SKS Raceblades on Cannondale Synapse 5

cruff

Finally bit the bullet after years and bought some mudguards. I'd like to say that this was brought on by guilt feelings after spraying people behind me in the wet, but in reality it was because I cycled twice in the snow in Scotland this week and the spray up my rear end was an extremely unpleasant experience.

I bought some SKS Raceblades, but the front mount appears to be absolutely useless for my bike. They come with an 'aero adapter', but when the mount sits at least 3cm from the fork to begin with, they aren't much help.

Has anyone else got a synapse 5 and experienced the same problem? I can't for the life of me figure out where or how I'm supposed to adapt them to fit, and the geometry of the bike isn't that outrageous, surely?

cruff

OK - so on the off-chance that anyone else reads this thread, or comes across it via a search engine, definitively the front guard on SKS raceblades will NOT fit a Synapse 5. This was confirmed to me in an email from SKS themselves.

I guess this is what comes of trying to fit mudguards to a modern road bike - they're just not designed to take them and although companies make a decent fist of trying to accomodate them, it's always going to be a struggle to design a mount that takes all geometries into consideration.

That being said, it does seem a bit daft that there isn't a way of sliding the mount forward on the guard - the fact that it's fixed into place, rather than movable, means it's far less accomodating of racier frames than it could be with what would be a relatively simple design change.

Oh well, c'est la vie. The rear one works fine and should stop me from getting a frozen, wet, muddy arris.

me-109

So it might well fit if you can tighten the bend of (at least) the lower support arms, otherwise you haven't a chance because of the narrowing effect of the fork leg along the rear edge. This will mean that the mudguard will not clear the tyre, and the only way to alter that is by getting the attachment point to move closer towards the 'front' attachment point, since the arms are not adjustable in length. Alternatively, with the fork mounting top strap in place, pull the mudguard out to where you need it and see if you can insert a further rubber block as a wedge underneath the fork lower mounting in order to fill the gap.

I reckon all the similar types of mudguards (Zefal, Topeak) will have the same issues. I take it that you cannot fit the Raceblade Longs, or cannot get hold of any anywhere? These mount off the axle so would not present the same issue.

dj58

If you are interested in the SKS Raceblade longs, Tredz still have them.
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.SKS-Race-Blade- ... _51833.htm