We have yet again rewritten the rules of fender design with our new, ultra-lightweight, clip-on performance mudguard – the radical Win Wing. After taking a look at the product template document, I sent them a design, and a couple of months later, a big box of them arrived at my doorstep. They looked great, but I still wasn’t overly excited about using one. After so many years without fenders, why start now? Fast forward a few weeks into the cold and damp season, and my tune has changed. Read on to see why in this full Ass Savers Win Wing review, and then scroll to the bottom of the post to watch Neil’s complementary video review. Material: Blade - 0.9 mm PP (Polypropylene),Wishbone holder - glassfiber reinforced PA (Polyamid or Nylon) and Strap - TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane).

The Win Wings were remarkable. Quiet. Free of movement. Unobtrusive. And most importantly, effective." Thanks to it's sophisticated simplicity and careful choice of materials, the Win-Wing is virtually indestructible. With only four components (competitors use as much as 40 components) it's not that much that can go wrong. The glassfiber reinforced wishbone holder is both flexible and tough and the rubber straps are virtually indestructible. Boulder, and Colorado more broadly, is heralded as getting 300 days of sunshine a year (there’s a reason I have chosen to live here) and, even in the summer “monsoon” season, the routine afternoon showers are short-lived, and (of late) less substantial all around. As such, I’ve never felt the need to outfit any of my bikes with permanent fenders, though they do lend a certain utilitarian panache to a classic skinny-tubed steel steed, imo. Sure, it would be nice to have on my commuter but in my current location it’s far from necessary and I recognize that half of that desire would be motivated purely by the aesthetic glint of hammered alloy. As described in our original Win Wing review, there are a few key steps that must be taken to ensure optimal performance when installing the Ass Savers Win Wing 2.

The Win Wing Road fits practically any skinny tire bike, protecting the rider in even the worst conditions. Ideal for winter training or if you want to add some comfort to your puristic urban ride. The Win Wing won't rattle or jam, and at less than 75g , you won't even notice it's there. There are other clip-on rear mudguards on the market, but the Win Wing has taken a fresh approach to the problem. Made up of only four components, which are easy to assemble, the Win Wing attaches in seconds and can be swapped between bikes with ease. At the heart of the design is the wishbone holder made from glass fiber reinforced PA (polyamide), that attaches to the seat stays with two neatly fitting rubber straps. The rubber straps have been cleverly designed to sit between the wishbone and seat stays to offer your paint some protection. Ass Savers recommends fitting the wishbone close enough to the tire to achieve between 5-10mm clearance to the blade once fitted. The polypropylene blade easily snaps into position onto the studs molded into the wishbone and there are three positions available to allow for varying seat stay angles. A horizontal, or slightly upward tilting blade is optimum. There’s a helpful guide printed onto the underside of the blade to help achieve the best setup. For the Tangential Coverage to work properly, the mudguard needs to be installed very close to the wheel. Aim for 5-10 mm tire clearance for maximum coverage. The simple attachment system also means that it’s super easy to swap between bikes and it is also compatible with a wide range of tyres. This has been a godsend as I have accumulated more and more test bikes to ride and fitting anything more complicated (or permanent) on each would be too much of an effort. The Win Wing takes about half a minute to take off from one bike and attach to another - and while swapping it around I’ve noticed it’s also not scratched my seat stays (I would still recommend attaching a piece of frame protection tape as a precaution). And if you’re worried about theft, Ass Savers has designed it with a little zip-tie hole so you can zip-tie it to your seat stays semi-permanently.

Stopping mud and spray before it hits your dropper post’s slider and main seal is sure to keep the post running smoother, longer. In person, the Win Wing’s patent-pending Wishbone is quite impressive. It’s very well-engineered and seems equally well-made. It consists of three pieces: a fiberglass-reinforced polyamid Nylon arch and two TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) straps. The straps each have a T-shaped base that fits within the molded foot part of the Wishbone. These provide a nice grippy and non-abrasive connection to the seat stays. The straps wrap around the seat stays, thread through a slot at the inside of each wishbone leg, and then connect to a molded tooth on the outside. There’s also an additional slot on the drive-side leg for an “anti-theft” zip tie.Ass Savers offers two versions of the Win Wing: one for road bikes with tires up to 38mm and one for larger dirt and gravel tires up to 60mm (2.35″). The one that’s tested here is the gravel version for larger tires. I tried it on two bikes, my Tumbleweed Stargazer with 29 x 2.35” tires and another test bike with 2.4s—the gray one shown in many of these photos. Neil also tested his with 27.5 x 2.6″ tires, as you’ll learn in the video at the bottom of the post. While the product actually consists of four parts—the Wishbone Mount, the Blade, and two straps—the straps are already attached to the mount upon delivery, so in practice it only feels like two parts upon first install. The Wishbone Mount is designed to be attached to the seat stays at an upward sweep in relation to the wheel. The ends of the Wishbone legs are slightly curved, to seat better against the seat stays and directly above each is a slot that the strap intuitively feeds through. It is then fastened tight by securing via one of the holes to the nub on the arm. The Blade then snaps onto the “U” of the Wishbone through mated holes punched in the Blade and small knobs on the Wishbone. We have yet again rewritten the rules of fender design with our new, ultra-lightweight, clip-on performance mudguard – the radical Win Wing. With all of that said, it’s already hard to fault the original Ass Savers fender if you accept its limitations – literally just a simple ( and pretty well-designed) piece of folded plastic clipped to your saddle rails… and often copied. A regular Ass Saver doesn’t offer a ton of coverage either, but was/is a ‘better-than-nothing’ approach to at least keeping your butt from getting muddy and soaked on wet or sloppy rides. The fender blade is made from 80% recycled polypropylene and has five holes that are used to connect it to the Wishbone. There are three in the front-center of the blade that are used to insert the peg at the top of the arc. Each of these options changes the angle of the wing and enables bikes of varying sizes to achieve the correct angle. Ass Savers recommends a horizontal to “tail-up” position to maximize performance. I mounted it using the middle hole, which tilted the blade slightly upward on a size large drop-bar 29er. There are two additional holes that match with the two outer Wishbone pegs—one on each “wing.” Once they’re all attached, it’s remarkably solid, given its scant 71 gram weight.

Two key selling points for the Win Wing fenders are that they fit a wide range of tires ( and bikes), and they are lightweight. The straps are made from ultra-tough TPU and should be pulled as tight as you can comfortably do by hand. If you experience that the mudguard is not stable, try to use the next hole in the strap. The concept of the Win Wing is tangential protection. Putting the fender just a few millimeters above the rear wheel catches all of those tangential lines of road spray, right at the tire where they originate. We researched other brands and found that they were appalling quality straight out of the box and often more expensive too.

The key to understanding how the Win Wing works lies in physics: water and mud leave the wheel in a straight line from the tangential point of release,” says Ass Savers. A simple wishbone looped over your tire and strapped to the seatstays, the Win Wing fender stops mud and water right at the source. Ass Savers call it “tangential coverage”. The Win Wing stops spray at the tire, before it’s thrown towards your… ass. And I kinda love it, from road to gravel, even to protecting the dropper post seals on my XC bikes. There’s also a slot on one-side to secure a zip-tie around it, not to keep it from falling off, but as a mini anti-theft feature for when you leave your bike unattended. Ass Savers Win Wing – Pricing, options & availability