Friday morning was an interesting commute into the office; this is one of the darkest morning commutes of the year due to the clocks changing over the weekend, so I left the house in darkness with lights blazing away.

I had also fitted my mudguards and this was the first ride of the year using them, considering how wet the roads were it was pretty good timing!

Despite the darkness and the grey autumnal weather I was feeling pretty cheerful!

I took the road due to the amount of sand along the prom, but as the traffic was quiet and I choose my routes carefully to avoid the more dangerous roads I was still fairly upbeat and was feeling good - despite going out and running 8 miles the night before!

As I rode through Westbourne a van overtook me and I noticed that he only had one rear light working; we were going the same way and I knew that I was likely to catch up at the next set of traffic lights so I decided to let him know just in case he wasn't aware of this.

I didn't get to tell him about his lights due to the next series of events...I've made it sound a bit spooky haven't I? It really isn't.

As I rode along Lindsay Road I counted at least ten vehicles passing me with defective lights and decided that I was fighting a losing battle by telling one person and so changed my mind. So much for cyclists without lights!

The other thing that happened was more of a distraction. As I rode along what is the very bumpy surface of Lindsay Road, my rear mudguard starting rubbing the rear wheel quite dramatically.

At first, due to the fact that I had only just fitted them, I assumed that the guard had slipped and I would need to adjust it, but when I pulled over to investigate further I realised that a very small but important piece of the mudguard had broken causing it to fall and rub the rear wheel.

After making adjustments and temporary repairs I gently rode the rest of the way to work hoping that the mudguard would stay in place.

The mudguards I use on my commuter bike are called the Road Racer and are made by Crud Products. I've had them a couple of years and think that they are fantastic, they are very easy to fit, very light and, most important to me, are silent. I can't stand rattling on my bikes and these are some of the only mudguards I've used that don't rattle or rub - when they're not broken of course!

I got to work feeling a bit disappointed, but knowing that Crud have an excellent reputation I dropped them an email. Within about an hour, I had a personal response from the owner of the company, spares ordered at minimal cost to myself and had managed to rig a more substantial temporary repair with zip ties to get me home. Saturday morning the replacement parts arrived along with all the necessary fixings and a few extra spares as well.

Based on information supplied by David Brown.