Do they actually work?!!!

Yes, very well.

Do you need a DH tube or will a normal XC one suffice?

any tube is fine. tyres also work.

What t y r e for …

a skinny xc tube might not be wide enough to fill the gap, but it will still do a very good job.

make sure the panel of rubber is pulled tight when the forks are extended. on longer travel forks full-ish compression can cause enough of the (now loose) panel to get caught in the tyre. this won’t cause a crash, but it may rip the panel off.

I just used a bit of tube I had laying around. works pretty well, I’ve cable tied mine on a bit different to stop mud getting up the steerer and into the fork brace but it works just the same.

Anybody got a link to how exactly to make one? I guess just a couple of photos would do.

cheers,

Alex

alexpalacefan its not hard!! Im guessing if you have the zipties ‘loose’ they will rub the crown more? Or……..wrap some strips of innertube underneat the zipties around the crown first?

I use them – they won’t guarantee you don’t get a zero splatter count on your face, but they drastically reduce the splatter count

yeah, its not hard at all.

get a bit of tube

cut it to about the right length

cut it in half length ways

guess where the cable ties should go at the top

snip some holes

fix it loose

snip some holes for the bottom

pull it tight

ride, ride, ride

I thought it a ridiculous idea, how can that do anything?
But I fitted one to a bike over the winter when i didn’t have a spare mudguard, works suprisingly well, add a crud catcher on the downtube and it’s almost as good as any ‘proper’ front mudguard I’ve used (for keep mud out of your face, not off your legs obviously).
Recommended.

I find it dead useful for keeping mud off my face (and thus out of my eyes) in the wet. It wants to be tight but not overtight, ‘cos then you run the risk if it tearing and catching on the tyre and making a horrible noise.

Stiffee is in the car, I’ll bob out and take a picture if anyone really needs it?

Go on, lets see a pic of your stiffee 8)

Must admit i bought one of those RRP guards rather than make my own… 🙁 works marvelously though!

not bothered about keeping clean but dont want crap in yer eyes? make one of these!

not using one for the time being whilst the weather’s good but come winter i’ll be sporting one. use loads of gaffer tape to reinforce ziptie/tube connection.

Beef curtains

They are great for channelling all the trail mud, water, and grit down the fork legs.
Cut them out of an old inner tube to a very elongated H shape and use puncture glue to fix instead of zip ties

rioght! Im off to make mine (blue peter time)

I’d like to make one, but I have a lefty.

🙁

I have made one for the rear sus on my ’02 scalpel, works well.

Did it for the first time at the CLIC – bloody lifesaver!

Good idea about zip tying to stop crap going up the steerer too!

What E5 said. They do work very well but you get an awful lot of mud channelled directly into the seals of the forks. May be reduced if you leave a larger gap

Wheres the piccies then ?

I forgot. And now my Stiffee’s at home. Sorry!

Piss of pee- Mines a work of art. I was worried that the zip ties may rub the lowers arch and the crown so I cut inner tubes- wrapped and tied. then over laid the wide stretch of inner ontop. I’d take a pic but **** knows where all my cables at the mo! 8)

Also works well especially with adjustable travel forks, this is made from a piece of plastic from a bucket and the cable tied on

better than overengineering a solution to stopping mud going up the steerer tube, just stuff a bit of cling film into the bottom. Works a treat for 0.00001p a time, and you can change it every ride if you’re really anal.

You can also use the same over your seatcollar to stop mud getting into that, but I prefer a bit of inner tube for that (cut about a 2″ length from a small diam tube, and then fashion an appropriate hole in it to fit over the bolt /QR as necessary). Or you can use a bit of Lizard Skin (chainstay or those silly fork boots that are arse all use for stanchions – you can make 5 or 6 seat collars from one/a pair of them)

Works stupidly well. I now don’t need to wear glasses when riding in rain / mud – I wear contacts so grit in the eye is an issue to say the least!

The inner tube version works perfectly, but if you want to look a little less ghetto you can buy a RRP Nano Guard for 14 quid off CRC. Clearly this is a rip off, but there doesn’t seem to be a competitor (apart from the inner tube version).

I just copied the neoguard design off crc, have velcro instead of cable ties, took about an hour to make but is exactly the same as a neoguard but made from an old tube….

theotherjonv:
glad it’s not just me!
Having once got a seatpost starting to weld itself in despite greasing, I’m now anal about such things.
Latest incarnation is two bits of innter tube ~ 9″ish, glued together lenngthwise zip tied under saddle, facing towards handlebars as forward facing seatclamp, pulled together like a pair of curtains.
Allows me immediate access to seatpost qr by pulling curtains out of way and tweaking, yet they hang there and keep cr*p out of seat tube.
….but I do clingfilm my computer if raining!!!!
yours bodgingly…..
Q

Motorcycle inner tube is wider. . cut it wide enough to secure with cable tie to the very top of the leg as well as the crown. . Don’t secure the bottom but let it hang down. Cut an inverted u to miss the wheel when riding normally and it will keep all the crap out of those nasty indents in the back of the fork brace. Ignore rubbing on full compression as this will stop any build up of crap.Hang it in front of brace or behind to suit.

don’t do it! i fitted one of these for the bristol bike fest as it was looking wet. had to cut it of after my second lap as due to the claggy mud (sunday) it was just collecting loads of mud and fouling up my front wheel. might have had something to do with my blue groove being at the limit of size for my rebas too though…

I don’t doubt for a second people’s testimonies that this keeps crud out of your eyes, but I really am confused why. Sure it only catches crud that is travelling forwards through that gap? My face is behind the fork crown usually isn’t it, so gets hit by stuff that is coming up past the downtube?

Jase – the muck is thrown forward and up – it then stops in the air ( air resistance) then you ride into it.

TJ – Got ya. Never occurred to me that you’d ride ‘into’ crud but it makes sense now, ta!

Has anybody tried to do what ssboggy has done except hang it from the crown of the fork rather than the brace. That would allow the mud to run off but not onto the fork stanchions. Especially if you shaped it so it was slightly narrower at the bottom.

Might give it a go.

Whats this clogging up the seals thing/ Mine doesn’t. I often run the tube over the front of the brace which does the same job but flaps about a bit and stays clog free. Why secure the bottom and why not fill the gap you are trying to block. A tad wider than the tyre does catch all of it.

jonb, if you do it that way round the plastic guard will hit the tyre when the fork compresses

doh, of course.