Crud Roadracer mudguards have been getting a lot of favourable publicity recently and for good reason; lightweight, easily fitted and impressively protective, they are the answer to the prayers of road cyclists who want the joy of mudguards with the speed of a proper road bike.

Roadracer ‘guards are not, however, quite perfect, as a quick perusal of the relevant RCUK forum thread will show. Designed, as they are, to fit tyres up to 25mm wide and intended for use on frames with little clearance between the top of the tyre and the underside of the fork crown or brake bridge, they don’t have much leeway to play with.

For sure, the design addresses the potential problems of limited clearance with daring innovation and a flash of genius, the rim-following bits of stuck-on draught excluder allowing designer Pete Tomkins to curve the plastic guards tightly around the profile of a 25mm clincher with minimal risk of tyre rub. Even so, getting the plastic strip under a close-fitting fork crown is not always straightforward, since even the thin slice of polypropylene used by Crud takes up some room.

If rubbing is a problem at this point, there are a few tricks worth trying on YouTube. Failing these, it is time to make a modification. The combination of fat Hutchinson Fusion 2 23c clinchers and Mizuno Fiandre fork on my old Omega left unsufficient space for the front Roadracer, leaving me no choice but to attach the guard to the back of the crown.

Before attempting to do so, I bore in mind the old saying about measuring twice and cutting once and took a long, hard look at what I was about to do.  This is surely one of the keys to a successful mod, the other being possession of a spare of whatever is about to be modded, just  in case it all goes wrong.

Deciding to use the existing moulded loop to hold a zip-tie, I cut the guard about 10mm away in a straight line that fitted snugly against the underside of the fork crown lower race. I stuck the thermoplastic material in boiling water for w few seconds to soften it, bent it into shape and stuck it in cold water to make it stay put.

A few seconds’ work with a zip tie and the guard was in place. Minus the nose strip, for sure, but in practice the amount of spray that comes off the tyre forward of the front brake is minimal. Besides, the tail strip fell off when the screw came loose so I had a home for the spare screw.