The two facts may not be related, but the launch in late August of Crud’s Roadracer mudguards presaged an almost unbroken run of dry weather in southern Britain through September broken only by a persistent band of heavy showers on the 15th and a brief downpour in the early hours of the 20th.

Neither precipitated enough rainwater to merit digging out the old wet-weather iron and, frankly, neither lasted long enough to make it worth fitting those nice Roadracer guards just for a few seconds’ use. Typical; a product you can’t wait to try out comes along just in time for the driest September since 1997 and one of the driest since, er, 1914.

This extended drought didn’t stop young DA from fitting his test pair to a Trek Madone, although the only watersports action it saw while dressed up lasted all of 10 minutes once the rain had stopped. It did stop me; instead of trying them out immediately they landed on my desk, I waited until the weekend and a clear promise of significant rainfall to come before attempting installation.

As most purchasers seem to agree, they are both quick and easy to fit, which is just as well since I waited until dusk was falling before getting started. A quarter of an hour later they were on, zip ties zipped, thumbwheels tightened, draught-excluder strips stuck in place…

This morning, as forecast, it was raining heavily; just the weather, surely, I had been waiting for to give the Roadracer guards a proper tryout. Er, no. One look at the puddles forming outside my house, the lowering grey skies, scudding clouds and driving rain was enough to persuade me to leave the Crud-shod Omega in the shed and break out the old wet-weather iron complete with full-length mudgards, mudflap and an existing layer of water-borne grime and grit. After all, I don’t want to get the Omega dirty until I have to.