Muduard clearance for newbies
MichaelW
Posts: 2,164
Just a note to any newbies buying a road-bike, but not for racing.
Pay serious consideration to the potential for using your bike through a wet, dirty winter. Mudguards are practically mandatory for UK winters. It is much easier to fit mudguards if you buy a bike with sufficient clearance at the brake bridge, chainstay bridge, fork crown, and threaded eyelets.
Bike shops are happy to sell you a close-clearance, summer racing-style road bike, and plenty of people here will advise you which they like best. They will also advise you on the numerous hacks and bodges that they use to make mudguards fit, eg cutting the guard in 2 and installing each side of the brake, using velcro, rubber bands, clamps etc.
With a bit of foresight, you can pick a bike with sufficient clearance for both full length mudguards and wider tyres to cope with potholes, dark conditions etc.
Come a dry summer and you can fit narrow racing tyres and remove the 'guards and hardly tell the difference from a midrange racebike.
Most serious riders eventually get a nice racebike and demote their starter road-bike to winter-training, commuting or hacking around town.
Pay serious consideration to the potential for using your bike through a wet, dirty winter. Mudguards are practically mandatory for UK winters. It is much easier to fit mudguards if you buy a bike with sufficient clearance at the brake bridge, chainstay bridge, fork crown, and threaded eyelets.
Bike shops are happy to sell you a close-clearance, summer racing-style road bike, and plenty of people here will advise you which they like best. They will also advise you on the numerous hacks and bodges that they use to make mudguards fit, eg cutting the guard in 2 and installing each side of the brake, using velcro, rubber bands, clamps etc.
With a bit of foresight, you can pick a bike with sufficient clearance for both full length mudguards and wider tyres to cope with potholes, dark conditions etc.
Come a dry summer and you can fit narrow racing tyres and remove the 'guards and hardly tell the difference from a midrange racebike.
Most serious riders eventually get a nice racebike and demote their starter road-bike to winter-training, commuting or hacking around town.
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Comments
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It's worth noting that the added weight doesn't have any significant effect on your speed, nor do mudguards add any aerodynamic drag, so there's no practical reason not to fit them.0
