Cycling UK Forum

I have just seen a bike on eBay with wonderful looking wooden mudguards by Sykes of Oregon USA. Anyone got them? They look very slick, just wondered if anyone had them. I don't think they are sold here.They are flat and look as if they are more style than function but they do look very smart. I imagine most CTC members would have quite a laugh about them too!

These are beautiful, and can be ordered through Dave at Cyclesense in Tadcaster, I believe... http://www.woodysfenders.com/store/inde ... ex&cPath=9

very nice looking; I can't help wondering how well they would cope with regular exposure to, uh, water and such...

cheers

You could try making your own like other forum members,

search.php?keywords=kingpin&t=3832&sf=msgonly

I wonder what wood is used? Logically something like cedar, which is both light and to a degree water-resistant, but doesn't look like cedar.

I make my own, its very cheap and easy.
You need a mold which is basically a wooden curve similar to the outer curve of your wheel with tyre. You then take 2 strips of balsa about 1.5mm thick and glue them together with epoxy glue and clamp them to the mold to set. At this point you cut to size (you may want to use woodstain at this point to match the colour of the veneer). Then you glue veneer to the outside of the mudguard using the epoxy again and clamp back to the mold to set. Trim the veneer with a craft knife and varnish the mudguard blade with yacht varnish.
Brackets can be made out of brass strip from a model shop. Stays can be made out of 4mm galvanised fencing wire and you will need eyelet bolts which are readily available from ebay.



The Royal Enfield Revelation has mudguards made by the above method with walnut veneer and the balsa is stained with walnut wood stain. The Kingpin has an earlier version using 3 layers of balsa and outdoor wood glue instead of epoxy (much more of a PITA to do) and has Walnut, cherry and maple veneer strips.

These mudguards work extremely well, there is no reason for wooden mudguards to have a compound curve shape. The compound curve shape of most mudguards is because metal and plastic don't have grain to stop them twisting. Flat mudguards are actually better as water and mud don't get squirted out the sides and when you get clogged up with mud its a lot easier to scrape it out.

Oh and that earlier post of mine was my 1st attempt using cherry veneer, I learned 2 things from that:
-Use veneer that doesn't split to easily (avoid cherry)
-position brackets at the bottom of the mudguard so you can't catch it on things and split the veneer.

Russcoles your wooden mudguards look superb. I don't have the skill or patience to try it. I think you could manufacture them and sell them to many CTC members. The ones I saw are made in the USA and retail and $175 and more!

May sound hard to do but trust me, I have no real woodworking skills and can knock up a set very easily whilst watching TV. But if anyone wants to offer me money to do a set...

There are mudguards made from bamboo too though in my opinion not as good looking as the other wooden ones. The bamboo type were mentioned in Cycling Plus a while back. I see they are $134.99 direct from Planet Bike but you'd have to pay more when you add all the extra costs. Looks like you can also get them from here

http://www.langtoninfo.co.uk/showitem.a ... 06&loc=GBP

Whatever you do do NOT look at the Sogreni fender range!

Some good diy-links here. But I'm pretty sure that the weight, flat profile och lack of rolled edges makes for a poor performance compared to Berthoud, Honjo or Velo Orange metal fenders. Would also recommend the SKS Longboard if it's not a sunday-best bike for sunny rides.

I looked at buying wooden mudguards before deciding to make my own. The difference in cost is ridiculous.
for my method yo will need:
Balsa: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/balsa-wood-pa ... 35b9e3aae3
About £10 for enough for 5 mudguards.
Veneer: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390288241945? ... 1822wt_952
around £5 for 3meters
Glue: Epoxy glue from poundland
Yacht varnish: http://www.screwfix.com/c/decorating/ya ... /cat850462
0.8mm thick Brass strip: About £4-5 from any model shop
Eyelet bolts: 2 sets of 4 for about £1 a set from ebay or LBS
Mudguard stays: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fence-Galvani ... _500wt_969
Galvanised fencing wire £2 for loads.

If anyone's tempted to try, I would suggest getting a pack of balsa and some glue and have a try at just making the balsa curve. If you don't have a suitable curved mold (I got lucky and found something perfect for 20" wheels) try just bending the balsa and slipping an old inner tube over it lengthways to hold it in place, check the resulting curve and repeat with glue

I saw a wonderful pair of wooden 'guards on a Condor at the NEC bike show. They were made by Simon Muir Furniture of Edinburgh. Check out his Facebook page for examples of his beautiful work.

Simon's mudguards are lovely, seen a few pairs in the flesh and they're great. Freshtripe sell them
http://www.freshtripe.co.uk/freshtripe/ ... D1845.html

Hi All,

I think I could make some wooden mudguards if you are interested. I made these for a friend of mine: