Short test/ winter accessories: Practical, protective, quick to assemble: The SKS Raceblade plates (of course made of plastic) make the cross bike a training device suitable for all weather conditions.
The day comes when even an enthusiastic cross rider no longer enjoys returning from every ride completely soaked and soaked. January is therefore a good month to upgrade your mudguards, and once you've made that decision things move very quickly. In the form of the SKS Raceblade Pro XL, the corresponding accessories are so easily assembled that further words are basically superfluous, but of course we want to take a closer look.
It starts with the scales: a complete set of the wide mudguards weighs 400 grams on the bike – nothing to worry about in winter. Before you proceed to assembly, you should take a close look at the packaging: there you will find stable paint protection films with which the struts and fork can be covered over a large area. In the long run, the struts of the SKS Raceblade mudguards are likely to leave marks on the wheel, even if they are fitted with soft plastic at the mounting points.
The attachment is made with the help of elastic bandages, which are pulled tightly around the fork leg or strut and then hooked in. As expected, the metal sheets first rub against the almost 35 mm wide tires, but the Raceblades are armed with various adjustment options: On the one hand, you can change the length of the struts and thus position the metal sheets further away from the tire or adjust them to the tire circumference, on the other hand, you can adjust the mounting angle. This allows the protectors to be easily adapted to different frame geometries.
When first installed, the leading edge of the front fender reached under the clevis; you could also adjust it to be longer towards the bottom, giving your feet more splash protection. However, the SKS Raceblade are naturally quite long and equipped with wide pointed lobes - something that the person behind you in the training group will also be happy about and that has to be taken into account when it comes to freedom of movement at the front.
A complication arises with disc frames of older design with external brake lines, but the SKS Raceblade XL is prepared for this and has designed the parts on the fork and struts in such a way that they sit over the line.
Anyone who repeatedly attaches and detaches the Raceblades leaves it with the rubber bandages and then has to accept that the protectors are not entirely silent - especially not when they come into contact with the frame and fork, as on our test bike. However, if the metal sheets are to remain on the wheel permanently, they can also be fastened with two cable ties per metal sheet and side; then they sit much more firmly on the bike. No matter how you do it: In a season when the desire to stay clean and dry has given way to the joy of mud fights, the SKS Raceblade Pro XL are a good thing.
