Depending where you are in the world, the moist season is nearing ... (or ending....)
If you have a fixed rear triangle bike, mudguard options are normally fairly easy. You can mount on the seat stays, make sure it extends down to the chain stays, everything's moving in unison and your bearings/motor aren't full of crap. (used to me a problem on the gen1 Kenevo as there was a nice hole to funnel all the mud into the motor there..)
What fits ?
Muckynutz :
It's not too bad and you might get away with it. Though crap normally gets drawn away from the bottom lip towards the bearings. Keep in mind that with sag and then travel, the bottom of the guard rises further away from the bottom linkage. The Mudhugger short sits pretty similarly.
You can mount it upside down, but because the rear triangle isn't fixed, it rubs against the chainstays with suspension movement and it doesn't catch most of the top fling when upside down.
Ideally at this point, you just buy a two part guard like the Sicom two part. Unfortunately, this doesn't fit.
Just for reference, the mudhugger long also fits, but you'd want to combine it with another guard or all the crap will funnel down to your linkages.
Yes, it's really ugly, but it does work if you're in the slop ! (Though if you ride in the really rough stuff it gets slightly annoying as it slaps the tyre - I think they braced this more with newer versions) :
On the Kenevo I just run two guards with the lower one being a custom guard. This stays on all year as you don't really notice it, it doesn't get in the way and it stops most crap getting in the lower bearings.
Sometimes you can use two other guards together, but it will depend on the bike. The mudhugger short, for instance, is slightly too wide to fit in between the chainstays :
Instead, it's easier to just make a lower funnel guard which stops a lot of crap on it's own and stop's 100% of the crap if you have an upper guard. It takes 10 minutes to make and possibly costs nothing.
Ideally, you start with one of those clip on under saddle flexy guards. I couldn't find one sitting around, so used a shorter fork one. The saddle ones are better as they're longer so catch more crap when they're installed on their own.
If you've got a plastic document folder or similar, it's the same plastic and works just as well .
Step 1 : (this is the most important step. Prepare creativity fuel. Remember, anyone not undertaking the project can also perform Step 1 and feel a sense of involvement and achievement ...)
Step 2 : Get the scissors and cut up your guard. With the seat one, because it's longer, this cut would have worked fine. In this case I needed to trim the sides slightly afterwards as the curve induced by mounting wasn't sufficient and it was closer to the chain than I'd like. For the Mythique, I drilled two additional holes (a round hole won't tear like a cut) 6cm's higher than the two existing holes (Measure the height of the brace bar between the chainstays).
You also need two 20cm zip ties/tie wraps ..I also blacked out the SPANK.
Then when you mount your "upper guard" .. all the crap gets funnelled away :
Weights for weight weenies .... MuckyNutz (With straps) 80g. Mudhugger Short (without fixings) 75g. Cut down Spank fork guard 15g.
If you have a fixed rear triangle bike, mudguard options are normally fairly easy. You can mount on the seat stays, make sure it extends down to the chain stays, everything's moving in unison and your bearings/motor aren't full of crap. (used to me a problem on the gen1 Kenevo as there was a nice hole to funnel all the mud into the motor there..)
What fits ?
Muckynutz :
It's not too bad and you might get away with it. Though crap normally gets drawn away from the bottom lip towards the bearings. Keep in mind that with sag and then travel, the bottom of the guard rises further away from the bottom linkage. The Mudhugger short sits pretty similarly.
You can mount it upside down, but because the rear triangle isn't fixed, it rubs against the chainstays with suspension movement and it doesn't catch most of the top fling when upside down.
Ideally at this point, you just buy a two part guard like the Sicom two part. Unfortunately, this doesn't fit.
Just for reference, the mudhugger long also fits, but you'd want to combine it with another guard or all the crap will funnel down to your linkages.
Yes, it's really ugly, but it does work if you're in the slop ! (Though if you ride in the really rough stuff it gets slightly annoying as it slaps the tyre - I think they braced this more with newer versions) :
On the Kenevo I just run two guards with the lower one being a custom guard. This stays on all year as you don't really notice it, it doesn't get in the way and it stops most crap getting in the lower bearings.
Sometimes you can use two other guards together, but it will depend on the bike. The mudhugger short, for instance, is slightly too wide to fit in between the chainstays :
Instead, it's easier to just make a lower funnel guard which stops a lot of crap on it's own and stop's 100% of the crap if you have an upper guard. It takes 10 minutes to make and possibly costs nothing.
Ideally, you start with one of those clip on under saddle flexy guards. I couldn't find one sitting around, so used a shorter fork one. The saddle ones are better as they're longer so catch more crap when they're installed on their own.
If you've got a plastic document folder or similar, it's the same plastic and works just as well .
Step 1 : (this is the most important step. Prepare creativity fuel. Remember, anyone not undertaking the project can also perform Step 1 and feel a sense of involvement and achievement ...)
Step 2 : Get the scissors and cut up your guard. With the seat one, because it's longer, this cut would have worked fine. In this case I needed to trim the sides slightly afterwards as the curve induced by mounting wasn't sufficient and it was closer to the chain than I'd like. For the Mythique, I drilled two additional holes (a round hole won't tear like a cut) 6cm's higher than the two existing holes (Measure the height of the brace bar between the chainstays).
You also need two 20cm zip ties/tie wraps ..I also blacked out the SPANK.
Then when you mount your "upper guard" .. all the crap gets funnelled away :
Weights for weight weenies .... MuckyNutz (With straps) 80g. Mudhugger Short (without fixings) 75g. Cut down Spank fork guard 15g.
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