How to fit clip-on mudguards to almost any bike

When fitting clip-on mudguards you need access to the fork legs and the seat stays. Putting your bike in a work stand not only holds your bike securely but also puts it at a more comfortable working height.

Before we consider fitting the mudguards to the bike, we first need to make sure we are fitting the right one to the right place. Clip-on mudguards have a different profile front and rear so getting this right is important.

Typically the rear mudguard will be the longer of the two.

The first part of properly fitting a set of clip-on mudguards is to roughly fit them to the bike in order to work out where you need to put the protective tape. To do this you want to slide the legs of the mudguard over the wheel and down to the seat stays for the rear and the fork legs for the front.

When you have the mounting part of the mudguard butted up against the frame, loosen off any of the adjustment points with a hex key just so that they are loose enough to manipulate.

Once they are loosely fitted to the bike you can play around with the exact position you want them in. You ideally want to have the mudguard as close to the tyre as you can get it without it touching.

If you ride in a group it is important for the rear tyre both to protect you and your bike, as well as the riders behind, so make sure it's low enough at the back to protect the riders behind you.

Although in some cases, you will need to trim down the legs of the mudguard to get a good fit, in most cases just spending a bit more time adjusting the position will save you from having to cut anything.

Before you tighten the adjustment bolts, make sure you give the wheels a good spin to make sure nothing is going to catch or rub whilst you are riding.

Once you are happy with the position and you have tightened up all adjustment bolts, it's time to mark where the mounts sit on the frame. The easiest way to do this is to take a Sharpie pen and make two dots, one at the upper and one at the lower point where the mount sits on the frame. This will allow you to get the perfect fit when it comes to fitting them properly later.

Now you know where the mudguards are going to sit on the frame, you can remove them and put them to one side. Cut a length of tape, ideally helicopter tape but other types of tape could work too, that will cover the area between the two dots. It's important to make sure that you cover the whole area, not just the top surface as the straps will also chafe on the frame.

Now that your frame is protected, you can go ahead and fit the mudguard to the bike. When fitting the straps you want them to be tight enough that they will hold firm even with road buzz and vibrations but not too tight as to overstress the material that could cause them to snap.

Depending on how they fit your bike, you might be left with some gaps that the mudguard can’t cover. To combat this you can modify them to extend the coverage that they offer.

The first step in extending the protection of the mudguard is to drill two small holes along the length of the mudguard towards the end you wish to extend.

Use a strong but pliable plastic, perhaps from an ass-saver mudguard, and cut out a shape that is roughly the same width as the mudguard but long enough to cover the gap left between the end of the mudguard and the frame.

Depending on your perfectionism levels, there are a few ways you can go about this part. The easiest and quickest way is to zip-tie them together using the holes that you drilled in the mudguard.

If you are looking for a tidier aesthetic then riveting the two parts together is a neat solution.