Mudguards are a necessary evil in the UK, if you want to ride for longer in the winter slop and save your bike from premature wear you have to put up with bolting on a guard that does nothing for aesthetics but does a job. No one likes a gritty wet backside and to have to clean every inch of the bike after every ride. Below is the reality of riding off road , year round in the UK
With conditions like the above a full mudguard is just a wheel seized with mud and having to clear the frame of mud with a stick or carry the bike moment. We’ve probably all faced that at some point if you are a committed off road winter rider. Minimal guards tend to get less clogged but they don’t really work as spray from the rear wheel will get through.
With this in mind I was very sceptical that the Win Wing from Ass-Saver would be any more effective than some of the tiny guards on the market today. But Staffan from Ass-Saver was confident enough in his product to send a Win Wing out to me for just the cost of postage from Sweden to try in the UK mud.
Ass-Saver are probably best known for the little guard that sits under the back of the saddle to stop spray from wetting your bum, and they are very effective at this. They don’t stop you getting mud everywhere else than your bum but if your bum is comfy you are generally happy! Enough bottom talk though lets look at the Win wing. It is literally a thin flap of plastic that fits around a plastic hoop with a pin on the top. the flap has mounting holes drilled into it so you can adjust the angle of the Win Wing to suit your bike (not everyone’s seat stays are the same angle). The hoop fits to your bike’s seat stays with a very simple but tenacious zip-tie like clamp. The clamp once synched up doesn’t move at all and there’s lots of adjustment for the thinnest and fattest stays. The clamp can be mounted and removed in seconds enabling quick swaps between bikes making the guard very versatile. I popped min in the middle position and it’s been fine on 3 different bikes. Once set it doesn’t move. I would however protect your frame, I used some insulating tape, as if a tiny bit of grit gets under the clamp it may remove some paint.
So it fits great, isn’t big and ugly (in my opinion) is easy to mount on wet days and remove on dry rides but does it actually work? I thought the best way to prove this one way or the other was to mount my camera on my seat post looking back at the Win Wing and ride through quite a lot of mud. If the camera got really muddy then I’d say it was a fail, if the lens stayed relatively splatter free it would be a “WIN”
So here’s the video I uploaded to the UK Gravel Collective you tube channel (please like and subscribe)
As you can see from the video, my scepticism was misplaced. The area from the bottom of my seat post to a quarter of the way up my back stayed mud free, my back side was happy and my dropper post didn’t need a clean and rebuild after every gritty ride. Admittedly my legs still got splattered as you’d need a full coverage guard for that.
So, is the Win Wing well named? in my book yes, the fact it does keep the spray off your delicate bits (and my bottom), is super easy to fit and swap to other bikes, is very light weight, won’t clog in even the filthiest thickest mud (I’ve had 2.1″ MTB tyres under it with loads of room) and it’s not super expensive compared to full mudguards is enough for me to recommend it to anyone facing the conditions we ride in in the UK
Now Staffan, lets talk about a UK Gravel Collective Logo version!
You can find out more from the ASS-Savers website here (non affiliate link)
UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE 