Bontrager NCS Fenders / Mudguards review – easy to fit and effective protection

Elegant mudguards made from tough polycarbonate with built-in mudflaps

Image shows Bontrager NCS Mudguards
(Image credit: John Stevenson)
Cycling Weekly Verdict

Stays with built in adjustability are the key feature of these mudguards - but they’re also tough, well-made and among the longest (and therefore most protective) you can get.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Easy to fit to most bikes

  • +

    Plenty of length to keep your feet and your riding companions dry

  • +

    Sensible price

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Mounting can be tricky on disc-brake bikes

  • -

    No breakaway brackets

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Bontrager NCS fenders/mudguards have a clever trick up their stays: instead of trimming them to make them fit your bike properly, you adjust the length of the stays by sliding the two parts up or down as necessary, using the built-in clamps to then lock them in place. 

The clue’s in the TLA: NCS stands for No-Cut Strut. It’s so much less hassle than hacksawing or dremelling that it’s amazing to me that so many of even the best fenders/mudguards don't work like this. 

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John Stevenson
Freelance reviewer

One of the UK's most experienced cycling journalists, John started writing about bikes for Mountain Biking UK magazine back in the late 1980s. A spell in Sydney saw him editing Australian Mountain Bike magazine, before getting online as a news and production editor at Cyclingnews.com, in the 'the drugs are for my dog' era. Since returning to the UK in 2006 he has worked on the launch of Bikeradar.com, and launched Totalwomenscycling.com before handing the editorship over to someone more representative of the readership. He has also written for Cycling Plus and Cyclist magazines, and most recently was editor-at-large for road.cc. He lives in Cambridge with his partner and a silly number of dogs (or possibly a number of silly dogs), and divides his riding time between Tarmac and gravel while battling the notorious Fenland headwinds.