SKS Race Blade - Problems?

ROK ON

Hi.

I have a set of race blades on both road bikes.

Back blade fits very nicely indeed, but front blade wont fit (the arms are too small to reach the front forks, and clear the wheel). I use a standard wheel (700*23).

I recall that the Taxman had a similar issue. Does anyone else have an issue in trying to fit front blade. Bike models are Orbea and Dolan FWIW.

I guess this comes down to the geometry of front fork design. But I simply assumed that the design of my bikes was standard enough, and that a generic product (eg Raceblade) should fit no bother.

What solution would people suggest. For the moment I am just using the back blade. I never really minded not having a front mudguard, but on the very very wet days (eg y'day) the overshoes get drenched due to the excessive amount of spray from the front wheel.

Preferrably I would prefer not to buy a new set of mudguars just in order to fit a front one.

blorg

Are you using the Aero fork attachment? This makes it stick out a bit more. IIRC though the front won't fit on my Giant Bowery (I only ever use the rear on any of my bikes.)

niceonetom

I put a front race blade on my fixie only yesterday. I was both ashamed and very slightly dryer.

It was a bit of a struggle though. I had bend the wire arms a bit to clear the tyre and slide the mudguard through the plastic holder thingies so the front of the mud guards didn't foul the back of the fork behind the crown. Sliding the clips closer together seems to effectively lengthen the reach of the mudguard from the fork.

ROK I'm pretty sure they can be made to fit all but the most eccentric of frames (I wouldn't fancy trying to get them on a Pinerello Prince for instance, though I'd be well motivated by the knowledge of how much it would annoy some here), just don't be afraid to give em a bit of a bend and/or move the clips along the guard.

Alternatively you could always HTFU.

ROK ON

niceonetom wrote: »

It was a bit of a struggle though. I had bend the wire arms a bit to clear the tyre and slide the mudguard through the plastic holder thingies so the front of the mud guards didn't foul the back of the fork behind the crown. Sliding the clips closer together seems to effectively lengthen the reach of the mudguard from the fork.

ROK I'm pretty sure they can be made to fit all but the most eccentric of frames (I wouldn't fancy trying to get them on a Pinerello Prince for instance, though I'd be well motivated by the knowledge of how much it would annoy some here), just don't be afraid to give em a bit of a bend and/or move the clips along the guard.

Alternatively you could always HTFU.

It seems like a design flaw then. I will try bending the wire arms.

@ Blorg - What is an Aero fork attachement.
I am just using the arms and cable ties that came with the blades. The ones that I have are designed for 700*23 wheels.

LastGasp

ROK ON wrote: »

It seems like a design flaw then. I will try bending the wire arms.

@ Blorg - What is an Aero fork attachement.
I am just using the arms and cable ties that came with the blades. The ones that I have are designed for 700*23 wheels.

They should have come with small rubber inserts for Aero Forks. Mine did anyway. Not sure how much difference it makes though. Just a slightly better fit to the surface of the fork.

rottenhat

ROK ON wrote: »

It seems like a design flaw then. I will try bending the wire arms.

Up to a point, Lord Copper. Fitting any kind of mudguards, even to bikes that are intended to take them, tends to involve a certain amount of bending and hacking around and at this point the attachments tend to be made of pretty soft metal to allow you to do just that. Modern road frames are not intended to take mudguards so it's not going to be an easy job to design an attachment system that's going to work in a trouble-free way for all frames.

I will refrain from going on at length about how stupid it is that the overwhelming majority of road bikes are built without taking the likely desirability of fitting mudguards, but this is what happens when road bikes are sold as a piece of sports/hobby kit instead of as a mode of transport.

ray o

I can just about get the front guard to work on my Giant OCR2. Seems like i'm always adjusting them but thats just becuse i'm always taking them off and then rushing to get them back in the morning if its raining. I did take a bit of time over tit last night and I think I have it right. Like niceonetom says, don't be afraid to slide the clips up and down the guard.

blorg

rottenhat wrote: »

I will refrain from going on at length about how stupid it is that the overwhelming majority of road bikes are built without taking the likely desirability of fitting mudguards, but this is what happens when road bikes are sold as a piece of sports/hobby kit instead of as a mode of transport.

Eh, what is a road bike if not a piece of sports/hobby kit. I have (several) different types of bike for a "mode of transport" (commuter, tourer, etc.) and incidentally they all have traditional full length mudguards (SKS Chromoplastics.) Incidentally despite having proper mudguards on other bikes I still think Race Blades are pretty good.

At the end of the day for a day ride on a non wet day where you don't need to carry luggage (and most days are not wet) the lightweight twitchy road bike is just plain more fun to ride than the others...

lafors

ROK I've had the exact same problem, the front guard wouldn't fit.
There were no aero adapters (small bits that go over the regular conection) see here...

They don't come with the blades anymore, when I bought them their site still had them as part of the kit so I emailed and complained and they sent them to me free.
In the end they didn't help either. I made the mistake of listening to some here who had fitted them by bending the metal frame of the guard, which didn't work and now I can't send them back.

So don't bend them and send them back, get something else, I'm using crud roadracer's now, working great so far.

rottenhat

blorg wrote: »

Eh, what is a road bike if not a piece of sports/hobby kit. I have (several) different types of bike for a "mode of transport" (commuter, tourer, etc.) and incidentally they all have traditional full length mudguards (SKS Chromoplastics.) Incidentally despite having proper mudguards on other bikes I still think Race Blades are pretty good.

At the end of the day for a day ride on a non wet day where you don't need to carry luggage (and most days are not wet) the lightweight twitchy road bike is just plain more fun to ride than the others...

Not everyone has multiple bikes, and not everyone is happy to carry everything they might need for a day ride in their jersey pockets. Contemporary road bikes are largely modelled on race bikes to the point of detracting from their utility as a mode of transport. I don't ride a bike solely as a hobby, I don't race, I do use the same bike to get to and from work as I do for weekend rides or audaxes. I suspect that a lot of other people do too. It does not take much to give the option of running standard mudguards or tyres wider than 25mm - it's largely a matter of building the fork around a longer-reach brake. Are you going to claim that there is a noticeable performance loss in using a long-reach caliper instead of short reach?

I'm not knocking Race Blades. They provide reasonable coverage, are easy to remove or replace, and allow you to put mudguards on bikes that couldn't otherwise take them - what's not to like?

uberwolf

considering a pair of these for my ten year old 5500, save me buying a winter training bike I can't really afford.

Do they work as well as proper mudguards?
Will they fit a 5500, from what you've seen?

Vélo

I actually bought a pair of these a few months ago and didn't try the front blade as I was told they don't go on the langster. I gave it a go yesterday evening and it fitted fine. I had to slide the mudguard back from the arms (Not sure of the correct terminology) and do a it of fiddling around with it and it just fit. I didn't cycle today so I can't say how effective it is but it seems like it'll be fine.

Lumen

rottenhat wrote: »

Not everyone has multiple bikes, and not everyone is happy to carry everything they might need for a day ride in their jersey pockets. Contemporary road bikes are largely modelled on race bikes to the point of detracting from their utility as a mode of transport. I don't ride a bike solely as a hobby, I don't race, I do use the same bike to get to and from work as I do for weekend rides or audaxes. I suspect that a lot of other people do too. It does not take much to give the option of running standard mudguards or tyres wider than 25mm - it's largely a matter of building the fork around a longer-reach brake. Are you going to claim that there is a noticeable performance loss in using a long-reach caliper instead of short reach?

Dear Sir, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

The only slight dent in your otherwise flawless argument (apparently directed at the bicycle industry) is that there exist plenty of road bikes with clearance and eyelets for mudguards, at several price points, and yet not many people buy them.

blorg

uberwolf wrote: »

Do they work as well as proper mudguards?

No, but they will work adequately. I have several bikes with full length guards (e.g. I have a point of comparison) but even when specifically buying a winter bike I didn't bother getting one that would take full length mudguards as I feel the Race Blades do a good enough job.

The main compromises are:

- they don't go far back enough to provide full protection to a rider behind you. This is probably the #1. Better than nothing but not half as good as a full length mudguard. Rider behind will be getting spray in the face. To a certain extent this is the problem of the rider behind you as most clubs these days have dropped full mudguard rules. If everyone else was doing it I would certainly use full length on winter spins in the interest of fairness but they are not, so I accept spray in the face as part of the winter club run package.

- they don't go under the brake bridge and thus you get a fair amount of crud thrown up into the brake calipers and the front derailleur. Doesn't massively bother me.

- other than that you probably get marginally more water/muck on you, particularly on your feet. Pretty much nothing from the back though and in fact the feet thing may be just because I don't really use one much on the front, just wear overshoes.

Will they fit a 5500, from what you've seen?

Yes, I am pretty sure they fit my 5000 when I had that and I know plenty of other people with them on Treks.

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

Dear Sir, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Get away from him, you completely fail on the first clause. "Not everyone has multiple bikes..."

I have said plenty of times that IF I could only have ONE bike it would be a light audax bike with rack and mudguard fittings. So I appreciate the utility.

Thankfully I am not in that horrible world where I can only have one bike.