Mud Guards

Top Tip number 1.

I'm often asked by my less experienced friends for tips and ideas to help them with their cycling adventures. One of the features of this blog will be to offer these tips to anybody that can bothered to read it.

A couple of years ago I was riding with an Australian rider who had done enough cycling to come to Europe racing and do OK. He had managed this having only ridden in the rain four times and had not seen bikes with mudguards! Here in the UK and I guess elsewhere if your going to be a keen cyclist you going to be riding in the rain quite a lot. If you do this on a race bike of a race bike 'look alike' the wheels are going to throw dirty water contaminated with whatever is on the road all over you. Depending on where you ride this could include, animal shit, diesel and asbestos from car brakes amongst any number of other less savoury things.

Here in the UK most experienced club riders will have a bike built up for riding in wet and dirty conditions. So todays top tip is have a bike that you can ride in the rain without all the filth and water off the road spraying over you every time it rains. It won't keep you dry but it will keep you a lot cleaner and if the weather is really bad can make quite a difference in stopping you getting to cold. Having mudguards has the added benefit of reducing the filth thrown over anybody following you and is a requirement in many clubs for riding in the rain/winter.

If your bike frame is designed to have mudguards fitted, you can fit mudguards. They will stay put and work well. From what I've seen most of the mudguards designed for 'race' frames are rubbish. They rattle lose and offer much less protection for both you and the expensive components on your bike.

So, if your looking to get a all purpose bike and you'll be riding in the rain make sure the bike has or can have 'proper' mudguards fitted.

Cycling jargon buster
Look alike bike, a bike that is made to look like a real racing bike. Buyer beware but it is fair to say that these have got  lot better in recent years.


Winter Bike, a bike that is set up for winter use. Traditionally these have often been put together using old parts that the owner is less concerned about looking after and often called a hack bike.