How to give your Mates a break and respect the Club Colours all in one !

Great day on the bike on a club spin.
After the spin , the Orwell Winter Top is covered in splash from bikes without mudguards ( how do I know ? See it and feel it on your face ! ) ; The stains contain oil as well as dirt and often leave the Club top - a beautiful white - looking grimey.

Using a full length rear mudguard is not just for you but for consideration of your club mates and their gear. With easily removed full mudguards that clip on & off , you don't have to permanently spoil that racing look too ! Please ....

Be good to your mates - they'll thank you for it !

Very good point John,there not expensive and are very easy to fit

As someone said on one of the WhatsApp groups, this is indeed an old chestnut. But really, to have a decent, i.e. full-size, rear mudguard (not the jokey pieces of plastic that so many people have) makes all sorts of sense. I got Raceblades a couple of years ago. The fitting that mounts the rear one onto the bike got worn, so that it kept coming adrift. I emailed the (German) manufacturer, who posted me ABSOLUTELY FREE a full set of new guards incorporating a new improved design of fitting. The fitting hasn't budged since - and the design is such that the mudguard clips on and off in a jiffy. So do us all a favour, guys - on fine days you can restore that pro, mudguardless look by whipping it off!

Politics, Religion, Sex and Mudguards are not good subjects for discussion at a cycling club coffee stop.

If you consciously choose to, or not to, wear mudguards; are you engaged in political/ religious behaviour? In the sense that you are expressing a belief; that is to: believe, or not to believe. It’s religious, with a small r. In that, there is a ritual to your action. You choose protection or not. Protection can be multi- decisional. You can choose to protect or save yourself (with a small s). Or you can choose Salvation (with a large S), that is to save/protect others as well.

Would it be better if we as members choose not to be ‘Ass Savers’? That is, choosing to cover your own ass, but become a Salvation community, metaphorically speaking, choosing to protect your club mate as well.

On the whole, it might not be politically correct to label a person an ass, because theirs is all they wish to cover!
DO YOU HAVE, A POSITION ON, MUDGUARDS?

Cheers
Leonard

+ 1 SKS Raceblades. They are reasonably easy to fit but do need a little "dialling in" - once this is done they are easy to whip off and on. They are not perfect but keep 90% of the crud where it should be - on the road. This time of year full mudguards are a necessary consideration for your companion club cyclists.

I'll just leave this here.

Leonard ....what ever you have been taking , share it around please .:)..

This topic pops up every year.

At the Leisure Night for the Spin Leaders, they said that "We will never solve the mudguard debate" (it was on a slide).

The SKS RaceBlades and the new CrudGuards (MK3) are easily removable and suit Disc Equipped Bikes.

One option is for the dispatcher to call up a group of riders who want to ride with others who have mudguards per colour coding.

Do or Don’t - but I suppose it is how much you care about the look of your bike & being courteous to your fellow riders - no mudguards look cool but everyone gets destroyed - mudguards are not cool but everyone is cleaner and dryer.
If you are cycling in a group it’s nicer to have full mudguards, getting a face full of cowmuck off the wheel from the rider in front is not very nice & could cause infection.
Being cold & extra wet can be dangerous & cause fatigue & loss of concentration - @ this time of year no speed records will be broken, the extra weight is not going to slow you down.
Given our climate I personally think mudguards are a must for winter spins - I have fitted SKS Raceblades (Cheap and easy to fit) & find them good for me & my fellow riders - because we use them we should not be made feel like idiots if we complain - after all group cycling should be fun for all.

The guys from GCN did a video on the benefits of mudguards for not only your club mates but also the rider of the “offending” bike... have a watch ... it’s informative and entertaining:)

Good video.

Going to go for theses racebldes, see attached for good value.

www.athleteshop.ie/sks-raceblade-mudguar...xEAQYAiABEgLjRPD_BwE

Hi Colm

they look great but there is a slightly more expensive alternative, narrower but longer for up to 25mm tyres and full length : www.athleteshop.ie/sks-raceblade-mudguard-long-black and because I have very little space am going for those ones - that is of course if I manage to get out on the damn bike before the summer!!

When I checked them out the postage was expensive so probably cheaper to buy local

Does this flurry of posts mean that from next Sunday on I'll be coming home from spins spotless? Or will there be a backlash proclaiming that Real Cyclists (see John Latham above) are proud to get covered in shite? Or the awful prospect of two sets of groups, the Mudguardists and Non-Mudguardists, as imagined by Luke GJ, at daggers drawn with each other?

Tom,

As you said earlier this is an old chestnut and a few posts on the forum will not solve this age old conundrum.
To offer an alternative perspective - It is that time of year when the mates you have cycled with through the summer and autumn with no mudguards through epic events and storms in s/s jersey and bib shorts, up the Gap of Dunloe with horse manure nearly up to your elbows etc. turn their back on you and infer you are a selfish, infection spreading, salesman for Daz because you don’t have a mudguard for whatever personal reason (some is preference, some bikes don’t have clearance, the consistent rubbing noise using race blades makes you feel you are on a turbo and kills any enjoyment being in the open air etc.). You haven’t broken any rules, haven’t done anything wrong but you can feel the unease between previously good mates
This affliction your clubmates suffer from has been given the tem “Fendangelism” (refer to www.velominati.com/tradition/fendangelism/ ). This article from the so called Keepers of the Cog clarifies the traditional stance in relation to mudguards – “Mudguards, on the other hand, are banned for the fact that are ugly, noisy, and are an implied contravention of Rule #9. The Nine is about submitting to the deluge, about embracing the misery of training in the cold and wet; it is about dedication and discipline above the creature comforts found at home”

Fendangelism seems to start just before winter solstice every year, peaks mid-January and will only fully run its course by end of March when everyone in the clubs becomes friends again and issues such as half wheeling, coffee stop or not etc. return to centre stage.

Tom,

As you said earlier this is an old chestnut and a few posts on the forum will not solve this age old conundrum.
To offer an alternative perspective - It is that time of year when the mates you have cycled with through the summer and autumn with no mudguards through epic events and storms in s/s jersey and bib shorts, up the Gap of Dunloe with horse manure nearly up to your elbows etc. turn their back on you and infer you are a selfish, infection spreading, salesman for Daz because you don’t have a mudguard for whatever personal reason (some is preference, some bikes don’t have clearance, the consistent rubbing noise using race blades makes you feel you are on a turbo and kills any enjoyment being in the open air etc.). You haven’t broken any rules, haven’t done anything wrong but you can feel the unease between previously good mates
This affliction your clubmates suffer from has been given the tem “Fendangelism” (refer to www.velominati.com/tradition/fendangelism/ ). This article from the so called Keepers of the Cog clarifies the traditional stance in relation to mudguards – “Mudguards, on the other hand, are banned for the fact that are ugly, noisy, and are an implied contravention of Rule #9. The Nine is about submitting to the deluge, about embracing the misery of training in the cold and wet; it is about dedication and discipline above the creature comforts found at home”

Fendangelism seems to start just before winter solstice every year, peaks mid-January and will only fully run its course by end of March when everyone in the clubs becomes friends again and issues such as half wheeling, coffee stop or not etc. return to centre stage.

What anaemic Yellow such as myself would want to be on the opposite side of a cycling debate from someone of James's formidable abilities and illustrious CV? Seldom, I imagine, does he find himself in anything but a leadership position, hence gets less mud-splattered than most. He's beyond question a Velominatus of high standing.
I remember a few years ago a senior Orwell member pressed on me, with all the earnestness of a doorstep Jehovah's Witness, the bible of the Velominati. Reading it I discovered a sect whose stoic determination, austere aestheticism and rigorous theology I quickly realised I could probably never hope to rise to, any more than I could imagine myself as a young Sean Kelly. So after wrestling with my conscience I gave back the bible, and bought and have kept my Raceblades. I can only hope, the few times I'm in front on dank winter days, that some souls behind will love me for it.

Tom

What can I say to that.

Your modesty as always becomes you and you definitely have the heart of Sean Kelly and are one of the few men I know who is a legend in their own time. I did not have the same resolve as you and that senior member had better luck in brainwashing me. You could easily setup your own religious cycling sect to rival the velominati which would be eminently more witty and entertaining. As the Genetleman of Orwell and the spiritual godfather of the Leisure section I feel like the guy who shot Bambi by offering a differing opinion on this topic.

Normally I shy away from these type of forums but as no else from the fenderless barbarian hoard contributed I felt obliged to step out of the shadows to try and avert a literal form of winter ethnic cleansing (excuse the pun).

Everybody has their different reasons for coming out on a Sunday morning and they are all valid regardless of ability, discipline etc. and need to be respected. This is always a difficult subject as it is only topic where suiting one group can negatively impact the enjoyment of the other.

I don’t have an answer and like yourself would not advocate a form of cycling apartheid as this is not the ethos of the club.

Old chestnuts are hard to break.

And on this civilised and literate note James and I conclude our contributions to this evergreen/gnarled - pick your adjective - topic.
PS If your Raceblades give you trouble mention my name to Annalisa Thüsing of SKS Germany.

As a recent convert to full mudguards I'm wondering what all the fuss was. One I thought they had to be screwed on and 2 I've been behind many a mudguard that doesn't work. The rasorblades fix on with a rubber strap, (easy) Happy to say I always prepare to be bike fit for a spin and now I'm rainfit. Won't think twice about going out when it's wet.