I really like SKS mudguards. They are very well made and finished off and come with a comprehensive fitting kit. They are for universal fitting so sometimes they take a little time to get that perfect fit on your own bike. My favourites are their thermoplastic range but 50mm is the biggest width they offer on those. I have gone for the Bluemels because I need a 55mm width for a gravel bike - I haven't fitted them yet but they have arrived just as comprehensively packaged from SKS and they have a lovely glossy black finish so I have no doubts that they will go on very well.

Good product marred by missing part and need to make a custom brackt

Product very good but bracket supplied for rear mudguard held it so far proud of the stay holding the rear brake caliper that it fouled the tyre. I had to do without it and make my own bracket. There was also one nut missing, but I was able to make one myself (I have a lathe, I wonder how many riders do?). I reported both matters to Tredz by email but no response. Overall satisfied with the mudguards now modified, not impressed with lack of response from Tredz.

Good quality mudguards

I purchased the SKS Bluemels Mudguard Set 28" 700c x 45mm in Black for my Boardman ADV 8.9 that has 38mm tyres. The mudguards have a good snug fit, the rear is rock solid, the lower part on the front mudguard does vibrate a little from left to right over bumps and rub the wheel, I believe this is because the fixing arms go into a plastic joint where they are connected to the forks, and this has a bit of flexing it. The rear arms are one continual piece of wire (on each side) to both of the fixing points. I am very happy with them.

High quality fenders

The Bluemels came with all the hardware needed, plus a lot of extra pieces to accommodate different configurations. They are plenty wide for the 700 x 37 with space to accommodate a wider tire when I decide to do that.I'm pretty handy with basic bike maintenance, but it still took me 2 hours or so to install them. It takes some time to pull the wheel, install things hand-tight, reinstall the wheel to adjust to the correct position, remove things again to cut the metal pieces, then reassemble and tighten everything. Nothing is very complicated, though.I used 18" bolt cutters to cut the metal, and had to take things apart to position that. The instructions say to cut them with a hacksaw, 1cm above the bolt, after they're tightened in place. I couldn't see how to ... MoreThe Bluemels came with all the hardware needed, plus a lot of extra pieces to accommodate different configurations. They are plenty wide for the 700 x 37 with space to accommodate a wider tire when I decide to do that.I'm pretty handy with basic bike maintenance, but it still took me 2 hours or so to install them. It takes some time to pull the wheel, install things hand-tight, reinstall the wheel to adjust to the correct position, remove things again to cut the metal pieces, then reassemble and tighten everything. Nothing is very complicated, though.I used 18" bolt cutters to cut the metal, and had to take things apart to position that. The instructions say to cut them with a hacksaw, 1cm above the bolt, after they're tightened in place. I couldn't see how to do that without damaging the fender, since they're far too tight. In fact, they say to put these clever rubber caps on the ends after you cut them, but they are so close to the fender that was impossible. The good thing is, with them so close to the fender they won't catch on anything so the caps aren't needed.

I miss the old model...

The new brake bridge plastic mounting bracket is way too bulky, and the front one is so tall it hits the headset on a Riv Roadini. You could bend out the front, but how goofy would that be? I expect to scrounge chainstay bridge spacers for a consistent install, but also ended up fabricating and replacing the two main brackets. I installed many of these during my 35+ years in shops, and really prefer the older ones. Oh well- if you want silver, but not metal, it's about the only game in town.

Looks good but atrocious installation

Good news - These fenders look good on my Surly Preamble and keep me dry on rainy days. Build quality seems fine. These fenders are made of decent quality plastic and aluminum, but the edges of the plastic fenders were irregular and rough. Overall, the build quality is probably a little low for the price you're paying.Bad news - These fenders took me multiple hours to install and required me to make up my own installation process. I already had a hint of what I was getting into when I bought these fenders as I had done some research on what was required. I knew that I would need to cut the struts to length, and I figured that would be a relatively straight-forward process. Unfortunately, that was not the case.The instructions provided by SKS are a bit bizarre, ... MoreGood news - These fenders look good on my Surly Preamble and keep me dry on rainy days. Build quality seems fine. These fenders are made of decent quality plastic and aluminum, but the edges of the plastic fenders were irregular and rough. Overall, the build quality is probably a little low for the price you're paying.Bad news - These fenders took me multiple hours to install and required me to make up my own installation process. I already had a hint of what I was getting into when I bought these fenders as I had done some research on what was required. I knew that I would need to cut the struts to length, and I figured that would be a relatively straight-forward process. Unfortunately, that was not the case.The instructions provided by SKS are a bit bizarre, and instruct you to cut the struts while attached to your bike. I don't know about you, but cutting struts right next to my bike frame with a hacksaw seems like a really bad idea. When you do cut the struts, the black paint used on them starts to flake off, so you have to be really careful about getting a nice clean cut if you want to maintain the look of the struts. Why SKS didn't recommend a simpler method (such as using a strong wire cutter versus a hacksaw), I'm unsure.Next, the bolts provided by SKS to attach the fenders to your frame come in three sizes. Unfortunately, all three of the sizes were either way too big or way too small. That means that I had to cut multiple bolts by hand in order to get them to a size that didn't interfere with the brakes, wheels, etc.Finally, the method SKS uses to make these "disc brake compatible" (mentioned on the FAQs of their websites) is to just stack a bunch of spacers between the fork and the struts. Unfortunately, the spacers are not a great fit around the bolt and if you need to stack a few (I needed 7 on my front fork), they look horrendous as each one is offset from the other. I actually ended up 3D printing my own spacer to get around this.Overall, the installation process was atrocious, and I'm saying this as someone who had all the tools available and had a successful end result.

Review of SKS Bluemels Mudguard Set Black 700c 45mm

These are good mudguards which look smart and fit securely. They provide good protection from spray because they’re full length.They took me a long time to fit and adjust though, and I didn’t find them easy to fit. In particular cutting the metal stays requires sawing them off with a hacksaw, which is tricky (and requires a hacksaw!). Probably not the best if you don’t have the required tools, or aren’t good at that type of thing - would suggest paying for fitting (which would be annoying!) or looking for alternatives which are easier to fit and adjust. However, with a bit of effort these do a good job, look smart, and are good quality.

So close to being great, BUT....

Decently made in so many ways, and the completely black finish helps reduce the aesthetic impact on my lovely new Fairlight Strael. I run 28mm Conti 5000s. I think they could probably 'stretch' to 30mm tyres, if you fit them really carefully.However, the plastic fitting where the supports are attached to the bottom of the forks is for some reason built to be flexible, and on certain stretches of A road the front guard goes into a resonation spasm. Looks, sound, and feels horrible.If only they'd supplied the simple bent metal rod that is used on the rear guard. I might have to buy a complete spare set just to get these two bits of metal, if I can't buy them as spares.

Typical mudguard experience

Replaced same brand guards which had failed at the plastic bracket on the rear guard. Similar bracket on the new one but impossible to use without brutal modification on caliper equipped bike. I suspect these guards are now aimed at disc brake bikes although the description does not say so. They look good though. Mudguards, always a pain!