Winterisation of road bikes

Yes its that time of year again and time to start getting the bikes ready for the cold, dark and dirt/grime. I have an old Litespeed which is converted for winter riding which stays the same spec all year but after dragging it out of the cave it was time for some new rubber. I fitted some Conti GP 4 Season 23c tyres on it back in July 2010. Since then I havent swapped them from to back or even had them off the rims. The rear was getting flat in the middle but the front still had a small ridge of rubber. The only problem i found was they were a small section tyre and with the amount of pot holes it was time to up date to the 25c version. Shop around and there are some cracking deals on them at the mo. The new ones have exactley the same tread pattern just alittle wider and i mean alittle. I fitted them to the rims, pumped them up and could hardly notice any difference in width to the 23c's. Since then they have done approx half a dozen rides and are scuffing in nicely with no problems.
Now on to the mud guards these are full guards and remain on the bike 12 months of the year. I normally get the SKS models but Westbrook Cycles recommended Tortec which were cheaper to purchase. The section of the guard etc is the same as the SKS inc fittings etc. I had some tweaking to do for the front mech but apart from that no problems. In use they are very ridgid and i get very little tyre rub even with the 25c tyres on. In the wet you get very little spary and do a very good job of keeping your rear dry on a stinker of a day. They come in silver and black option inc reflective side strips, more info here they also come without the reflective strips if you want to save a fiver.

Onto the boys Caad10, now this is a different kettle of fish. He uses this bike on and off all year and he dosent have a seperate winter road bike. With this beig a full on race bike tolerances are tight and you can only fit a couple of designs of mudguards. I used to use the Crudracer Mk1's but they dropped to pieces after a year or so and didnt give much protection but it was better than none. The MK2's came out so time to give them a try. They offer alot better protection but are still very flexy and fragile. They take a long time to set up on the bike and need adjusting after the first two or three rides after they settle in. With them being very flexi they do suffer alot of rim/tyre rub at times. One trick we have learnt is to glue the plastic nuts/bolts together as they are always coming apart and you can easily over tighten them. We will see how they last over the winter. Angus took his Michy Pro Race's off and got the my old Conti 4 seasons, swapping the back to the front and vice versa. Still plenty of miles left in them.   
Blog to follow on the Winterisation of the Fat / Offroad bike fleet and yesterday adventure on the Super X.

The old 23c version

The new 25c version

Front MK2 Crudracer

Just starting to run flat in the middle, they are wearing very well or should that be slowly

Rear MK2 with longer extensions on both ends of the guard

My Brooks is still going strong on my winter bike and is super comfy, will probably last longer than me !