RSP Race Silver mudguards

These budget RSP Race Silver mudguards will keep your bum dry, but they are a pain to fit and are less well thought-through than more expensive offerings.

RSP (listed as Raleigh on the Raleigh website) make modest, but mostly reasonable kit and these mudguards are no exception. Labelled as Race they are quite short for a full-length mudguard and the rear would definitely benefit from a flap. It's not such a big deal for the rider, but anyone following your wheel will probably get fed up quite quickly.

Fitting mudguards is not one of my favourite jobs and these tested my patience to the limit. Firstly, the chainstay end of the rear guards isn't cut in at the sides, which means that if your stays are quite close together the guard won't fit between them without either being trimmed by hand or wedged into position. Not being very handy with a Stanley knife I went for the wedging option, which runs the risk of the guards cracking and failing some time in the future. More expensive guards in my collection have this section already cut away. It's a small thing, but a sign that these guards have been produced on a tight budget, with corners being cut. Or not, in this case.

Another saving was the complete lack of any bolts although it's possible that they were lost in transit between Road.cc Towers and my place.

The fitting system is similar to that used by some clip-on guards with the stay ends located inside a plastic clip which attaches to the mudguard. It's neat, in as much as you don't run the risk of stabbing yourself on an exposed stay end and it looks tidy. The downside is that you can't adjust the stays on the bike before cutting them to length. I got mine almost there, but I couldn't face trying to finesse the last few millemetres using nothing more than a hacksaw. Consequently the rear guard is as gappy as hell, which looks ugly and does a worse job of keeping water away.

Like most mudguards these come with a breakaway clip on the front. It's a much cruder affair than those on my SKS guards, with an eyelet at the end of the stay clipping into a socket attached to the fork.

They do look quite smart (gappy fit aside) with a rounded profile, patterned foil under the plastic outer layer and stubby black guard ends on front and back. There's no hole for a rear reflector or light, so if you want one, you'll have to drill your own.

Although they do the job reasonably well I think I'd rather spend a little more on a less basic option.

Verdict

Reasonable budget guards but fiddly to fit.