Marsh Guard & Mucky Nutz Fenders

I still hold a clear memory from the mid-90s of foraging around in search of an old corflute for-sale sign. When faced with a muddy XC event, we would cut them up and zip-tie a piece to the underside of the down tube as a makeshift fender. To this day you can still buy them (called the Crud Catcher) and they certainly reduced the amount of crap that you’d cop in the face on a muddy ride—especially important for me as a special wearer.

Of late, another style of lightweight mud protection has gained popularity. Mounting under the fork brace, these flexible mini-fenders sit very close to the tyre and aim to catch the mud and water just as it’s flung from the tyre. Both Marsh Guard and Mucky Nutz sell a similar product and we gave them both a try to see if they worked.

Mucky Nutz offers two lengths in their guards; the basic model ($14) only extends to the rear of fork while the ‘XL’ version ($17) also protrudes to the front. Both options weigh next to nothing (22g and 30g respectively) and mount via reusable lengths of velcro.

The Marsh Guard is only offered in a shorter length and sells for $20. They’ve recently created the ‘Stash’ to their line up; this is a small add-on that goes at the front of the Marsh Guard. It contours around the tyre to catch excess water before it’s flung forward at speed. We only got to try the basic Marsh Guard; at 34g it’s a tad heavier than the equivalent length from Mucky Nutz and it mounts via zip ties (supplied with the guard).

In use, both the Mucky Nutz and Marsh Guard products worked equally well. For such compact, lightweight and simple products, they were very effective at catching crud. Aside from looking kind of cool and ‘moto’, they seemed more effective than the down-tube mounted guards. First up, they work in situations where the wheel isn’t pointing directly ahead. They also do a better job at stopping the gunk that’s flung forward and through between the fork legs, only to slow down and land in your eyes/mouth/teeth or wherever. Finally, by stopping the crud right down at the tyre, your fork sliders and seals are spared from the onslaught of mud, and that can’t be a bad thing!

I tried both the regular and XL versions in the Mucky Nutz and couldn’t detect a performance difference. That said, if I frequently rode in poor weather, I’d probably opt for the longer version (or the Marsh Guard with Stach) for added insurance. While this is billed as a product for wet weather riding, the design is so unobtrusive that I was happy to leave it in place all the time. They look good and even in the dry the helped to reduce the amount of dust that collected on my fork stanchions.

There’s not a lot to separate the Mucky Nutz and Marsh Guard products. If you’re likely to use the guard part-time – only when it’s wet – go with the Mucky Nutz as the velcro mounting means you don’t waste cable ties every time it’s removed. If you want to fit and forget, go with the Marsh Guard; the cable ties are more secure than velcro and the slightly thicker plastic holds a nicer shape. In the end both form a surprisingly effective solution and give you a better chance of retaining mud-free vision when things turn brown.

Mucky Nutz – Pushie Enterprises 0404 885 895 / www.pushie.com.au

Marsh Guard – NS Dynamics (07) 3393 0562 / www.nsdynamics.com.au