Recumbent - Crud containment issue

I went ride on a paved bike path today. It rained yesterday, so the path was all wet, and some soil from the roadside had mixed with the water, making a light brown-ish muddy sheen on the road for the full 60km of the ride. When I stopped, I dismounted, looked at the bike, and I couldn't believe the amount of crud on it: it was litterally caked with mud, from top to bottom, including the drivetrain that carried the mud up to my pant leg and clogged the nylon tubes, and, amazingly, the topside of the mudguards. I don't understand how that happened, as the mudguards are twice as wide as the tires, cover half the wheels, and the front one even has a soft flap that goes all the way down to the ground.

My bike being an Optima Condor, it's effectively just a MTB as far as everything under the seat is concerned, but my last MTB never attracted mud like that. So I think I might buy (or make) fully-enclosed mudguards, like those on dutch city bikes, to solve the problem. Does anybody know how well they work? I'm concerned that such a mudguard would gather mud inside and let it drip on the cassette and chain.

I only have a hlaf fender on the back wheel and have never had my bike crud encrusted like yours. Is that typical of the kind of mud on your roads. Maybe it was an anomaly. If so, is it worth going to all that trouble to deal with a once every 5 years mud event?

Is that typical of the kind of mud on your roads. Maybe it was an anomaly. If so, is it worth going to all that trouble to deal with a once every 5 years mud event?

It's fairly typical for that particular bike path, because the shoulders are higher than the road surface and muddy water runs down on the path as soon as it rains. It's the first time I take the bike on it when it's wet though. I'm concerned because (1) if the bike is covered with mud, it's also covered by (invisible) road crum when I ride on simply wet roads, and (2) I'm taking this bent to a singletrack ride on Jan 2nd to test its off-roading abilities, and I fear fatal clogging of the nylon tubes if it rains and too much mud gets onto the chain. You should have heard the noise it did today with only light watery mud, not to mention I'm not too sure the mud's abrasiveness is harmless for the tubes...

Wow. Well, it looks like you have to try something all right. Are you going to try and build them out of something or maybe buy them from a Dutch bike place? Keep us posted.

Wow. Well, it looks like you have to try something all right. Are you going to try and build them out of something or maybe buy them from a Dutch bike place? Keep us posted.

According to my LBS, the half-wheel covers are just side panels that attach to the stays (but then my LBS is incompetent). I'd have to do some creative mounting with those anyway, because my bike is full suspension, so I might as well come up with something. In fact, I was thinking of sewing something that would stretch over the existing fenders and cover half the wheels, but I'm an absolute arse-head when it comes to using a sewing machine. Maybe the SO will come to the rescue if I don't tell her it's a bike thing :)

For a minute I thought you were talking about Mookie's posts :) No offense, but I can't wait for BROL to be up and running again.