SKS Chromoplastic Review

The SKS Chromoplastic is widely regarded as the king of mudguards. The rigid construction is formed from sandwiching aluminium between two layers of plastic. The guards themselves are held in place with sturdy stays, and all the fixing bolts are supplied to securely mount them to your bike. (You do require mounting points on frame and fork.) Adjustment is simple, just trim the stays to approximately the right length and then tune the final position before tightening all the bolts.

The rigidity of the set-up was quite simply a revelation! I have had other mudguards before and I was constantly having to readjust them to eliminate tyre rub. With the Chromoplastic guards, once they are in place they stay in place. The stays are held under tension so there are no loose, wobbly guards flapping around. This has the added advantage of allowing them to be set-up nice and tight to the tyres. A particular advantage if space is restricted under your frame or fork.

I had no problems fitting the rear guard to my Trek Madone 3.1 but the forks have hidden mounts, so I had to get creative with some simple little right angled brackets. I also chose the black finish which I felt were less obvious and didn't give my Trek the appearance of a shopping bike!

For winter I have stepped up to a 25mm tyre from the 23 I had originally. I did have to slightly retrim the front guard, just because I had set it so close. This took about 5 minutes and now everything is running quietly again. No rattles, no flex just a dry backside and a clean bike!

It is hard to get excited about a set of mudguards, but these really are an awesome bit of kit. It is so nice when you find something that has been well designed and does exactly what you wanted it to do. Top marks!