Aldo, et al:
I, too, have fallen under the Mudguard Spell. Part of it may have to do with having been a motorcyclist in a previous stage of my life; part of it also stems from the realization that not only do mudguards help a bicycle to be more of an all-weather conveyance without besmirching the rider, but their presence in dry climes keeps downtube paintchips at bay.
My understanding is that the Bluemels of yore is no longer, but I've deduced that SKS must have rights to the name: the factory mudguards on my Moulton FX80 are marked both SKS and Bkuemels.
Two weeks from today I'm permitted to resume pedalling. Springtime (and the Cirque) are also drawing nearer by the day.
Chris Beyer
Bloomfield, NJ
Has anyone else noticed... once you've used mud guards awhile and gotten used to seeing them, a bike without mud guards looks so bare and incomplete?
Is Bluemels out of business? Were they an independent company, or part of some bigger organization?
What became of their tooling?
Were the plastic parts made by extrusion. or are they molded, or something else?
Now that most new bikes won't even accept mud guards, I have a difficult time understanding where the need for mud guards went. Granted, I never trained with them when I was younger, but I can remember MANY wet winter training rides when they would have come in handy.
About ten years ago a friend in Seattle told me that if you didn't DARE arrive for a rainy training ride without mudguards, lest you risk exile from the group. Is that still the case in Seattle? Anywhere else?
In Cincinnati a group of racers told me they wouldn't train with mudguards because they created too much wind drag and slowed them down too much. But I wonder - who needs to go fast on a cold winter's day? Wouldn't mud guards give you a better workout, and without as much windchill?
My dear Bluemels, where've ye gonta?
Aldo Ross
Monroe, Ohio
sunny and windy 40 degrees