Don’t know if this fits with what you want to get at, but the main part of the rear mudguard for my mountainbike has now been the cut-up bottom of a 1.5l plastic bottle, fixed with zip-ties to the end of the bike, for many years.
Not only is it superior in function to all the expensive commercial variants I used up to now (actually has a suitable shape and size to catch all the mud…), but it surprisingly also seems to be more durable. And also lighter.
Optics are… special… though.
But I really see that as a positive point: The more ugly a bike appears, the less likely it will get stolen.
Besides, it is a nice talking point when meeting new people :-)
Don’t know if this fits with what you want to get at, but the main part of the rear mudguard for my mountainbike has now been the cut-up bottom of a 1.5l plastic bottle, fixed with zip-ties to the end of the bike, for many years.
Not only is it superior in function to all the expensive commercial variants I used up to now (actually has a suitable shape and size to catch all the mud…), but it surprisingly also seems to be more durable. And also lighter.
Optics are… special… though.
But I really see that as a positive point: The more ugly a bike appears, the less likely it will get stolen.
Besides, it is a nice talking point when meeting new people :-)
I love it! I love being able to hack something together that’s better.
I feel you on the aesthetics OTOH I chose a gigantic purple milk crate attached to the back rack for that reason as well