SKS Chromoplastic rebrand (or gone)?

[PT1029]

Does anyone know if SKS have stopped making SKS Chromoplastic mudguards?
SKS Chromoplastic mudguards appear on various retail websites (Spa, SJS), and on the UK distributor's website:(https://www.zyrofisher.co.uk/sks/products/mudg-full).
But they don't appear on SKS's website - they list Bluemels full length mudguards in a few varieties (plastic hardware and SKS chromoplastic near copy versions (metal hardwear) https://www.sks-germany.com/en/products ... ls-series/
SKS do list SKS mudguards, but in all varieties except what I would call "proper" mudguards.
They describe the full length mudguards as "Fenders feature a sandwich design with superfine aluminium strips embedded in plastic sheathing" which sounds like Chromoplastic, but they don't use that word. If you put "chromoplastic" into the SKS site, it has no matches.
As far as I can tell however, some of the Bluemels ones listed look just like the SKS ones, so it might be they have rebranded all the full mud guards as Blumels. Whether they are identical or not I don't know. It use to be the case some years ago that full SKS mudguards had 4mm stainless stays, and Bluemels has 3mm. Some listed on the SKS site have the (sturdier) SKS front release clips, and some have the more slender Bluemels release clips with part of the plastic clip molded onto the stay.

[pwa]

Maybe they want to play down the plastic bit, with plastic being such a problematic subject these days. Perhaps that is why "Chromoplastic" is being dropped as a name, if it is.

[PH]

As far as I can tell however, some of the Bluemels ones listed look just like the SKS ones, so it might be they have rebranded all the full mud guards as Blumels.

They had a rationalisation about six years ago and some changed names and some were dropped as there appeared to be too much overlap. It is confusing, made more so by some retailers taking a while to catch up, I've posted such on every mudguard thread since where SKS/Bluemels are recommended, you can't be sure what you're going to get till you've seen them.
The position is even harder to fathom if buying from one of the bike German retailers, they list SKS and Bluemels that I don't think have ever been on the SKS website.

[pwa]

The safest option may be to phone a retailer you trust (Spa or SJS are good with these) and ask them what exactly a particular product is, and how does it correlate to Chromoplastics of old. That would be my approach if I wasn't sure.

Edit. On Spa's site it is stated that in the latter half of 2020 Chromoplastics were redesigned to use CAB (whatever that is) to allow them to be recycled. Perhaps we now need to be looking for CAB rather than Chromoplastic.

[Brucey]

Chromoplastic mudguards appear to have been made using PET (polyethylene terephthalate "polyester") or CAB (cellulose acetate butyrate) at various times. As per the above post Spa cycles say

The SKS Chromoplastic mudguards have been revised in the latter half of 2020. Still the same great quality with 3.4mm diameter stays, stainless fittings, reflector and front mudflap; but now using a more environmentally-friendly plastic (CAB), recyclable in most locations.
(The CAB mudguards do not feature the black longitudinal stripes

Spa differentiate between old stock ('Chromoplastic') and newer mudguards ('CAB') however it is not necessarily the case that the old models were not made of CAB; for example this is mentioned in this review from 2008;

https://www.cyclinguk.org/sites/default/files/document/migrated/publication/200803062.pdf
(see the 'accessories' section)

Probably there is more to this than meets the eye. For a while it seemed simpler, but that may just have been an illusion!

cheers

[fausto copy]

Weren't they once known as Esge?

[Brucey]

yes, SKS bought ESGE's mudguard manufacturing business and rebranded them SKS some years ago. Originally 'chromoplastic' was an ESGE thing.

cheers

[Craigie]

Does this mean the 'newer' CAB material won't develop that annoying discolouration (corrosion) of the aluminium in the sandwich?

If so, it's a big thumbs up from me!

[Brucey]

Does this mean the 'newer' CAB material won't develop that annoying discolouration (corrosion) of the aluminium in the sandwich?.....

seems unlikely to me....

cheers

[Bmblbzzz]

If I've understood this directly this is one of the ironies of globalization-localization. Bluemels was a British company which was bought in turn by ESGE then Sachs and lastly SKS. SKS applied the Bluemels name to solid (or solid-looking) plastic guards without the aluminium strip (or at least without a visible aluminium strip) and used their own SKS name for the 'chromoplastic' models. They found, for whatever reason, the chromoplastics were only popular in the UK. So a few years ago they dropped them from the general catologue but kept them in production for the British (and presumably a few other) markets, at the same time withdrawing the Bluemels from the British offering. So the Bluemels name ended up being unavailable in Britain but readily available elsewhere!

It sounds like they've had another model reshuffle since then and doubtless more will come but at least for the time being they're using the Bluemels name for the guards where the metal strip isn't visible.

[rmurphy195]

Maybe they want to play down the plastic bit, with plastic being such a problematic subject these days. Perhaps that is why "Chromoplastic" is being dropped as a name, if it is.

Shame, really IMO the problem is not what we use plastic for, its what we do with it when we've finished with it.

[francovendee]

Are there any other companies offering mudguards? Maybe they are too niche to make it worthwhile.
I wouldn't mind a nice set of alluminum, full length muguards to fit a 26 x 1.75 tyre. I've not found any yet.

[pwa]

Maybe they want to play down the plastic bit, with plastic being such a problematic subject these days. Perhaps that is why "Chromoplastic" is being dropped as a name, if it is.

Shame, really IMO the problem is not what we use plastic for, its what we do with it when we've finished with it.

I agree. The word "plastic" has had a bad feel to it for as long as I can remember. It often means cheap and not very good. Disposable and not to be valued. But in the case of ESGE / SKS Chromoplastic (and similar) guards, for me the materials used are the best we have for the job. Properly installed, Chromoplastic guards are rattle-free, very long lasting, and look good. They cope with knocks and require very little attention. I have some dating back 20 years, and apart from replacing the odd rivet I have had no problems with them. The one small flaw has always been what we do with a broken piece of guard when at last one fails. Landfill has been the unsatisfactory answer in the past. If SKS have been addressing that problem, great! Perhaps a great product just got better.

[nosmarbaj]

Are there any other companies offering mudguards? Maybe they are too niche to make it worthwhile.
I wouldn't mind a nice set of alluminum, full length muguards to fit a 26 x 1.75 tyre. I've not found any yet.

Gilles Berthoud do 'guards in stainless steel, though not Al. I've no personal experience of them, and no idea if/where they can be obtained in UK.

[mikeymo]

Maybe they want to play down the plastic bit, with plastic being such a problematic subject these days. Perhaps that is why "Chromoplastic" is being dropped as a name, if it is.

Shame, really IMO the problem is not what we use plastic for, its what we do with it when we've finished with it.

I agree. We try to be low plastic in this house. I think un-recycled plastic is incinerated in this city, in a new hi-tech incinerator, hopefully with the necessary "scrubbers" to remove nasties from the exhaust.

But I can't help thinking that concern about the plastic in cycle mudguards might be misplaced, at least until one has got to the point where every other area of one's life is plastic free. One would have to be replacing plastic mudguards at a very high rate before the amount going to landfill, or wherever, was anywhere near the amount that is generated by food packaging and similar. Hopefully nobody is fitting "single-use" plastic mudguards!

As David MacKay says in SEWTHA, "every BIG matters". He's talking about energy, but the same principle applies.