The Bumbinos Splash Pack Sugar Rush Mudguards are sensible, tough and cheerful things. I found they were easy to fit to a kids’ bike and they stayed in place better than I expected.
As your kids get older, they’ll typically progress to bikes which have proper mudguard mounts and this means that you can kit them out with ‘proper’ guards, but for smaller kids’ bikes, this is often not possible. Bumbinos has developed the Splash Pack products to enable mudguards to be fitted to bikes with 14in to 20in wheels.
Bumbinos is part of the same Swedish group as the long-established Ass Saver brand, and you might recognise a scaled-down version of the Win Wing rear mudguard which the off.road.cc team have consistently reviewed very well.
The front mudguard is simplicity itself, with two Velcro straps holding in place a polypropylene blade shaped and scored to curve towards the front wheel when strapped to the bike’s down tube.
The rear also uses a polypropylene blade, but held in place with a bracket made of glass-fibre reinforced nylon, just like the Win Wing. This bracket is common to both sizes of Bumbinos and is adjustable to suit different wheel sizes. The blades, on the other hand, come in two sizes to suit 14-16in wheel bikes and 18-20in wheel bikes.
You can buy replacement blades and replacement brackets, so you’re covered if your child has just moved up to a larger bike, or indeed if they break a component.
Bumbinos has borrowed the same TPU strap system used on the Win Wing to fix the rear bracket to the seat stays, and I found it was simplicity itself to fit. You just strap the bracket to the seat stays, and then fix the blade on via some small pegs and holes. There are no screws, nothing to cut – it is simplicity itself.
In less than five minutes I’d assembled the Bumbinos, fitted them and checked that nothing was rubbing. Those Velcro straps on the front will probably go around the cables for gears and brakes, so it’s worth checking to see that they can still move freely. I found there were no issues. I also found it was fairly simple to fit them either side of the upper attachment to a bottle-cage on my son’s bike.
For a product made from plastic and held on without any screws, I was surprised and impressed at how robust the Bumbinos are. They coped fine with riding to school and with the bike getting dragged home on the back of our Tern GSD, as well as the rigours of the local BMX track and even a fairly dramatic crash at speed.
But do they do the job? In general, clip-on mudguards offer less complete protection then full mudguards, and Bumbino says they are designed, “to reduce spray, not eliminate it”. I think that’s fair, as there are still tangents at which wheels can fling water off and get you wet. My son loves riding through puddles, and I’d estimate that the Bumbinos reduced the amount of muddy water hitting the back of his white polo shirt by about 95 per cent, which is very much a win for me.
Bumbinos offers a wide range of fun and colourful designs to appeal to kids – I think this product could almost be a collab between Ass Savers and fellow Swedish brand Happy Socks. My son thought the Sugar Rush design we had (featuring ice-cream and sprinkles) was pretty fun, and there are other designs including tropical feathers, space, reptilian scales, robots, and more. They come with stickers too. It does seem like they’ve well understood their market!
The RRP for a set including blades and mounting is £29.99 (in either size). They’re made in Sweden with Bumbinos promoting their use of 100 per cent renewable energy and “decent wages”. Those are good things, and don’t come without associated costs.
That price is still three times the costs of a basic option like the Halfords Essentials Kids Mudguard Set, though. I’m not a fan of basic rear mudguards which clamp onto the seat-post, however – they’re forever getting knocked out of position. The two attachment points used for the rear guard here are a much better solution and I’ve not needed to adjust the position of either mudguard since fitting them.
I think they make the most sense if your child is at the bottom end of the range – perhaps on his or her first pedal bike. That way you can buy a 14-16in set and then move to the 18-20in blades as they progress for €19.
Overall though, I liked the Bumbinos (and their funny name) and so did my test pilot.
Test Report
What does the manufacturer say about this product?:
A new type of mudguards for kids. We call it a Splash Pack.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of this product:
Compatibility
Kids’ pedal bikes with matching wheel size. Works with BMX and folding bikes.
Sizes
14–16″ (roughly ages 3–6)
18–20″ (roughly ages 6–9)
Mounting
Tool-free, strap-based. Installs in seconds. Adjustable bracket fits different bike sizes.
Materials
Blades: polypropylene, min. 30% recycled post-consumer material
Straps: TPU, replaceable
Bracket: glass fibre reinforced PA
Weight
14–16″: ~100 g
18–20″: ~110 g
Clearance
Min. rear tyre top clearance: 10mm
Max tyre width: 65mm
Any further comments on quality?:
They’re solid, but the polypropylene blades have the same cheap-and-cheerful vibe as the original Ass Saver product did.
Any further comments on performance?:
Considering they’re not full mudguards, they are impressively effective at reducing spray.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested?:
Less than a full set of Islabike OE mudguards, but not *that* much less. Three times the price of basic clip-on sets for kids’ bikes.
Did you enjoy using the product?
Yes, and so did my son
Would you consider buying the product?
Yes, if we were just starting out with a 14in bike
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
They keep the kids happy with the fun designs, and they keep the parents happy with less laundry to do. I think they’re quite spendy and that’s what would stop me giving a full five stars.
About the tester
Age: 48Height: 188cmWeight: 85kg
I usually ride: On-One BishBashBoshMy best bike is: Cervélo Caledonia-5
I’ve been riding for: Over 20 yearsI ride: Most daysI would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: Gravel riding, Commuting, Touring, Club riding, Audax, Leisure riding
