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JVBulman
zephyr26
To all brave mudguard settlers- many combination of frames and guards lack good clearance
But I also often find that the limiting factor is the height of the rim brake caliper and the shape of the underside of the caliper arms. They are usually quite asymmetric and one arm hits/squashes the guard, if the guard is up as far as the frame allows.
So the lateral solution is to reshape the brake. There is a lot of metal in the arm, particularly in Shimano r650. So attack the underside with a half round file to produce an even curve when the brakes are applied - depends on rim width. This gains quite a few mil of clearance - obviously the brake arms is weaker now to some extant, but just look at some of the weedy calipers we used to have. I can't detect any change in brake function, but I just remove as little as I can to form the needed shape, rear brake is best for the nerves, just do a bit at a time with lots of trial fits.
Obviously could apply the same logic to a tight fork crown too - but that's beyond my risk tolerance