SKS Raceblades Long - Initial Review
 

I don't have a dedicated commuter and mostly ride my road bike. I was *this* close to getting a dedicated commuter (a cyclocross bike) so I could run fenders, but saw the SKS raceblade long fenders and decided to give them a shot. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with them. They offer a lot more coverage than the normal clip on race blades and the mounting seems pretty secure. There is also adequate clearance except for the expected tight spots under the brakes.

Installation was a bit fidgitty, especially since I was too stubborn to take the bike out to the garage and put it in my repair stand (It's getting cold and dark earlier around here). Getting brake post mounting brackets in and lined up right was probably the hardest part, you really need an extra set of hands to help hold everything in place while you tighten the brake mounting bolt down. The instructions weren't the most helpful either, it's a 8x11 text document. The back of the box had illustrations that corresponded to the text instructions which were helpful. There's also a youtube video apparently, but I didn't have a computer handy.

My road bike had a very tight gap in the seat stay brake bridge, unnecessarily so really. To make the forward extender bit work for the rear fender, SKS uses a thin metal bracket that threads that gap. The plastic fender then clips into this bracket. The same type of bracket also goes under the calipers the other direction. To make things work, I had to bend the bracket slightly into a "U" shape to hug the brake bridge as closely as possible. Even so, I was only able to get a millimeter or two clearance to the wheel. The hardware kit also includes a short and long bracket too, to better fit some frames. I plan on experimenting a bit more with these to see if I can get better coverage around the brake area.

From there, it was just a matter of threading the plastic fenders into the holders on the stays, screwing on the mudflaps, and mounting the assembly by threading the wheel QR skewer through an eyelet at the ends of the stays (in lieu of proper fender mounting braze ons on the frame dropouts). The fender pieces clip into the brake brackets. Once everything is on the bike, fine tuning can be made by loosening a hex bolt on the stays, which allow for about a 5mm range of adjustment on the length of each stay, which allows centering and clearance adjustment. The fenders were easy to snap on and off the mounting brackets when they're not needed, which is a nice design. The only issue I see is the brackets left on the bike in the dropout areas stick out quite a ways and would be prone to damage. Also, I noticed the fenders don't always clip back in to the same exact spot as when you clipped them off, so some fine tuning each time may be necessary to center them.

It just so happened that we had some overnight rain and I was able to test them out this morning. They definitely kept me dry from the road spray. I do wish the front mudflap was a bit longer as the bottom bracket area was still getting wet. I'll probably make a homemade solution soon that extends things a bit to address that. The fenders were pretty solid and quiet over the bumpy sections of my commute, with very little rattling and no rubbing. Overall, I'm quite happy. I feel a lot better about riding in a bit of rain and wet roads now with these installed.
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Cool, I tried them on my road bike but didnt have the clearance :(

You might want to check out SKS directly. I know they sell shorter and longer mud flaps for the Longboards; maybe you can get a longer mudflap for your front fender from them.

If that doesn't work, you can always get a leather flap from someplace like velo-orange or rivbike. Or make a flap from a plastic milk carton.

Thanks, I will check that out. I was going to go the cheapy milk jug flap but this might look nicer. :)

How much better are they than the regular Raceblades? In terms of keeping the rider dry? I'm not so fussed about keeping the bike dry.

I don't have any experience with the normal Raceblades other than playing with them at the store, but based on their length they seem like they'd be adequate for keeping the rider as dry, except possibly in the feet and ankle area.