I had heard that they were a bit tricky to fit, and being quite an impractical person I set aside a few hours on Sunday afternoon after the World's Road Race to fit them onto my Bianchi so I can think about using it throughout Autumn and Winter as the roads get wetter.
From this experience I have concluded that tricky is an understatement! I found the instructions hard to understand and interpret and felt the explanations didn't really match up with the diagrams. Because of this I got off to quite a slow start and struggled to get going.
Once I'd figured out how to attach the lugs (is this a common word? Doesn't explain what they are..) and the other bits it came together fairly easily. Lots of dropping out the back wheel to fit and then popping it back into to check there's enough room but overall I was pleased with the result.
The front wheel was easier but also fits less well. The way I've fitted it has made it wonky and even with tonnes of fiddling I can't quite get it to sit straight. This results in a tiny rub which is a bit annoying but hopefully after a few rides I'll be able to adjust it and get it just right!
This is how the bike looks with the mudguards fully fitted. You can see that the back goes really far down to protect you and any riders behind you. They are both held on by a cable tie through the guard and over the brake. The front also has good coverage and I look forward to stepping off the bike without the tell tale mud streak up my back.
My two favourite features of the Roadracers are certainly the ease of which you can raise or lower the mudguard to give a closer fit and also how the rear one protects the drive chain from muck as well as the saddle post/your arse.
Annoyingly as I was wheeling the bike back into the house the rear tail bit got stuck on the floor and snapped off where it was attached to the middle section of the mudguard. The damage isn't too bad and I'm hoping I can duck tape it back together but if not Crud helpfully do a bunch of spares for the roadracer. I can pick up a new middle section for a reasonable(ish) price of £6.50. Roadracer spares can be found here.
You may notice that the title of this post is Part One... Part Two of my winter conversion is twofold.
i) I am going to finally succumb to the fact that white bar tape doesn't stay white and going to purchase some black bar tape for the Bianchi.
ii) Not sure how sound this reasoning is but I plan on picking up some 25mm tyres for the Bianchi to give some extra stability on wet/slippy roads across winter time.
Overall I think the Crud Roadracer MkII look great, performed great on my short test ride but are a pain in the arse to fit and to adjust! Set aside major time to fit these, try not to lose too many of the tiny pieces and stay calm ;)
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