SKS Nightblade mudguard

The SKS Nightblade mudguard is a good choice to keep your bum and back clean, while being easily removed or added as weather dictates. The removable rear light is only for legal compliance, though, and adds a hefty premium over similar non-light versions.

If you're riding in the UK you really need mudguards. You might not want them – you might decide to ride without them and end up splattered in all manner of cack – but you still need them.

> Find your nearest dealer here

As people come to understand the benefits of not soaking their major muscle groups in an ambient-temperature slurry – not to mention the savings realised in not trashing expensive kit – mudguards have become more widely used, but still the allure of a fender-free bike is there.

Maybe it's a proxy for optimism – 'I don't need them because the trails and roads I ride are clean/dry/cack-free'. So if you want to run clean lines in sunshine but still protect your dignity when the weather turns, an easily-removable mudguard could be the thing.

There are various options we've reviewed over the years from SKS, including the Speedrocker, the Raceblade Pro and the Raceblade Long. These are all great mudguards, SKS taking a lot of time to refine its products and then support them with excellent customer service. With a five-year warranty and full parts availability, the Nightblade is no exception.

Fitting is child's play. The clamp head has two swing-out arms – one removes completely, and is what you pass around your seatpost, the other hinges to unclamp the nylon webbing strap to allow adjustment of length. The rubber clamp face is 43mm long, so that's how much seatpost or tube – above or below your seatpost clamp – you'll need free to secure the guard.

There are three 4mm hex adjustment bolts, one that adjusts the Y-shaped yoke that connects the clamp and guard, the other two adjust the guard angle. So regardless of your bike's geometry it's a safe bet you'll be able to get the Nightblade adjusted to sit close to your wheel/free of your suspension travel. You can angle the front tip of the guard down to hug your wheel/clear any suspension gubbins or a close seatpost.

Once in place with a good amount of force, the Nightblade stays solidly put over the roughest ground, even on quite narrow posts.

> Buyer’s Guide: 17 of the best mudguards

Plenty of people make removable fenders of this design, but what marks the Nightblade out is the removable LED light. It comes off with a spring-loaded sliding plastic tab which, unfortunately, is prone to sticking when exposed to dirt. This isn't that much of an issue to remove as you can flex the mudguard body to give more clearance for the tab – when replacing it you need to ensure the tab is secure enough to hold the light firmly.

Charging is via a micro USB port underneath into the 500mAh internal battery. SKS doesn't provide any IP rating, but it's well protected from rain and splashes.

While charging, there's an orange flashing LED; after 90 minutes it's full and ready for five hours of running on the highest setting. This is a whopping 4 lumens – only just scraping the UK's legal requirement for 4 Candela emitted rearward – and therefore possibly not legal in low power mode.

SKS claims four hours run-time so is being conservative here – further backed up by the fact that after five hours the light switches to flashing mode (also at 4 lumens) for another three hours. You get the orange LED warning you that the battery is low as well, so you're unlikely to be caught out, and with a short charge time you can be up and riding quickly.

There's a 2-lumen low constant mode as well, good for 8-10 hours, and the 4-lumen flashing mode is more like 12 hours.

Given the tiny power on display here, the Nightblade really is a 'legal-compliance' light that is going to make approximately zero difference to whether or not a driver sees you. It's possibly of more use in a group ride, helping others judge their distance to you. Also, if it stops the cops hassling you when riding home after dark that's a win.

> Six tips for cycling at night – don’t let the dark stop you riding

Light and fitting aside, the major benefit of the Nighblade is the coverage it gives your back, and here it's a complete winner. On a four-hour exploration 'ride' – what transpired to be more of a spin through clay/bog/farmyard slop – I was expecting the back of my rather pricey adverse-weather jacket to resemble a cross between abstract art and a well-fed toddler's undergarments. Nothing could be further from the truth: the jacket was completely clean. Not a single speck of muck was evident – and this was off a 700C wheel with a 2.2in tyre.

The narrowest part of the guard is 3in wide and the rubberised tail broadens to 4in, I'm guessing to help account for flex left-right as the guard bounces. Whatever the rationale, it just works.

SKS sells a dedicated 26-27.5in version that's 70mm shorter, for bike frames where the wheel diameter is smaller, or the seatpost attachment point might be more rearward than a more vertical gravel/road frame.

Are integrated-light, removable mudguard combos the future, or a doomed-to-repeat-past-failure solution looking for a problem? The Topeak iGlow met with similar derision for its lighting capability a few years back, though it's a bit cheaper at £39.99.

> Buyer’s Guide: 18 of the best rear lights for cycling

SKS does a non-LED rear guard called the X-Blade for around £23, which uses exactly the same fittings as the Nightblade – so you're paying £22 for a 4-lumen removable light. For that money you can get any number of much brighter rear lights, so really, the judgement here comes down to how much you value the integrated nature of the Nightblade to keep you out of trouble with the law.

Verdict

It's a very effective mudguard, but the light is really only meeting legal requirements