Winter bicycle

I've noticed that my right hand man at the Bosque, Cleuson Teixeira, rides different bicycles to work. One is a very new looking bike and the other one, as you see in the image. He tells me that he uses this one when the road and trails are very muddy. It has nothing to do with getting the newer bike dirty. It's all in the equipment. This one doesn't have fenders, which can get clogged up with mud. The bike without fenders will throw mud up onto the back of the rider, but it'll keep going. Imagine one of those lightweight, 18 speed bikes. The whole thing would end up on the back of the rider because it would never get through the sticky, slippery mud.