Crud guards have been the ubiquitous choice for fending off mud since the early 90s, when Pete Tomkins first zip tied a section of plastic to the downtube, called it the Crud Catcher and sparked a revolution in keeping mud out of your eyes.
The rear-orientated Raceguard soon followed, and both mudguards have been through many redesigns in the nearly two decades since they were introduced. Each redesign has been best described as minor, the first iteration worked so well they've just been tinkering with the plastics, shape and fitting system.
Now, for 2009 the Catcher and Raceguard have both been mildy redesigned. The Crud Catcher still uses the ZX shape but with a new soft nose grafted onto the front and trailing edges, and a rubber Crud logo sits between the frame and Crud Catcher protecting from scratches. To accommodate fat downtubes the holes for the fitting elastic have been repositioned.
The Raceguard has been in service keeping mud off riders' bums across the country for 11 years, but the one criticism often levelled at it was the fiddly attachment system to the seatpost. So they've redesigned it, bringing in a much simpler one-bolt fixing system.
The new Crud items should be in the shops now.
www.crudproducts.com
