My relationship with mudguards is tumultuous, they have saved and ruined bike rides in equal measure.

The best mudguards/fenders for gravel bikes are well-fitted and sturdily made. They reduce wheel spray for you, as well as preventing grit (and worse) from getting into your eyes and mouth. Mudguards will also protect your back and feet from the worst of the wet and muddy stuff on a ride and extend the life of your kit by reducing contact with grit-degrading debris.

The flipside, however, couldn't be worse: mudguards that rub tyres no matter how much adjusting is done, create a front-wheel trip hazard when undertaking more technical sections, and actually damage paintwork or frame materials from abrasion friction.

Testing a pair of Zéfal Shield G50 gravel bike-specific mudguards on the Fara F/Gravel in mid-winter felt like a game of roulette on wheels.

Construction

Designed specifically for gravel bikes, the plastic (Technopolymer) front and rear Zéfal Shield G50 mudguards are, according to the brand, suitable for 650B/28"/700C tyres. To ensure the best fit for your size wheels, the guards have adjustable lengths, with three mud flaps of 20, 60 and 120 mm lengths to choose from.

Measuring 55mm wide, Zéfal say the Shield G50 mudguard is capable of providing coverage for tyre widths of up to 48mm, which will fit all bar the largest of gravel bike tyres.

Two robust stays secure each guard in place. These stays connect via adjustable herth joints to rubber pads, similar to old-fashioned brakes. They are fastened to the bike's rear seat stays and front forks using a silicone-coated hook-and-eye MD-strap. According to Zéfal, these straps should fit tube diameters of 10 to 55 mm at the front (210 mm long) and 10 to 32 mm at the rear (130 mm long).

Compared to the slender stays on other clip-on brands, such as the SKS Speedrocker fenders these look positively industrial and would not be out of place on a suspension bridge.

This simplistic design does mean the guards are rather chunky in size, the front measuring 461 x 54 x 210 mm(L/W/H) and the rear 660 x 54 x 210 mm (L/W/H), with the 120mm mudflap on. The weight tips the scales at 195g for the front and rear 250g (with mud flap 120 mm).

Fitting

When it comes to fitting mudguards, I generally adopt an 'expect the worst and hope for the best' approach. So, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how easy it was to fit the Zéfal version. Using just a small cross-head screwdriver and a 5mm Allen key, the fitting took less than 30 minutes.

It would have taken 20 minutes had I been able to locate the tiny screwdriver required to change the adjustable flap size, please note - it's not part of an average bike tool kit set up.

The robust design means minimal twisting out of shape, making fitting on one side and then the other a breeze. My hesitations about pairing the pad shape with the tubing shapes on the Fara F/Gravel seemed unfounded. While not exactly glove-like, they felt very firm once secured with the straps.

Once that was done, the guards were angled and the herth joint tightened to secure them in place. Thanks to its gear-like construction, the joint stayed in place while I tightened it, making the Sheild G50's the quickest, easiest, and neatest mudguard fitting experience I've ever had.

The Ride

No matter how easy it is to fit a pair of mudguards, the real test is whether they stay put once on.

I was pleased not to hear any evident rattle of rub on the maiden voyage, but that was just a quick road loop to preempt the usual fender faff re-fit requirement of first rides.

So far, so good, but riding on relatively smooth road surfaces compared to the off-road terrain of UK-style gravel was going to be a big ask for any mudguard, especially a clip-on.

Next up, I started to venture onto more adventurous surfaces. On cinder trails and more benign off-road rides, they again proved rock solid.

The mudguards proved to do a great job at deflecting the muck and spray front and back, as well as a semi-decent job of protecting the bike, although if you really want full seat tube and drivetrain protection you'll need to look in the direction of something like the Portland Design Works Full Metal fenders.

Confidence growing, I braved a truly epic off-road adventure to really put the Shield G50's to the test on some more gnarly Peak District (UK) terrain, when my daughter and I decided to take on the well-known 'Pike'.

A mother and child on drop bar bikes hauling their way up an increasingly technical climb isn't something most hikers, bikers - and, in one instance, a farmer - witness too often. All had forewarned us about how challenging it was up ahead, and questioned if we really were on the proper bikes to tackle such terrain.

Undeterred we pressed on. While some of the more challenging sections saw us adopt a hike-a-bike approach, I was so surprised at how well and far I was able to get. The shorter style of mudguard at the front voided the risk of foot overlap, vital on these front wheel twitching sections.

On the faster sections, I wasn't even aware of their impeding progress, perhaps the fastest riders out there would perceive a slowing of speed due to their drag, but mudguards are designed for comfort. If going fast is always your aim, then you might find something like the Ass Savers' Mudder Mini fender is probably the best option for you.

The proverbial elephant in the room, however, is a mudguard spray etiquette for other riders. As with all clip-on guards, their short design will mean that a rider behind will likely be worse off for sitting on your wheel. But bear in mind these are specifically for gravel use, where wheel sucking is more the exception than the rule.

Value and Conclusion

I must admit, I initially judged the Zéfal Shield G50 mudguards by looks when they landed with me. They aren't the most alluring pair of guards on the market, but when have mudguards ever been particularly attractive? I'd personally forgo looks over ability and performance any day of the week.

The only thing that makes them ick for me is their impact on the rider behind, and I'd struggle to use them on a group ride. Other than that, they are top-notch.

Easy to fit, true staying power and doing an excellent job of rider protection for the reasonable price tag of £40/$59.00 for the set.

Based on the road Shield R35s, the Shield G50s are a gravel-specific fender / mudguard offering from accessory experts Zefal. They're designed to fit wheel diameters from 650b to 700mm and tire widths of up to 50mm which should deal with all your gravel-tire needs. 

We took them out for a spin to see how they compared to the rest of the best fenders / mudguards for gravel bikes. 

Zefal Shield G50: Construction

The Zefal Shield G50s are a sturdy thick guard made from ‘technopolyer resin’, i.e. strong plastic. This makes them a bit on the heavier side than some at around 500g for the set. They’re fairly broad meaning they can take 650b and 700cc tires up to 50mm wide which is useful for those who like to run porky tires on their gravel bikes.

Zefal Shield G50: fitting

My first impression of the Shields was that they’d be easy to fit as the design appears really simple. Oh, how wrong I was. An hour and a half later with the help of my long-suffering assistant I was finally done. Without boring with all the details, here’s the run down...

The guards attach using Zefal’s MD-Fix fastening which is best described as a giant zip-tie that slots into a housing on the guard and attaches with a bolt. But it’s incredibly awkward to size up and slot together whilst holding the guard at the same time. This is made more difficult as, at this point, you don’t know exactly where on your stays / fork the guard will fit so you’re not sizing to an exact point. The most awkward part of this is cutting and wrapping the protective rubber strips that sit underneath, particularly on the narrow seatstays for the rear guard fitting. After several attempts I shunned this approach and went for one of my go-to bike protectors, a trimmed length of old inner tube. Finally with everything in position you need one set of hands to hold it together and another on the hex key to tighten up.

Once the guards were finally fitted I then had to drop out the rear wheel and swap over the extension piece that sits at the top of the guard (there are three lengths to choose from). Like the fastenings, it’s difficult to size this up as you go as you don’t know exactly where the guard will sit until it’s on. Annoyingly the extension piece is attached with a tiny little screw which is on the inside of the guard (and so subject to the full force of the wet and dirt off the tire).

Zefal Shield G50: The ride

Once fitted the Shield G50s do their job simply and well. On the trails they were absolutely fuss free, not a single rattle or chafe on the tire, even when riding some wholly inappropriate trails on a gravel bike. Having just swapped over from riding with the SKS Speedrockers I’d assumed that I’d get less protection from the Shield given they’re quite a bit shorter ( the rear of the G50s is 560mm, and the front is 460mm). I was pleasantly surprised how little spray made its way past, even when travelling reasonably fast on puddle-strewn roads. The ability to get the guard nice and close to the tire will have helped this and off-set some of the disadvantage of the short(-ish) guard.

With a bit of a tweak in positioning they did a good job with my chunkier 650b tires too, easily accommodating the 2.1” diameter.

The only real downside of the guards was those pesky fittings which do their best at collecting a load of muck and are awkward to get clean.

Zefal Shield G50: value and conclusion

At $43 / £35 for the set, the Zefal Shield G50s are one of the cheapest of sets of guards we’ve had on test. In fact, they’re about 60% of the price of the SKS Speedrockers ($75 / £52) and Mudhugger Gravelhuggers ($68 / £48 for set).

Design, coverage and tire volume size the Zefals are most closely matched to Mudhugger’s Gravelhuggers. As a direct comparison the Mudhuggers are far easier to fit, remove and clean but are more expensive and don’t sit as snuggly to the tire so there’s more spray, particularly on the rear.

The Zefal Shield G50s are an effective set of sturdy fenders / mudguards for your gravel bikes that can accommodate big volume tires as well as slicker rubber. They’re a bit on the heavy side and a pain to fit but when you take into account their price, there’s really not much to grumble about.

Zefal Shield G50: specs

• Weight 226 g + 248 g (with mud flap 20 mm)
• Wheel Ø 650b / 700c / 28''
• Max. tire width recommended 50 mm
• Rear fender dimensions (L x W x H) 560 (with mud flap 220mm) x 54 x 210 mm
• Front fender dimensions (L x W x H) 461 x 54 x 210 mm

The Speedrockers are just one of a dizzing array of guards produced by the German fender experts SKS. 

They are full-ish guards designed for gravel and CX bikes with room for disc brakes and have a bolt-free fixing using a two / three points with stays for additional stability. 

We took them on some winter adventures to see how they measured up against our other best fenders / mudguards for gravel bikes.

SKS Speedrocker: Construction and fitting

The Speedrockers are plastic with aluminium (black) stays and rubber and Velcro fixings. They fit 27.5” and 700c tires but only up to 1.65” / 40c width so won’t suit those monster-cross style tires.

Fitting these guards is one of those jobs that takes you far longer than you feel it should, over an hour in my case. In fairness it was only the first fitting that took quite that long, but I’ve still not found a way to stop the rubberised U-shaped mounting inlay pieces jumping across the shed to play hide and seek as I try and cinch up the straps.

The rear guard is actually quite straightforward; it’s just the measuring and trimming of the stays that takes time. After that you just need to pull the snug rubberised strips round the mounting clips whilst making sure those inlays don’t make a bid for freedom. There’s also a Velcro strap to your seat tube and the option to remove a short piece of the guard if it fouls your frame.

The front guard is far more fiddly as it sits in two pieces which are awkward to align and uses Velcro straps which don’t tighten and grip in the same way that the ones on the rear guard do. Even adjusting the hinges I couldn’t get the front section of the guard to sit neatly over my tire and there was quite a gap between the fork crown and the guard as the bracket on the fork sits quite proud.  

The two-part front guard strikes me as a curious arrangement; the guards are disc specific, so the gap isn’t to allow room for a brake - meaning that I can’t really see the purpose, given there’s pretty much always room to run a guard over your tire and through your forks.

SKS Speedrocker: The ride

There’s no doubt the SKS Speedrockers give good coverage. Whilst you might not believe it from the photos, I came home from this particularly filthy winter ride remarkably clean which is far more than can be said for my riding mates. But, this coverage is far from perfect, there’s a whole lot of muck that hits the front of you and your bike through the gap in the front fender. 

Secondly, to clean this lot effectively, you need to completely remove, and therefore, refit the guards. There are just so many places for the muck to go and potentially wear your frame and damage the guards too. A simpler mounting system – such as that on the SKS Raceblade Pro XL Stealth Series or using frame mounts if you have them – would avoid this problem. At least the rear guard mounts are much easier to clean than the front Velco’d ones.

On the subject of the front Velcro fixing, not only does it get dirty and is awkward to clean, it doesn’t do a very good job either. Even when I’ve tightened it as much as I can manage the guard gradually slips down the fork until it scuffs on the tire. There must be a reason that SKS use a different fixing on the front than the rear (which is used on many other SKS guards, too), I’m just not sure what it is.

Other than the slipping front guard, the Speedrockers were pretty stable with the additional fixing from the stays stopping any untoward flapping around.

SKS Speedrocker: Value and conclusion

At $75 / £52 the Speedrockers are priced similarly to the majority of other gravel fenders / mudguards that are currently available, such as the Mudhugger Gravelhuggers ($68 / £48 for set) and SKS Raceblade Pros $75 / £50.

The SKS Speedrockers should appeal to riders who want a full and stable guard on their gravel / winter bike but don’t have the mounts to run a traditional bolted set. However, the two-piece front fender and crude design of the mounting arrangements isn’t as stable and effective as it could be. It also results in a set of guards with so many nooks and crannies to collect mud that the effort of cleaning them seems greater than going without and just washing your kit and bike.

SKS Speedrocker: specs

• Material: Plastic
• Colour: Black
• Weight: 408 g
• Wheel size:  27.5" (650b)", 28 "
• Tire width in inches: 0.9"-1.65"
• Tire width in mm: 23-42 mm
• Length front fender: 500+210 mm
• Length rear fender: 950 mm

If you’re fed up with persistently wet roads and your almost-new Ass Saver has just dropped off somewhere on your last ride never to be found again, it might be time to go for a set of full coverage fenders / mudguards.

The best bike fenders / mudguards tend to be bolt-on options which require that your bike has mounting points. Increasingly, bike makers have recognised that riders want the option to fit fenders / mudguards and have added mounting points to frames. They’re often removable, to avoid ruining the aesthetics of the best road bikes. Modern frames have more clearance for fenders / mudguards too, which helps to avoid that irritating rubbing on your tires.

But what do you do if you don’t have fender / mudguard mounts and still like to come back from your rides without a wet bum? That’s where the LifeLine Narrow Road Clip-Ons come in. They attach to any frame, provide a good level of coverage and are easy to fit and adjust.

LifeLine Narrow Road Clip-On Fenders / Mudguards: construction

Although they’re not as long as most full coverage fenders / mudguards, the rear fender goes from the brake bridge (if you’re still on rim brakes) and extends far enough to the rear to stop your ride buddies getting a soaking.

At the front, coverage is a bit more limited and you’re likely to get wheelspray in your face on a faster wet ride, as the fenders / mudguards don’t protrude in front of the bike’s head tube. Your feet aren’t as protected as with a full length fender / mudguard with a mudflap either, but there’s enough coverage between those two points to help keep you and your bike drier and less grit-spattered.

The advantage of the slightly shorter design is that the fenders / mudguards don’t have to fit through any pinch points between the frame and the tires. Even on a rim brake Cannondale designed for 23mm tires but with a set of 28s now squeezed in, there was no issue with fitting or clearance.

And fitting is dead easy. The guards come with robust stays that, as their name says, stay in place. They’re adjustable via quality corrosion-resistant stainless steel bolts at their far ends.

Mounting to the frame couldn’t be simpler. There are extended rubber sections that are attached to the fenders' / mudguards’ stays and fit over the forks and the seat stays. There’s a second rubber piece that fits over the other side of the stay and has four hooks on it. It’s just a matter of hooking the robust, stretchy rubber bands firmly between the sets of hooks on the two sides to secure the fenders / mudguards in place. Because they attach well up the stays, they’ll work with disc brake bikes as well as with rim brakes.

LifeLine Narrow Road Clip-On Fenders / Mudguards: the ride

Rubbing fenders / mudguards are the downside of keeping drier in the winter. Some clip-on designs are almost impossible to stop rubbing for more than a few kilometres at a time. I’ve used Crud Mk3 Roadracers and found them to be particularly prone to this. The LifeLine Narrow Road Clip-Ons aren’t perfect in this respect, mainly because the rubber mounting points tend to settle and shift as you ride. 

I found that I had a few stops mid-ride to fiddle with them, as they began to rub as I rode. Adjustment meant pushing the mounts up and down the bike’s frame to even out their position, rather than the more usual having to bend the fender / mudguard stays or attack them with a spanner.

The LifeLine Clip-Ons did do a decent job of keeping me drier, with the bike needing less of a wash down once I got back, helping to save time with the darkness (and yet more rain) fast approaching on dreary winter days.

The other good news is that they’re also really quick to remove if you do decide to brave it on a day when the roads are dry, although you’ll probably be back to mid-ride fettling when you refit them.

LifeLine Narrow Road Clip-On Fenders / Mudguards: value and conclusion

Compared to most fenders / mudguards out there, except for Ass Saver-like options, the LifeLine Narrow Road Clip-Ons ($23.99 / £19.99) are great value, coming in cheaper than other clip-on options, including the Crud Mk3 Roadracers ($43.99 / £39.99) and Flinger Race Pro fenders / mudguards ($75.89 / £54.99).

They're also around a fifth of the price of many deluxe bolt-on options like the Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders which cost $129 / £100. Despite this, they seem robust and well made and should serve for several winters.

LifeLine's Clip-On option is not much more expensive than a pair of front and rear Ass Savers and should stand a lot better chance of staying with you too.

Back in 2011 Ass Saver launched its first ever product. The eponymous and self-descriptive guard is discrete and lightweight and provides just enough protection to keep the worst of the road spray off your bum.

Nowadays Ass Savers' product range is much larger but still based on the same principles of keeping guards as minimal as possible whilst providing just enough protection to keep riding through the worst of the weather. 

Here we have a look at the tiny Mudder Mini front guard. We've also reviewed Ass Savers' Fendor Bendor Big rear gravel guard as part of our best mudguards for gravel bikes buying guide.

Ass Savers Mudder Mini: construction

The Mudder Mini adopts a similar design that is seen on many a mountain bike. It’s a small piece of polyprolene that follows the arch of your forks and is held in place by a couple of rubberised Velcro straps. The guard only measures 90mm in length and weighs a tiny 22g.

For something so small you’re never going to get much protection from the Mudder Mini. But that’s not its point, it’s designed to keep the worse of the spray off your lower headset bearing and face too.

Ass Savers Mudder Mini: fitting

Fitting is really straight forward. There’s a little folding to do which gives the Mudder its strength and all the fold lines are pre-scored which makes the task quick and easy. Then it’s a case of positioning just above your tyre and fastening with the Velcro straps. It takes up little room so you shouldn’t have any problems getting it in between your tyre and fork, Ass Saver suggest it fits tyres from 32 to 55mm and any gravel/cross fork.

Ass Savers Mudder Mini: The ride

The Mudder Mini is certainly small and neat, and the rubberised fixings have held it firmly in place on a variety of trails and speeds.  

The Mudder Mini has done the job it’s meant to: it’s reduced the amount of spray around my bottom headset bearing although – as you can see from the photos – there is plenty that made it past. It’s also not hugely good at protecting your face, as I’ve still had enough spray and splatter through to be wiping grit out my eyes.

I’m sure there’s a certain type of trail type and condition that this little amount of protection is adequate, but it feels like a rare one to me.

Ass Savers Mudder Mini: value and conclusion

At $13 / £12 the Mudder Mini is a good chunk cheaper than many other gravel guards and also has the advantage that you buy separately from the rear. Other individually available front gravel bike guards like the Mudderhugger Gravelhugger's are twice the money at $28 / £25 (albeit for much more protection).

The Mudder Mini is relatively cheap, incredibly light, easy to fit and unobtrusive. If you only want a tiny bit of protection on the front of your gravel bike then this is a great way to go. Personally I’m not sure a tiny bit of protection is worth it given all the parts of you and your bike that still get filthy.

Ass Savers Mudder Mini: specs

• Materials: polypropylene
• Weight: 22g (front)
• Tyre size: 32-55 mm

Back in 2011 Ass Saver launched its first ever product. The eponymous and self-descriptive guard is discrete, lightweight and provides just enough protection to keep the worst of the road spray from the back of your bum.

Over 10 years later Ass Saver’s product range still contains tiny guards, including the Mudder Mini front guard, but also much bigger ones too for those who prefer a whole lot more coverage. 

Here we review the gravel-orientated Fendor Bendor Big rear guard. For more options, check out our best mudguards for gravel bikes buying guide.

Fendor Bendor Big: Construction

The Fendor Bendor Big is one of Ass Saver’s largest guards, aimed at giving rear wheel cover for gravel and MTBs. Made from thin polypropylene and weighing just 60g it certainly keeps with Ass Saver's minimal theme. 

Fendor Bendor Big: Fitting

The Fendor Bendor Big arrives as a folded flat sheet which you pre-fold to give it its structure and strength. This design is really quite remarkable, turning a 50+cm piece of thin plastic into something that’s held up well whilst being bounced around on a range of trails. I found it a little tricky to fold around the curved folds and it wouldn’t quite go where it was supposed to – but ultimately it still fitted on fine.

A Velcro strap holds the guard in place around the seat tube, with the guard threaded between the seat stays above the bridge between – all nice and easy to do. Ass Saver even suggests that you carry it folded in your pocket until it rains given it’s so quick to fit.

I found the positioning of the Fendor Bendor problematic on the two bikes I tried to fit it to. Firstly, it’s not compatible with monostay frames or centre pull brakes so that ruled my Rondo Ruut out.  

The second bike was a large Kenesis ATR on which has a more traditional frame design which the Fendor Bendor Big is designed to fit. However, even on the large frame the space between the stays was smaller than the width of the guard which meant it was a bit squeezed through. This caused the guard to be a bit narrower than the tyre at this point as well as giving it a bit of a twist. 

The other issue with mounting in this position is that modern do-it-all road / adventure / gravel bikes like the ATR are designed to take large tyres, the seat stay bridge sits relatively high. In turn this leaves a much larger gap between the guard and the wheel and lots of chance for the spray to escape.

Fendor Bendor Big: The ride

Once I did get it fitted, the guard has done a reasonable job of keeping the spray off my seat post and back, although it's no-way as effective as other best mudguards for gravel bikes we’ve tested.

Given the guard has been covered in filth, it obviously provides quite a bit of protection. But there is also quite a lot that misses and ends up on your back. This is most likely to be because of the substantial gap between tyre and guard (Ass Saver recommend fitting as close to the tyre as possible for the best effect). 

Even on my monostay Rondo, where the guard practically sat on the back tyre, there was a reasonable amount of break-through splatter suggesting it’s not just about the positioning.

Due to its shape there's virtually no coverage of any rearward propelling spray, so it's not one to use if you like your riding mates sitting on your wheel.

Given its lightweight design, it's incredibly stable and I didn't note any flapping around or instability with the guard.  

Fendor Bendor Big: Value and conclusion

At $16 / £14 the Fendor Bendor is around half the price of other rear guards you can buy separately from the front, like the Mudhugger Gravelhugger. On price at least, it’s the best we’ve seen.

If it fits your bike and you’re happy to eschew a little coverage for weight saving and being able to carry it in your pocket until you want it, then Fendor Bendor Big rear guard is for you. But if you’re looking for fuller and reliable protection from the spray, then you’d be best going elsewhere.

Fendor Bendor Big: Specifications

• Materials: polypropylene
• Weight: 60g (rear)
• Tyre size: 32-55 mm

In the last few years the guys at Mudhugger have achieved something never thought to be possible; they’ve develop a mountain bike fender / mudguard that protects the bike and rider and is stable on rough terrain. And if that wasn’t enough, they’ve even managed to make the fender an acceptable piece of kit on to run on an MTB – they've even featured in downhill World Cup races.

Can Mudhugger transfer this effectiveness and credibility into the world of gravel? We set out to see how the front and rear Gravelhuggers fared against the winter muck and the other best mudguards or fenders for gravel bikes.

Mudhugger Gravelhuggers: construction

The Gravelhuggers are single-piece mid-length fenders / guards made from 100% recycled (and recycled) moulded polypropylene. Both front and rear fenders / guards are designed for tyres up to 50mm / 2” wide.

Mudhugger Gravelhuggers: fitting

Both fenders / guards are really quick and easy to fit without a single fiddly bolt or hacksaw in site.  

The front fender / guard fits to your fork by o-rings wrapped round your fork leg which attach to hooks on the guard. A couple of different size rings are included to account for different fork leg shapes.  

The rear attaches to your seat stays by the yoke of the frame using zip-ties or small Velcro straps which are sold separately. I’ve only used zip ties as I don’t regularly remove my fenders / guards so I’m less concerned about lots of unnecessary waste.

Mudhugger recommend you protect your frame with the supplied robust helitape –rather than rely on electrical tape – and regularly inspect for signs of wear to prevent damage to your frame. 

I shunned this advice first time I fitted the fenders / guards, as the curved and angled tubes of my frame and fork were going to make this a tricky job. I wanted to use electrical tape for ease until I knew I had the position of the fenders / guards correct. 

That electrical tape is now 12 months old and doesn’t show any sign of wear. It’s not that I’m recommending this as an approach, more it demonstrates how stable the fenders / guards are on the bike.

Mudhugger Gravelhugger: the ride

There are a couple of noticeable – or perhaps unnoticeable – things about the Gravelhuggers; they do a really good job of keeping the splatter at bay and they’re quiet, strong and stable.

The fenders / guards have easily kept the bulk of the wet, gritty splatter away from my face, backside and back, making washing after a winter spin a much less arduous affair than before. 

As they’re not full-length fenders / guards, you and your bike won’t come home completely dry and clean. You’ll certainly want to be wearing overshoes and your riding mate won’t want to sit on your rear wheel. For me, this is an acceptable balance for lots of tyre clearance, after all these are fenders / guards for a gravel bike not a winter roadster.

On the subject of tyre clearance, my usual wheel / tyre combo is Schwalbe G-One/Bite 40c on 700c Hunt rims swapping occasionally to American Classic 650b wheelset with Maxxis Ardent 2.1 tyres. The Gravelhuggers have had plenty of clearance for both combinations as well as the mud that I accrue on the chunkier tyres. 

As a mountain biker, I tend to ride lots of trails and in a manner that probably isn’t best suited to a gravel bike – in addition to more standard tracks and trails. Even down fast rocky descents that have split my tyres, the Gravelhuggers haven’t rattled, rubbed, snapped, cracked or broken and I haven’t had to reposition of fix any of the mountings. Unlike the full fenders I run on my road and commuter bikes, there’s no buzzing or vibrating either.

Looks aside, the Gravelhuggers are so innocuous it took me well into early summer to bother removing them.

Mudhugger Gravelhugger: value and conclusion

The Gravelhuggers are available separately at $28 / £23 for the rear and $30 / £25 for the front. As a set they’ll cost you a similar amount to the full length SKS Speedrocker ($60 / £52).

Your view of the sturdy and fuss-free Gravelhuggers is likely to depend on your background. If you come from a MTB stock or ride in particularly poor trail conditions you’ll appreciate the ability of the Gravelhugger to keep the most and worse of the crud off your face, bum and bike whilst being incredibly stable and having enough room for big tyres to turn. 

If you’re more of the winter road riding sort then you’ll likely bemoan the lack of coverage and the unnecessary amount of space for your 30mm slick gravel tyres. Personally, I think they’re great; anything that keeps the muck factor low but still allows plenty of misadventure does alright by me.

Mudhugger Gravelhuggers: spec

• Materials: 100% recycled polypropylene
• Fitting: O-rings (front), zip-ties or Velcro (rear)
• Max tyre width: 50mm
• Weight: 220g for set including fittings (as tested)

The Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders / Mudguards provide full-wrap coverage from rain and road spray for you and your riding buddies. 

The low set reflective mudflaps reduce spray further, even shielding your shoes. It comes with a variety of fixings to help bikes without eyelets as well as those set up for traditional fenders / mudguards. They come in an anodised matt black finish and looked really stealthy once fitted. 

Well built, stiff once on the bike and completely silent when riding, these are best bike fenders / mudguards that I've ever had the pleasure to fit or use.

Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders: construction

The Portland Design Works Full Metal fenders / mudguards are made from anodised aluminium and feature laser graphics on the rear and an embossed alloy head badge on the front fender. The size on test are 37mm wide and can accommodate up to 30mm tyres, although there are other sizes available. I used my Genesis Equilibrium frame which has eyelets and deep drop brake calipers already, along with 28mm tyres. The mudflaps are made from plastic and are reasonably flexible. They both have a large reflective panel too. 

About fitting PDW says that: "if time and patience are two things you are a bit short on, have your local bike shop do the installation" These are wise words in the world of fenders / mudguards. However these have to be the nicest installation of any mudguard that I have fitted ever! A really straightforward fit which, with their beautifully thought out instruction booklet, was a joy to do. I'm sure that the single legged stays and stiff mudguard helped in this respect. 

Probably the least easy aspect of the build was the fitting of the Omega shaped bracket that sits over the stay legs. There are two small bolts that need to go through the bracket, through the mudguard into a threaded plate, and trying to get both threads to catch was a bit fiddly. Once engaged it was easy.

I weighed the components thus:

Front: 110g

Rear: 171g

Fitting kit used: 165g

Left over parts not used: 55g

This made my setup 446g, which was 100g less that my previous M Parts fenders / mudguards.

Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders: the ride

Once fitted I was pleased with the stiffness of the setup, there was no wobble, and consequently no tyre rub. It was really easy to adjust the stays to sit close enough to the tyre, but still with room to stop rubbing. I also really liked the matt black anodised finish, I thought that this looked really stealth and understated. 

So, on to riding... Basically they didn't wobble and buzz the tyres, also they didn't make any noise apart from a small 'donk' when a particularly large drop in the road was hit. Coming out of the saddle on a hill and pushing hard by rocking the bike side to side is normally a test for a mudguard stiffness but again silent...

There is a little toe overlap (which is more due to the bike than the mudguard) but whereas before I would catch the stay end cap with my shoe, here I couldn't as the stay is higher up and curved around the 'guard. In slow speed manoeuvring I found that I wasn't catching the mudguard either. 

One downside, which is a result of the long mudflaps, is that you can't pop the bike onto it's rear wheel (and make it upright) to move the bike in tight spaces.

Tested in medium rain I couldn't see any overspray from the sides of the fenders / mudguards, only from the end tips as you'd expect. Obviously I did get wet but it was primarily from the rain, not the road spray. 

Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders: value and conclusion

$129 / £100 for a pair of fenders / mudguards is quite a lot, especially when you can get nice ones for almost half the price. The well-built Kinesis Fend-Off mudguards cost $65 / £60, for example, and also provide a rattle-free experience.

However Portland Design Works' Full Metal Fenders were the easiest to setup, looked great, were well made and, most importantly, provided excellent protection. 

Unless you like looking like you've ridden the Paris-Roubaix and ended up filthy or your riding buddies like a face full of spray then fenders / mudguards are a winter riders friend. They also keep a lot of the grime off your frame and components. Before buying any fenders / mudguards though be sure to check which type can be fitted to your bike. 

Mudguards can be a fiddle to fit, but the SKS Race Blade Pro Stealth mudguards are amongst the easiest to fit we have found.

The quality is very good, with these guards being much more substantial and sturdy than the Crud Road Racer clip on guards. They can move slightly if knocked, but are easily realigned and adjusted.

I love anything for an easy life and the SKS Raceblades are that – they don’t require eyelets on your frame and just strap to the stays with the inbuilt rubber straps.

If you are worried about hooligans stealing them while your bike is locked up, to secure them further there are also holes for optional cable ties.

 Video - How to winterise your bike...

Other mudguards, such as the ‘SKS Raceblade Long’ offer much greater coverage, extending further down the rear wheel, but these are a more minimalist guard for riders who are perhaps more performance orientated.

>>> Do you really need mudguards?

The difference is, the SKS Raceblade Pro Stealth provides decent spray protection to the rider of the bike they are fitted on, less so to the riders behind.

The front guard doesn't extend forwards of the fork/headtube either, meaning your head tube, bars and potentially you, can get covered in some spray.

The rear guard doesn’t extend past the brake bridge, meaning that these are a good option for bikes where clearance is an issue.

I have successfully fitted them to aero bikes with odd shape tube sections too (I am fully aware of how counter productive this is to aerodynamics, but it can be done!).

The downside to this is that they don’t protect your frame from splatter as effectively as a full guard.

The above picture shows the SKS Raceblade Pro Stealth guards in action on my bike and shows you how long they are in relation to the wheels. They have performed well and I can certainly recommend them.

Different widths are available, allowing you to get mudguards that will accommodate 32mm tyres. Other key details – the guards are compatible with disc brakes and can be adjusted to the radius of the tyre too.

Contact – www.zyrofisher.com

Sick of getting a wet bum when riding in the rain? Then the RRP Rearguard could be the perfect product for you, doing a good job of keeping your rear end protected from wheelspray.

>>> Seven tips to get your bike ready for winter

Of course, the best solution to keeping your bum dry one wet days out are full mudguards, which will also help to keep your bike a little cleaner too. However, if you’re bike doesn’t have enough clearance then you’re going to struggle to fit them. And then there’s the issue of aesthetics, with you maybe being reluctant to spoil the lovely clean lines of your shiny new aero bike with a load of plastic and zip ties.

>>> Do you really need mudguards?

So if full mudguards aren’t for you, then the RRP Rearguard provides a good solution. It can be slotted under almost any saddle (the obvious exception being the Selle Italia Monolink saddle), and installation takes only a couple of minutes.

Watch: How to winterise your bike

Just like the pretty similar Ass Saver, you slide the RRP Rearguard underneath the shell of the saddle, bending the plastic so that the grooves fit around the saddle rails. But unlike the Ass Saver, the RRP Rearguard has the added security of a Velcro strap, which means that you don’t get back at the end of a ride to discover that your mini-mudguard has fallen off mid-ride (something that I’ve experienced a number of times with the Ass Saver.

>>> Pro rider tips for winter cycling

The only slight issue I found was that the Velcro strap had to compete for space around the saddle rails with the straps of my saddle bag, making installation slightly more fiddly than with the Ass Saver, but is still a doddle compared full mudguards.

>>> Top tips to recharge your body and mind this winter

As an added bonus, because this is such a simple product, it is seriously cheap. Surely £8.99 is a price worth paying for a dry bum this winter.

For more details visit the Extra UK website.

I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that the Topeak Defender R1 mudguard has copied SKS’s Race Blade guards, but there are similarities.

Topeak is an innovative company, and its design has some neat features. Topeak’s front Defender R1 uses a clever system to attach inside the head of the brake calliper bolt, at the back of the fork, even if it is hidden. It’s simple and effective, providing a secure mounting.

At the rear there’s an R-clip that also attaches to the calliper bolt, to the same end: more stability. The result — rattle-free riding!

The rubber straps securing the stays work well; quick and easy to fit and they held firm in all conditions. So far I’ve not found a frame the Defender R1’s won’t fit, using 23C tyres. There should be ample clearance for 25Cs, but any bigger and you’ll need the R2 model which is wider. The stays have adjusters to fine-tune the angle, so you can position them just right.