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Whoosh! On the way to work, just before the office, a dull sound hits the back of your head and now sticks almost exactly at the level of the first vertebrae in your neck. My fingers feel something cool, soft and a little sticky to the touch. This passage through the green area leads over gravel paths that are easy to ride on, with the odd puddle here and there because it rained last night. But it's easy to ride round them, and with the nimble gravel bike it's actually really fun. When I stop at the traffic lights and take a quick look at what my fingers have pulled out of my neck hair, I feel a little sorry for the medium-sized red snail. I carefully place it in the grass on the grass verge next to the carriageway. I wish it good luck. And I decide to look on the internet for a pair of mudguards to keep my head clear of everything the tyres throw up as they rotate.
Lesson learnt, you could say. But now the real work begins: because not all mudguards are the same. A fixed mudguard needs more space in the right places than a mudguard that is simply attached to bolted-on brackets. But which one is best at keeping out splash water and damp mud? And: Where should I screw on a mudguard for the rear wheel if there is a suitable hole for a bolt vertically in the crossbar between the seat stays, but the mounting bracket would need a horizontal hole? There is neither a thread nor a hole on the bottom bracket. How is the mudguard supposed to fit there? Isn't the fork a bit tight over the wide front tyre?
The aftermarket for mudguards is large
Everything from branded products to nameless Far East imports can be found online. The prices are affordable and are usually less than 50 euros for a pair of plastic crash barriers, matching struts and mounting parts.
Online research cannot give me a reliable answer as to what really fits my particular bike and can be reliably attached. Frame and tube shapes and dimensions are too different for manufacturers to be able to make reliable statements about the fit of their plates.
The mudguards for retrofitting in the test
>> You will find 10 tips on how to fit mudguards correctly here
You can download the complete comparison test of the mudguards, including all individual assessments, as a PDF below the article. The test costs 1.99 euros.
Why not free of charge? Because quality journalism has a price. In return, we guarantee independence and objectivity. This applies in particular to the tests in MYBIKE. We don't charge for them, but the opposite is the case: we do charge for them - hundreds of thousands of euros every year.
