problem with cruds. Fantastic bits of kit if fitted properly. Good luck with race blades.

+1
I've had a pair of Crud 2s on my Specialized Tarmac for months now without problem. To be honest I forget they're on, never having to readjust them during a ride.

Pickled Pig

fish156 wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

Never had a problem with cruds. Fantastic bits of kit if fitted properly. Good luck with race blades.

+1
I've had a pair of Crud 2s on my Specialized Tarmac for months now without problem. To be honest I forget they're on, never having to readjust them during a ride.

+2
Second winter with cruds on a Roubaix with 2k+ wet miles and still going strong.

stueys

They aren't great but they do a job when adjusted up well. Issue is you do need to play around with them. I think the sks design is better but they don't offer the coverage that the cruds do. If you don't have proper mounts then they are the best current option IMHO

declan1

Raffles wrote:

I took a lot of stick for having LBS guy do the fitting on my 2012 caad8, as I knew if I installed the cruds it would be disastrous. Well after a lot of weeks usage I can say that I hate the crud 2`s and I think they are just hype. The amount of constant adjusting is just ridiculous and makes the cruds a total pain in the @rse to live with in my opinion. The slightest bump in the road and the rear crud starts making rubbing sounds against the tyre, stop the bike and move the crud and start riding.........another bump and its rubbing again :roll: There are very contrasting views on the crud 2 `s if you read online reviews, but Im siding with those who are fed up with the constant rubbing and need for adjustment. On the day I had them fitted I rode the bike to work and when I got there one of the plastic nuts which secures one of the arms in place had fallen off onto the road and into oblivion.

Says it all for me :roll:

Thanks for that! I was literally going to splash out £30 at the LBS for some today - I think I'll get some proper guards now!

napoleond

If you can fit proper guards there is no contest, get proper guards. However if you can't they are a very good bit of kit. If you fit them properly and maintain them...

declan1

NapoleonD wrote:

If you can fit proper guards there is no contest, get proper guards. However if you can't they are a very good bit of kit. If you fit them properly and maintain them...

Yeah my BSA has got mudguard eyelets and tons of brake clearance (long-drop) so I think I'll just get some raceblades.

napoleond

Don't get raceblades! Get full proper mudguards such as SKS Chromoplastics...

declan1

NapoleonD wrote:

Don't get raceblades! Get full proper mudguards such as SKS Chromoplastics...

Oh yeah! I thought they were the same thing. Thanks

chrisaonabike

They certainly are fiddly to fit - for all we know, the only thing wrong with Raffles' ones is the bloke at the LBS that put them on - and he obviously didn't tighten the nuts properly.

The thing about threads like this is that there's no consistency - different people have different bikes, with different clearances, with no evidence one way or the other about how well they've been fitted.

With mine, the back one has been flawless, but the front one rubbed annoyingly, until I moved the attachments for the stays about half an inch up the forks - and since then it's been perfect. So the tolerances are obviously quite small, not surprisingly given how close to the tyre they sit.

I check the tightness of the plastic nuts in the same way I check that the brakes and lights work - every ride.

I don't know, maybe I've been lucky with the way they went on, maybe I'm lucky with the bike. Maybe Raffles has been unlucky, or that they've just been fitted badly.

You can't tell much about the product from a thread like this.

edhornby

I have them on my commuter bike and they are fine, you need to go over all the nuts and retighten them after the first ride, it sounds like this didn't work for you and the nuts are now worn, try replacing the plastic ones with metal ones ?

try adjusting where the mudguard stays attach to the fork/seatstay

on mine the little rim pads fell off straight away, I haven't missed them

mustgettaller

fish156 wrote:

I've had a pair of Crud 2s on my Specialized Tarmac for months now without problem. To be honest I forget they're on, never having to readjust them during a ride.

What tyre size do you have on your Tarmac? I bought two sets - one for my Secteur and one for the Tarmac. Got them on the Secteur no problem (and working nicely). Looking at the Tarmac, I'm not sure I've got the clearance on the brakes or between the rear wheel and the seat tube post. I'm running 25mm tyres.

Or did you trim the rear one off to finish above where the rear tyre closes with the tube? In which case one loses some of the protection of the front mech.

paul_mck

use mine permanently on my singlespeed commuter. Dont give any bother at all. 25mm front 28mm rear.

love them to bits, nice and light, look racey, spot on imo. Two tips tho:

1. wrap your chainstays/forks in tape where the mounts go on, I find they will mark a frame over time.
2. use a heatgun to widen the guards a little for fatter tyres.

desweller

I wouldn't trust a bike shop to open a tin of sardines that was already open, let alone do a competant job of fitting a pair of mudguards.

roger_merriman

I didn't think they where terribly difficult to fit, clearly with thin plastic going to get a bit of wobble, left them on the last bike, mild bit of tyre rub once in a while but on the whole worked well.

boxxer750

Got these on my CAAD10. Guessing its a similar frame? They were fiddly to fit and a lot of trial and error but I have got them perfect now with no rubbing.

If you find them rubbing, best thing to do if move the stays further up the frame at the back. You'll see the clearance increase.

Guessing the LBS wont have spent the time fiddling and tweaking them to get them working properly as you would yourself.

declan1

Just got some SKS Bluemels and fitted them. Apart from the front one not aligning with the tyre due to being pushed over by the brake caliper, they're excellent!

chrisaonabike

boxxer750 wrote:

Guessing the LBS wont have spent the time fiddling and tweaking them to get them working properly as you would yourself.

In fairness, the LBS isn't going to ride the bike. They'll put them on, spin the wheels a few times and adjust till they don't rub, and then hand them over.

Duh! Of course it's going to need a bit of adjustment once you start using it. At risk of a slightly imperfect analogy, moaning that Cruds are no good because they don't stay perfect after the LBS has fitted them is like taking a violin back to a shop and saying it's no good because it needs retuning after it's been played a bit.

It's just not a fit-and-forget sort of product (although not *that* far off). It's a product designed to clear where the clearances are small, and attach where there are no attachments. It will need a bit of fiddling to get right.

ror3h

Done over 2,500 miles with them on my Genesis single speed bike since august. Fitted them as they were the only choice I had (no mounts and tiny clearances). Great mudguards, took a bit of faffing when I first got them but they've been perfect since. Only ever get a slight rubbing sound when I've cycled through a load of mud or something.

EarlyGo

As others have said Cruds are not a totally fit and forget product. Every few weeks a minor 30 second fettle is probably going to be required. However on a road bike with between 4mm and 7mm clearance they are absolutely ideal and probably the only product available to do the job. Watching the videos on the Crud website solved all my problems and has helped my Cruds stay well fitted for over a 1000 miles. If on occasion you get a slight rubbing when a bit of mud or twig etc gets stuck under them, then you can usually 'wash it off' by just riding through a couple of puddles. They are light, look good (as far as a mudguard can), well made but cheap to buy and have a good back up network. Also the special shape of the rear guard keeps all the cr*p off the front derailleur. Personally I'd recommend them.

Cheers, earlyGo

dmclite-3.0

Cruds are excellent. A bit of fettling to keep them sweet, what more do you want for £20 ?

declan1

Just went out for a VERY wet ride with the Bluemels, and they kept me perfectly dry! It's such a nice feeling. I highly recommend them if you have the clearance and mudguard eyelets!!!

d87francis

declan1 wrote:

Just went out for a VERY wet ride with the Bluemels, and they kept me perfectly dry! It's such a nice feeling. I highly recommend them if you have the clearance and mudguard eyelets!!!

Great but that's not really relevant, if you have the clearance you're surely going to use something like the bluemals; if not you'd want to try something like the cruds.

In my experience I have had them on my CAAD10 this winter and they have been reliable. I watched the video a couple of time as I fitted them, had to tweak them a little at first but now they are fantastic. They also look so much better than raceblades.

afcbian

I have had a set of crud 2's on my ribble for ages and they are spot on. I find them fine even riding up here in scotland with all the farming mud etc on the road. A minor tweek once in a blue moon and thats it. I found they fit better if you dont do the ties up too tight and allow them to 'hang' just a little

brucey72

Even though I use 23mm tyres there just doesnt seem to be enough clearence between the underside of the brake and tyre to prevent rubbing. I have adjusted and re-adjusted the height the arms sit at on the chainstay without any success so have now just accepted the constant rubbing noise.

mabbo

I had Crud 2's on my Giant defy1. Used them for approx 1500 miles last winter. Put them on again in October. Got a twig caught which must have loosened the rear stay screws,(Or maybe I'd missed tightening them), they then fell off. But easily cured and fixed with a couple of cable ties to hold them. Now transferred them to my old Giant which I have put back on the road for a winter hack. Also whilst on the Defy got another lump of something stuck between tyre and blade. That wore away the screw fixing the middle section to the back. So when I transferred em to the old hack, I've just tied it together with a cable tie. Looks fine, does the job. So after several mishaps and a couple of thousand miles they are still serviceable, functional and no issue. Good value for money as far as I'm concerned.

Careca

I had a set and found them fine to fit but I had to retighten everything before every ride. Found they worked very well but couldn't be bothered with having to continuously fiddle with them and still end up with bits working loose during rides. Ended up giving mine away and fitting race blades. Not as good coverage as the cruds, but I'd buy race blades again, but never the cruds.

Pross

They're a bit of a pain to fit but once on I've never had to touch them so I'm not sure why some people have such an issue with them. I'm just about to put them on my winter bike for this year and they'll then be staying on that one. When you've got a choice of Cruds, those crappy clip-on MTB mudguards or nothing then Cruds win hands down. Obviously if your bike can take proper full mudguards then that is the best option and I think 'Mr Crud' himself says that.