Is there any treatment to prevent mud sticking inside mudguards?

[pedals2slowly]

Anyone tried any sort of silicone spray, wax or WD40 or anything to try to prevent mud sticking to the inside of mudguards and building up?
Are there any forum threads on this anywhere?

[Paulatic]

I wouldn’t think so. Take a Teflon pan and throw some mud at it. I’ll put money on it will stick.
Even large MtB clearances can clog with the very best of mud.

[thatsnotmyname]

Anyone tried any sort of silicone spray, wax or WD40 or anything to try to prevent mud sticking to the inside of mudguards and building up?
Are there any forum threads on this anywhere?

Motocross riders have been searching for that holy grail for decades. They haven't found it yet.

[pedalsheep]

I tried spraying inside my mudguards with Muc Off silicon spray. It made no difference. It brings the frame up lovely though!

[Mick F]

Hose pipe and blast it every time you get back home.

Some years ago, I came down the old Princetown Railway track. The bottom end near Dousland was muddy and Mercian's mudguards got rather clogged. All the way back home from Yelverton, I found puddles and wet bits to ride through sometimes doubling back to do it again. They got the worst of it off, but it still needed the attention of a good blast from the hose at home.

[Brucey]

the best 'treatment' I know of is to adjust the selector switch from 'offroad' to 'road' position.

You know, the one between the ears....

cheers

[pedals2slowly]

the best 'treatment' I know of is to adjust the selector switch from 'offroad' to 'road' position.

You know, the one between the ears....

cheers

You want to try the Herefordshire and Shropshire lanes in the winter.
The bike I'm rebuilding is my winter road bike, not been off road on it last winter

[Nebulous]

Embrace the mud.

Wear it as a badge of honour.

Start a thread showing increase in bike weight post ride. Lesser mortals rate rides by distance, time, even altitude gain. Pah! Wusses.

Keep a photographic record so when you're old and grey (older and greyer in my case) you can look back on the good times.

[TrevA]

the best 'treatment' I know of is to adjust the selector switch from 'offroad' to 'road' position.

You know, the one between the ears....

cheers

Farmers round here do their best to bring most of the mud out of the fields onto the roads in winter. My wife’s winter bike suffers from clog up and has not been off road at any time in its life. Best solution is to buy a bike with plenty of clearance, so that you can get the mudguard away from the tyre.

[peetee]

It is no surprise to me that a certain message board contributor gives no clues as to where he lives. I suspect Brucey Towers is located in a large country estate, nay principality, with hundreds of miles of marble-smooth tarmac roads swept and dried hourly by legions of lackeys for his exclusive use.

[Brucey]

I only worry much about the mud when

a) the wheels stop turning and/or
b) the all-up weight of the bike is at least doubled.

Hereabouts the farmers don't so very often strew dirt on the roads which is just as well; soil conditions vary such that if I go one way there is quite a lot of chalk underfoot, but if I go the other way there is clay in places. Some of the local bridlepaths (on clay) are all but impassable, even by MTB, when the ground is damp, i.e. for most of the winter and some of the spring and autumn.

cheers

[colin54]

A tip on here from 531colin (thanks Colin), was to drill out and re-rivet the mudguard stay bracketry onto the outside of the mudguard, mud jams can start by build-up around obstructions on the inside of the guard. Mount any extra mudflap on the outside of the guard for the same reason. I just did this on a bike that doesn't have a great amount of clearance and gets clogged on muddy towpaths. I filed out the fork fixing on the guard as well to get it as far away as possible from the tyre (hard up against the fork crown). Modern SKS guards have a decorative moulding at the front tip, I just removed that as mud just builds up against it in my experience. Try and fit the guards with the maximum clearance you can achieve.
I must do the rear guard sometime, wrestling with mudguards is akin to a dental visit for me.
Always carry a de-clogging spoon.
I've not tried this out down the towpath yet, hopefully it will make a difference.

[pedals2slowly]

yes, all sensible stuff Colin, I do the brackets outside the guards for rough stuff and mountain bikes. (yes I do have big mudguards and loads of clearance over my 2" tyres)
Spotty bike photo is from 1988 when I first started fitting brackets outside guards.
Creating big mudguard clearances reduces their effectiveness for reducing water spray (including cow muck, dead animal fluids, slurry and any other detritus found on our country lanes) and I doubt this would reduce the build up I'm trying to stop.
The problem I'm trying to resolve is not clogging with big dollops of mud but the slow build up of a layer inside the guards from road riding.
I'm guessing dirty water hits the inside surface, leaves a residue which dries during a ride and then picks up even more next ride and so on.
The result is as shown in the photo.
Anyway I think I'll experiment with car wax polish on half a guard and silicone waterproofing spray on the other and see what happens!

[JohnW]

Try lifting the mudguards as high over (i.e. clear of) the tyres as is possible on your bike.
It's called by those who are more professional than I am "increasing mudguard clearance".
I find that the worst locations are under the bridge on the rear, and at the fork-crown on the front.
You'd think that the you'd simply end up with a thicker layer of mud sticking to the underside of the mudguard but, in my experience, not always.
At least there's a bigger space to stick a bit of twig or something between mudguard and tyre, to clear it out.

[pedals2slowly]

Try lifting the mudguards as high over (i.e. clear of) the tyres as is possible on your bike.
It's called by those who are more professional than I am "increasing mudguard clearance".
I find that the worst locations are under the bridge on the rear, and at the fork-crown on the front.
You'd think that the you'd simply end up with a thicker layer of mud sticking to the underside of the mudguard but, in my experience, not always.
At least there's a bigger space to stick a bit of twig or something between mudguard and tyre, to clear it out.

No, no, no, it's nothing to do with clearance, it's a slow build up over the whole inside surface.
There's rarely any problem with 'clogging' on road rides unless you reduce the clearance too much and the build up ends up rubbing on the tyre.
I can solve clogging problems easily as discussed above.
I'm trying to find a way of stopping gradual build up inside the mudguard under normal use, I don't like carrying the excess weight around more than anything - see photo above.