much misaligned

As luck would have it, I was wittering about mudguards this time last year, too. Shortly after getting home I packed up Edgar in the backpack and set off for the sorting office to collect the parcel which I had assumed to be the mudguards for newoldbike. A few minutes out of the door I noticed that it was much later than I thought and that I'd have to walk at normal unladen maximum to get there in time, which wasn't possible for the entire journey as Edgar sometimes rests his mouth against a strap and wouldn't have appreciated being bounced at high speed. Though there were people leaving the customer reception bit clutching parcels as I crossed the car park the door was locked when I arrived and the miserable cheating post-gits visible within were putting in their coats despite it being clearly still only one minute to seven. Fortunately, whilst I was out a neighbour had handed Nicky a wheel-box-sized parcel from CRC, indicating that the one under postal-guard was the cast-off sheep suit a family friend's child was strangely refusing to wear and which had been donated and sent upwards via my mother. The longer that stays in a sorting office the better.

Despite being almost certain that I'd ordered P50 mudguards in grey those which had arrived were P45 and black, though that was what it was saying on the order-confirmation email. They fit (though initially not very well, though that was solved by flipping the front wheel (much easier than re-dishing the wheel, with its corroded spoke-nipples)) but are somewhat of a bugger to fit, resulting in only the front one being in place by the time it became time to sleep. They'll suit slightly narrower tyres much better (if the mudguards waggle the inside of the stay-holding bolts will lightly brush the tyre) but ought to be able to cope with the existing 38s until I get round to replacing them. Bending the stays will help, though that will wait until they're both installed and I'm certain that they're being kept. In an ideal world all bicycles would be manufactured with a particular size of SKS mudguard in mind, rather than supplied with proprietary guards (as were my childhood bicycles) with non-standard fittings which had to be bodge-repaired when rust or impact took them out. If I had gone for the P50s it would have been hit and miss getting them to fit, but both tyres on the bike are 38 and the P45 is said to suit 28-37C. Some mudguards are better than none, though, no matter who says otherwise.