CRUD

After my previous blog post highlighting the filth of my bike I decided to write about how I am planning on minimizing any further moments of disgust like that one.

I knew I had to purchase a fender and each of the guys I ride with have a little fender that attaches to the seatpost and extends about 15 inches out and "kind of" over the rear wheel. I have seen these before and never found them to be too effective. Not only is it almost impossible for them to stay aligned over the wheel they don't really provide much protection for the people behind you. Perhaps the people who use these type of fender don't care about the people behind them but, when riding through piles of horse excrement that is a common theme for the bike paths here, I would prefer more coverage.

I started to look around and I saw a couple of brands of fenders that would work on a race bike without eyelets and they were all very nice, but I wanted more coverage. I wanted the splatter of road grime to be unable to get to my front derailleur. Most products that work on a racing bike failed here. Further searching lead me to an English company, Crud Products. I figure that England, being a rainy country itself, would have my solution. I found it in the name of the Road Racer MK2, the 2nd generation of this design. For the price of front and rear fenders shipped to the Netherlands was just 10Euro more expensive than one of the seatpost mounted fins. So, easy decision. I ordered a set and in 4 days they were here.

I promptly installed them in about 20 minutes. The only reason it didn't take me 15 minutes is because I had to change tires. My bike didn't have enough clearance to allow the full rear fender along with my 700x25 tires. So, I switched to some narrower and slightly lower 23c tires and the fenders mounted very quickly and easily. Full coverage on the rear wheel and more than enough on the front. My one major requirement was front derailleur protection and these fenders provide that in the form of an extended edge of the fender that covers a bit more of the wheel that spins closest to the derailleur, there is a picture below.

Another unique thing about the Road Racer fenders is the way they "float" above the wheel. there are two mounting bars, one on each side, that attach to the fender, seat stay and fork blades. These bars are semi-rigid polypropylene and allow enough movement to absorb road shock and return the fender to its place. Helping to re-center the fender are a Crud Products exclusive set of tiny brushes that attach inside the fender at rim height. These little brushes not only help the fender stay off of the rim, but when the fender does bounce around the brushes softly tap the rim and actually brush away road grime each time. Nice touch.

Now, naturally after I installed them the rain stopped. It had been a month of rain and as soon as I got the fenders on the rain stopped. However, with all of the moisture in the air it is hard not to ride through wet patches and to be expected the MK2 fenders performed flawlessly. I can't wait for the rain to come again so I can put them through some real work.

Here are 3 photos of the fenders mounted.

Here you can see the extended piece of fender that gives more coverage to protect the front derailleur. This feature, more so than the full coverage, was the main selling point for me

**the grime you see on the derailleur was there before the fenders went on........I was too lazy to clean the bike before putting the fenders on.**

My impression of the fenders is positive. If the possibility of having to change tires is too much for you to handle maybe these aren't for you. They look clean and don't clutter your bike and mount easily. Multiple thumbs up and I can't recommend them enough. www.crudproducts.com