If you find yourself in a bike shop browsing for mudguards, stop, leave, return home and take a look at your bike first. The first things to consider are clearance and if your frame has eyelets.

Whether your bike has mudguard eyelets will affect what time of guards you are able to fit. Bikes with eyelets will accept full mudguards, provided there’s adequate clearance, while those without will require clip-on guards.

Touring bikes and those designed specifically with winter riding in mind, including the Kinesis Racelight TK3, Tifosi CK8 Duro and Canyon Inflite, will normally have eyelets and clearance for full ‘guards. Some bikes, including the Tifosi and Canyon, will be specced with mudguards.

Typically only steel, aluminium or titanium frame will have eyelets, but a small but growing number of carbon fibre frames do, too.

Traditional road racing bikes won’t have eyelets and, more importantly, the necessary clearance for full mudguards – they are racing bikes, after all. However, clip-on mudguards from the likes of Crud and SKS will fit most bikes. We’ll run through both options – full mudguards and clip-on guards – over the coming pages.