Focus Paralane: SKS Bluemels Mudguards

One of the most important accessories for an all-weather rain bike is mudguards. It is necessary to avoid road spray onto the bike and rider, when the road is wet. This is what allows me to ride at normal speed through puddles, instead of having to slow down a lot.

Although the Focus Paralane comes with its own special set of mudguards, it cannot be used due to a variety of factors as listed here. Therefore, I got a separate set of mudguards that can be mounted onto the Focus Paralane.

As previously used, the SKS Bluemels is a solid set of mudguards that has never given me any problem. Although installation is a bit tricky, it has never needed any adjustments after that. 

The mudguards come in a large variety of widths and wheel sizes, in addition to matte or gloss finishing.

I chose the 35 mm wide, matte black version, for 28" (or 700C) wheels.

Actual width is accurate at 35 mm wide.

The set of mudguards for front and rear wheels

Lots of hardware provided for mounting the mudguards to the bike! Choose the suitable ones depending on your frame.

These are the parts that I will use, and they weigh 510 grams for the set. 

Test mounting the rear mudguards, to see if it fits properly.

Added a plastic spacer under the chainstay mount, to avoid direct metal contact onto the frame.

Also added a spacer at the mounting point behind the bottom bracket junction, to make the curve of the mudguard match the curve of the tire. Comfortable clearance here.

Using the original bridge to fix the mudguard bracket to the frame. Does not look very secure though as it is only held by friction.

Small but sufficient clearance with the 28 mm wide tires.

35 mm wide mudguard is just enough to cover the entire tire, which is the ideal case. The previous mudguard was 45 mm wide which looked bulky.

Mudguard mounted on the front wheel as well. Note the long and low flap which is important to minimize water spraying onto the shoes.

Added spacer behind the fork bridge, so that the metal bracket will not touch the frame.

Small clearance between the tire and the mudguard

Also added spacer at the fork mounting points, to push out the mudguard stays from the brake caliper.

Sufficient clearance between the tire and the mudguard stays. The metal stays have not been cut to the correct length yet.

After cutting the metal stays to the correct length, the rubber caps can be attached to cover the tip, which also prevents the nut from self-loosening.

Front mudguards completed!

Curve of the mudguard matches the curve of the tires closely, to improve the appearance.

Neatly balanced and aligned with the tires

Rear mudguard also adjusted to match the curve of the tires.

Once the mudguards have been attached, the whole appearance of the bike changes. It immediately looks like a commuting bike. However, it still has proper road bike components and geometry, which means that it will still ride like a proper road bike.

In the next post, you can see how it looks once fully equipped for all-weather riding. The objective of this project is to have a bike that rides 100% like a road bike, just with some weather resistant features for all-weather riding.