As some of you will know, I've gone and got myself a Giant Trance. It's a lovely piece of kit but the frame design is such that the rear shock sits in a cage just above the BB. It's been pointed out that this leaves it in a fairly vunerable position come wintertime, with much, mud, water, and gerally large aboutns of crud liable to fly up and cover the shock / get stuck in the frame cage. Is this a cock-up in design? I don't know, but either way, some sort of protection is needed. The current plan is to fashion something Blue Peter out of rip ties and flexible plastic (perhaps sources from a washing up liquid bottle :-) ) but then I saw these: http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=12257

So, do you think I could fashion one of these to fit on a Trance? Answers on a postcard to the usual address...

Probably, but you might have to buy a Spesh first :-)

I have one on my Stumpy and they work very well, although not at the moment as it's in the back of my camelback after snapping it off on a big drop!

I can't quite see where you'd put the Spec' guard on a Trance. The shock does look exposed, but the advantage of the Trance design is that stuff just falls out of the open bits at the bottom, which is good. Blocking it off with plastic and zip-ties will just give you a cack-collection bucket at the bottom of the frame.

I'd be inclined to wait until winter and see how much stuff actually accumulates down there.

" I can't quite see where you'd put the Spec' guard on a Trance."

It's mroe the design of the guard Mike - I think it's a good idea for frames with low-slung shocks. I think my line of thinking is to try and protect the whole area from crud and water before it even gets as far as the shock. I do worry that crap will find its way into the shock despite the cage allowing everything to fall out, but I see your point about waiting and seeing in the winter months. P'raps that's the best tack after all.....

just get a lizard skin shock wrap...

Lizard Skin? Ugh. You might as well run your shock inside a scouring pad ;-)

Pad, how about a sort of mudflap on the downtube above the hole in the bottom, so it deflects stuff off the front wheel but still allows drainage?

That's not a bad idea Mike. Charlie suggested something similar, but I think this is going to have to be a DIY rather than an off-the-peg job!