The Kinesis Fend Off Shorty Gravel Bike mudguard is one of those simple products that does exactly what is claimed on the site. It protects your backside, kidneys and lower back from the muck – and stops you from getting cold. It extends the comfort level allowing longer rides in the saddle in poor conditions. If your frame has the mounting hardware, it’s one of the best mudguards available for your gravel bike.
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Kinesis Fend Off Shorty Gravel Bike Mudguard - Technical details and installation
The Fend Off Shorty is an aluminium, half-rear mudguard with stainless steel hardware and rubber moveable tips (for the chainstays) which are designed to prevent rattle and chatter when riding off-road. At 62mm wide, it offers decent coverage for tyres up to 55mm in width.
It mounts directly to frames with a seat-stay bridge and threaded mudguard eyelets but any decent garage fettler can make it work on other bikes using some different p-clips and some heavy-duty zip ties. Sticking to the rules and mostly following the decent fitting instructions supplied online, I used a suitable bike with the required mounting points. You might still have to provide some additional mounting hardware yourself if longer bolts are required. You do have to do some minor assembly of the mudguard and stays to start with but that hardware is provided with the set.
The Fend Off Shorty Gravel mudguard starts from the seat stays and provides coverage to around the 10 -11 o’clock position. Hence the name.
Depending on your frame size or wheel and tyre size and combination, you might need to shorten the stainless steel stays. As you can see from my images, my arrangement was just fine with the uncut stays and rubberised ends just fitting in the mounting clamps. I was running a 700 x 44mm Panaracer on the bike pictured here (in SK+ or Semi-Slick formats) and clearance was fine. If you do need to shorten the stays, you’ll need some decent wire cutters or bolt croppers (not your brake cable cutters as the stainless steel stays will ruin them!). I’d also avoid trying to hacksaw them, it might take you a while.
Kinesis Fend Off Shorty Gravel Bike Mudguard - Performance
Once fitted, it’s great to see how solid the structure is. There has been no wobble, chatter or movement at all from the Shorty over the last two months. It’s been well used, too. We’ve had an incredible level of rain and flooding in the West Country which has meant extremely unpleasant rides or at least they would have been unpleasant, if not for the Fend Off Shorty.
It works perfectly keeping the filth off your back and keeping your core dry and warm. Staying dry in this area means you are better able to maintain body temps, are more comfortable and thus able to ride for longer in wet weather. It's not full coverage though and it doesn’t claim to be, so the fact that the back of your seat post and the back of your legs can still get covered in crud is not a huge black mark for the Fend Off Shorty.
If it was a full-length, 62mm wide, metal mudguard there might be all kinds of issues threading it through the seat stays on many frames and then down to the BB, hence the Shorty version. Perhaps Kinesis should look at an optional extender set-up that uses a metal or plastic sliding extension to cover the missing area. SKS Speedrockers offers this to get increased coverage and a secure fit and it helps a bit.
However we are getting off-topic, the Kinesis Fend-off Shorty does exactly what it aims to do and that is to protect your rear and, in that regard, it hits its mark perfectly. The only downside is if you don’t have the required mounts on your frame.
Kinesis Fend Off Shorty Gravel Bike Mudguard - Verdict
Super wide, non-flapping mudguards for gravel bikes are a little bit of a rare thing – yes, there are loads of easy-to-fit strap-on versions but none of them offer such a solid fit. The Kinesis Fend Off Shorty will permanently catch the filth above your tyre, so you won't need to stop and realign it each time you feel wet.
The best of the rest is headed up by the Ass Savers Win Wing rear mudguard which does much the same job as the Fend Off Shorty but is less solid and permanent (if that’s a good/bad thing may depend on where you leave your bike). It costs a lot less at £22 and weighs less at 72g
Also worth a look is the Mudhugger Rear Gravel Hugger at £23 which fixes snuggly against your seatstays which might put a lot of you off. But Mudhugger provides Helitape for protection here and then it’s just a case of good old zip ties to hold it on.
And usefully Mudhugger also offer a Front Gravel Hugger version as well which looks pretty cool and offers solid coverage for £26
If you still fancy a quick on-and-off mudguard option, take a look at the Musguard range. I was impressed with the coverage of the Omni Wide options and the gravel options work the same way. They are not as stable as the Fend Off Shorty and will flap and wobble if that concerns you.
The Kinesis Fend Off Shorty Gravel Mudguard has clearance for big rubber that works extremely well at protecting your rear. Unlike other options, it looks good on the bike and is easy to fit. It doesn’t wobble, flap or chatter on the rough stuff thanks to its rubberised mounting hardware and it should last for ages. An excellent rear guard and one I can wholeheartedly recommend.
