Bought a set of Crud Roadracer mudguards last week, and they finally arrived today. They were intended for my Giant Bowery commuter which has no mudguard eyelets on the rear , and as I had to change the fork out, none on the front. The bike runs continental GP4000s road tyres and according to the sales patter should fit ok.

I sat down this morning and started to fit these new guards. The instructions were a bit short and non descriptive, but after 10minutes I got the idea and started to set them up. The front guard went on ok and gave a few millimeters clearance from the tyre. Then I had to stick on the brushes that stop the guard from chattering which was my first disappointment. You see, I was under the impression that the brushes only contacted the rim if the guard moved towards it. The truth is that they rub the rim constantly! What a pisser! Anyway, I can live with a slight but constant brushing sound.

I moved onto the rear were the trouble really began. Following the instructions, I setup the guard and tried to mount it to the bike. I set the mudguard stay mounting brackets down at the dropouts and secured them, only to find that the mounting stays were not long enough to reach the bracket! So i slid the bracket up the seat stays more and More until they reached. Trouble is, the mudguard stays are now pushing the back of the guard away from the bike, causing the flimsy mudguard to sag at the 12 o’clock position, bringing it into contact with the tyre. So I messed around with the setup for at least 3 hours and still it wont fit…  Bummer. So i am now asking myself, whats the point of a product that is designed fro winter riding, that doesn’t fit most riders winter tyre choice of 23c or 25c? I mean what use are they? Sigh…

I suppose I could send them back, but to be honest the amount of hassle involved with trying to persuade the seller that  “being completely shit” is a valid reason for return will just annoy me even more.

So I guess once again I am the lazy, peeved off victim of more crap engineering, bad design and blatant marketing lies about compatibility. And its that last point that sticks in my craw. If Crud had been honest and said, “wont fit slot dropouts” or “only 700 X 18c tyres” things wouldn’t be so bad, and i would have just bought something else. But to willingly say they will fit 700 X 23 tyres when quite clearly they are going to have some trouble doing so, is the kind of lies that puts customers off there future products.

To summarise, if you have slotted dropouts, 700 X 23 tyres, or any sense; buy race blades instead. Wish I had.