Fitting SKS P45 Chromoplastic mudguards

My girlfriend cycles to work every day as her sole mode of transport.  This means she rides in all weather.  Having just upgraded her old side-of-the-road frankenstein bike to a new Merida Speeder it made sense to embrace the proper commuter-bike and fit some mudguards to avoid that rainy day stripe.

I ordered in some SKS P45 Chromoplastic mudguards.  Having fitted them I think they look great and seem pretty good value for money.  But in order to actually get them on they did need modifying so I thought I’d throw up a post detailing what I did.

The problem is with the rear mudguard.  I have marked the offending piece with a red arrow in the picture above.  The front edge of the rear guard is supposed to bolt to the chainstay plate (arrow, below), but it is pretty obvious that the front derailleur completely obstructs this.

The solution is to cut the front of the rear guard shorter so that it sits above the front derailleur and to fix it to the seat tube.  First mark the place to cut with some tape across the mudguard, then follow the line of the tape with a hacksaw.  Deburr with a file.  The drill two holes on either side of the guard just above your cut.  Then attach the guard to the seat tube using cable ties through the new holes.

The beauty of these mudguards lies in their flexibility so it’s not hard to simply shorten them, flex them towards the seat tube and fix what could otherwise be a bit of head-scratcher.  And as far as a work-around goes this approach doesn’t look like an obvious botch-job.