Can a Specialized Tarmac disc take mudguards

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jekyll man
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by jekyll man

Razz up on a proper winter bike with guards and all, and just show them how to ride and keep up.
Riding a good bike all year round is just soft unless you live somewhere thats nice all year.

The Kinesis's are all good bikes and very popular around these parts, but unless they've changed it, the GF (can't comment on the disc version) had very poor tyre and mudguard clearance.


There's nowt worse than following some pleb with little or no thought for anyone else, and ending up with a face like a plasterers radio...
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robo
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by robo

If it helps I've been through the same process this Winter, wanted to move to a hydraulic disc-equipped bike for winter training and the pre-requisitite of being able to fit full mudguards really narrowed down the choice (I was keen to move away from Crud Guards or Raceblades as I wanted to fit wide tyres). I resisted a Spesh Diverge for a long time but was encouraged by a friend who owns a bike shop to try his and against all expectations I was blown away!

I've built one up with an Ultegra groupset, wide and light carbon wheels (22mm internal width), 28/30mm tyres and can vouch for it being a fantastic bike, and fast to ride both on road and moderate off-road (fire roads in particular). I'd double-check the head tube heights as they're a lot shorter than I expected, I've got a 52cm which has a 12mm headtube when combined with a slammed stem makes for a pretty aggressive riding position.

Hope this is helpful, here's a pic:

Image

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geedawg
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by geedawg

I don't have a Tarmac, but have a BMC GF01 Disc that I just had fenders installed on. Nothing, I mean NOTHING, would fit onto the bike other than low coverage Portland Design Works Origami fenders, which offered insufficient coverage.

I had PDW Full Metal Fenders on my Cervelo R3 and loved them, but the 23mm ones were not going to fit onto the GF01 as I am running 28mm tires on HED Ardennes+, which effectively gives me an almost 30mm tire. I resorted to getting the "city" version, which is effectively the same as the road version, except wider.

For the rear, my mechanic had to fashion a bracket to attach the fender to the seatpost, as there is no brake caliper to attach the rear fender to. The front part of the rear fender was also cut off (the part that goes between the tire and the seat tube), as there was no way to get it to fit under the seat stay bridge. This was a bit of a bummer, but for me, the seat tube catches most of that spray and it's not that big deal to me. The fender stays were attached to the seatstays with custom made mounts and zip ties (that actually look OK).

The front fender was also tricky. Given the big fender, there was not enough space to fit the fender between the fork and the tire. There was also no brake caliper, and no hole underneath the fork crown, to mount the fender to. However, upon further inspection, there was a hidden hole underneath the fork crown underneath the paint. So my mechanic cut the front fender in two, made a narrow bracket to connect the two pieces, drilled a whole through the metal bracket and was able to mount the front fender to the hole underneath the fork crown. He also made the same brackets as on the rear to mount the fender stays to the fork, right by the dropouts.

Might be hard to imagine given my poor description, but the setup actually looks great, IMHO. Very clean, if anything. I'll try to take some pics to post later.

All in all, doable, but you need some DIY skills or a great mechanic that is willing to do some customization for you.

spdntrxi
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by spdntrxi

My crud racers ?? Version 2 kinda need a brake bridge to zip tie ... So don't know how well they would work without that


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cmcdonnell
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by cmcdonnell

That Diverge looks great robo, looking at your saddle to bar drop i'd say you have longer legs / are a little taller than me. I'm 5'6" (1.67m) with a 30" (76cm) inside leg I run my saddle 67cm high from BB and saddle tip to bar centre is 56cm. What's the total height of the headtube from base of bottom cup to the stem base?
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robo
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by robo

Cheers cmcdonnell, you're right about height, I'm 5'7" and about 31" leg. Top of saddle to centre BB is 71.5mm and I've measured the bottom of head tube to top of headset top-cap and it's 13.1mm. I haven't tried but you could probably get a slightly lower profile top-cap and lose a mm or two.

Good luck with your search!

BikeAnon
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by BikeAnon

I don't see why fitting full fenders would be any problem.

Get some cable clamps (shown in inset)(local hardware store) and mount them as high as needed on seat stays.

Get some fenders similar to the Planet Bike ones shown.

Connect the fender-stays to the seat-stay cable-clamps.

Connect the fender end (circled in green) to the seat-tube using zip-ties. You can ziptie this above the deraileur, and adjust the length of the fender-stays as needed. The kit will also come with a bracket to mount the fender to the brace between the seat-stay. It looks like you have enough clearance up there.

A bonus to mounting the part circled in green high.... the higher you mount it, the lower the fender gets in back. Everyone will gratefully vie to be drafting you.

I run this setup on my CX frame, that has no fender mounts.

1421643526888.jpg


You're on your own for setting up a front fender. No brake-hole means you might have to bodge something.

BikeAnon
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by BikeAnon

Here's my bike. I hope it helps. You can't easily see it, but the bracket at the brace (where you'd normally have caliper brakes) slides onto the fender, in any position along the fender. This is then zip-tied to the frame brace.

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Nefarious86
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by Nefarious86

What fenders are they Robo?
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nlouthan
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by nlouthan


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Mr.Gib
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by Mr.Gib

cmcdonnell, sounds like you have a real fit issue. Most of the bikes that are good for fenders have relaxed geo - tall front ends. Maybe you might just have to do what Eddy Merckx did and bend your elbows a bit. Too bad you can't make the Domane work. The 6.9 disc is pretty nice.

If you live in an area where you can train year round but the roads are wet in the winter, then full fender coverage is the way to go. I am in the Pacific Northwest. Perfect riding temps in the winter but wet road from November to February/March. Your fast group with a bunch of guys mostly protecting their own asses sounds grim. Might just be the bike culture in your location, so be it. If you are Ok with it with that then go with the ass saver and screw everyone else. 'Round here we have some serious group rides, lots of elite level guys and its fenders right to the ground or train alone, or in the ditch. All of the light weight minimal options are pointless if you are hoping to protect the guys behind you. Of course we always get some asshole with deep section carbons and an ass saver who will say he though the weather forecast meant the roads might be dry.

A strong vote for disc brakes for winter use. I hate discs, have 'em on my Boone and they save rims and work better when its really wet. Otherwise pointless on a road bike.

Good luck with your search and apologies if I seemed to question your fortitude on the bike. It's just that I see the cowards on too may winter group rides. Zipp 808's in the rain FFS.
wheelsONfire wrote: When we ride disc brakes the whole deal of braking is just like a leaving a fart. It happens and then it's over. Nothing planned and nothing to get nervous for.

robo
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by robo

Nefarious86 - they're just the standard SKS Chromoplastic mudguards (the wide ones). They seem fine and don't rattle even offroad. Cheers, robo

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