I won’t say that I actually enjoy riding in the rain, but I seem to spend of lot of time doing it. The worst part of riding in the rain is the cleanup—whether you ride for 30 minutes or three hours you are going to have to spend some time cleaning and oiling your bike afterwards. Most of my rainy-day rides are on an off-road bike trail (I am not a commuter), and off-road trails kick up an unbelievable amount of grit, grime and sand. The Planet Bike Grunge Board will not entirely eliminate the mess created by riding in the rain or snow, but it certainly does cut it down to manageable levels.
Planet Bike Grunge Board
The Planet Bike Grunge Board attaches to the down tube of your bike with two rubber straps. I always hate to use the phrase “easy to install,” but a trained monkey could put this on your bike in under thirty seconds. My oldest bike is a Trek 4300 mountain bike with aggressive knobby tires and I keep the Grunge Board on it all the time. In the winter I take the knobby tires off and install steel studded snow tires (I do enjoy riding in the snow). Since I only ride the Trek 4300 in inclement weather I also have fenders installed on it and the Grunge Board picks up where the fenders leave off.
The Grunge Board is made of an all-weather polymer material and comes with a limited lifetime warranty. However, I don’t see how anything could ever go wrong with the Grunge Board unless you get run over by a Humvee.
The Planet Bike Grunge Board retails for $12, but you can buy it online for around $9 from several retailers. I purchased mine from a local REI store and if your ride in the rain or snow you ought to give it a try.
z-man
November 25, 2012 at 1:38 PM
Mounts easily, but unfortunately the forks of my mountain bike hit the top of the Grunge Board when I make a tight turn, shifting it to one side or the other. If I move the Grunge Board lower on the down tube to clear the fork, the mud comes over the top. If the design of the Grunge board were flatter rather than U-shaped, the forks would easily clear underneath.