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bicycle quickguards revisited
i can but hold my hand up as being guilty as charged. when reviewing certain products in these black and yellow pixels, there have been many occasions when a simple opening introduction offers not a great deal more than one of those ubiquitous unboxing videos. i might expand upon this if i refer to a notable short movie that paid great attention to the slicing of the box tape with a stanley knife, before a rather delectable snare drum was eased carefully from its packaging. said item of percussive delight was then slowly and teasingly divested of its bubble-wrap, before carefully being placed on a worktop and walking round to provide a 360 degree view.
not once throughout the video was a drumstick conspicuous by its presence, not a mark made upon the white, coated drumhead, and not a sound to be heard. 'disappointment', would have been something of an understatement.
most recently, i followed a review of rapha's new 'pro-team road shoes' with one describing the ritchey carbon road pedals, into which the red shoe-cleats had been ceremoniously clicked. it would have been a rare occasion indeed, had they failed to perform perfectly, having only recently been removed from their box and bolted to the carbon cranks. clothing and footwear can usually be appraised over a short period of review, but componentry often has several composite functions that rely upon each other, and might, at some time in the future, be found wanting.
in such cases, i have generally completed that initial review by signalling that i will revisit the component, or bicycle, in the fullness of time, offering a more thorough examination than could be made during that first 'unboxing video'. for, try as i might, i was never able to find a follow-up video that let me hear just how luxurious that pristine snare drum sounded, once the bubble-wrap had been popped.
as the years roll by and age takes its toll, i often forget that i promised a reprise, so for those of you who have spent any appreciable amount of time awaiting part two of anything, you have my sincere apologies. in order to salve my conscience and fulfil at least one small part of my professed function, in that which follows, i propose to follow-up my original review of a pair of bicycle quickguards, posted in mid-november last year.
the quickguards take a novel approach to affixation, replacing (in this case) the quick-release lever nuts with much longer, splined affairs, front and rear, onto which both guards slide, prior to being locked in place via a sturdy allen-bolt clamp. should they require finer positioning to sit centrally over the tyre, the two chunky aluminium stays fit into a a slotted recess, allowing independent lateral movement. the front guard fits behind the fork, shielding one's pro-team road shoes from road-spray, while the rear guard sits behind the rear brake caliper, shielding the rear of an expensive jacket from the much-feared brown stripe up the back.
for those whose bicycles sport disc brakes, a slightly more expensive pair of quickguards can be purchased with replacement thru-axles, with said splined extensions on which to fit the clamps.
i do not regard myself as one much enamoured with having the road bike du jour festooned with rattling, unaesthetic looking mudguards. yet even though the ritchey logic features a state-of-the-art, campagnolo record twelve-speed groupset and highly desirable campagnolo bora wto carbon-rimmed wheels, the quickguards cannot truly be said to have any adverse effects on the bicycle's feng shui. that remains true even after a winter's bike-riding which included festive 500 kilometres.
the rather poor state of islay's roads, augmented by a liberal peppering of cattle grids, may not be a state of affairs that makes for comfortable riding, but there's little point in denying that it's the ideal playground on which to test the veracity of clamped, single-sided mudguard stays. i can, perhaps, offer the finest compliment available by pointing out that, more often than not, i completely forgot the black mudguards were still there.
there was, however, a minor moment a few weeks past, when the front mudguard seemed intent on rubbing the inner-edge of the top stay on the tyre wall. in the process of attempting to make suitable adjustments, there appeared to be an excessive amount of play at the join between the stays and the splined clamp. i feared this to be the result of incessant jarring across the previously described road surfaces, a perfectly comprehensible situation, but surely not over such a short period of time? on removing the guard from the bike, it appears the hollow aluminium stays had begun to separate from the clamp inserts, despite appearing to have been crimped in place.
i firmly and successfully pushed the stays further onto the inserts, where they have remained since, showing no repetition of the previous malaise. it's a situation that presumably should not have occurred, but in truth, it's a fairly superficial aberration and easily fixed.
there's still the possibility that i will temporarily remove the guards when sunnier days return to the hebrides around mid-august, but, minor irritation aside, there's a strong likelihood that these will last several more hebridean winters, no matter the number of named and un-named storms blown in our direction. i've probably provided enough information for you to make your own judgment, always assuming you haven't already acquired a pair, so i think we'll leave it at that, unless anything seriously untoward occurs in the future.
bicycle quickguards are available only in black. the quick release version as described above, retails at a price of £34.99 each, while the thru-axle edition costs £10 more at £44.99. bicycle quickguards are distributed in the uk by chicken cycle kit.
wednesday 4 march 2020
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