All Arround MTB

If you’re looking for a good way to keep mud out of your eyes, the ProGuard should definitely be on your shopping list.With a choice of 24 holes on top to thread the supplied zipties through, it’s easy to get it to fit snuggly on your fork arch. Each side is then secured to the fork’s lower legs with another two zipties. The length of the fender means you need to crank the zipties up tight to prevent it dropping down towards the tyre once caked in mud. In the slop, the ProGuard’s extensive coverage means its performance is seriously impressive. While the odd fleck of mud did make it onto our goggle lenses, it does a superb job of keeping your vision clear (and the crud off your fork’s wiper seals) even in swamp-like conditions. There’s plenty of clearance between tyre and mudguard too, which is useful when things get sticky. On seriously heavy landings where we bottomed the fork out, we did buzz the guard on the fork crown, but this only happened a couple of times and didn’t kn

Muckynutz’s latest mudguard design uses a clever bit of Origami. Double overlapping contact points that sit inside the fork arch allow the fender to follow the curve of your front wheel. There are also pre-creased lines at the rear, which allow a degree of height fine-tuning to accommodate different tyre profiles. It’s a good length too, at 375x268mm, so it offers excellent protection from anything thrown up by your front wheel. The thick plastic feels robust and limits flex once weighted with mud, and the five fixing points (which use Velcro straps, not zipties, so as not to ruin your paintwork) keep it firmly in place. Price $20

This nifty bit of flatpack plastic is designed to plug a gap in Mudhugger’s range and deliver a more wallet-friendly version of their moulded fender without sacrificing too much performance. It feels relatively flimsy in the hand, but once you overlap the two tabs on each side and anchor them to your fork’s lower legs with the cable ties provided, it gains a decent dollop of structural integrity, and curves around the wheel nicely. This added complexity means fitting is a little trickier than with a regular fender, and we found we had to crank the cable ties up properly tight to prevent it moving around when covered in mud. On a 29er XC bike with a 2.25in front tyre and Boost-width Fox 32 fork, the wheel flex and limited tyre clearance meant our sample rubbed quite frequently. When used with a Fox 36 and 2.5in tyre there were no such problems and the SL did a sterling job of keeping grime and spray off our goggles. Price $20

Mudhugger have revised their popular Front Race guard, extending overall coverage and replacing the mounting slots with holes in a bid to make it even more secure.

THE SKS FLAP Guard is another take on the ‘fork fender’ type front mudguard. It mounts securely via four zipties – two around the fork arch and one around each of the lower legs.

SKS’S X-BOARD FRONT mudguard is held in place under the down tube by two reusable rubber straps.

THE LATEST FRONT fender from carbon fibre specialists RockGuardZ boasts a new profile that's designed to control the way in which mud and water exit the mudguard more effectively. Rubber strips have also been added for a quieter ride.

THIS SIMPLE BIT of kit from RRP has proven itself to be impressively effective and a real bargain at just under 13$.