Originally Posted by
embankmentlb
Doe's anyone have fenders on their tandem?
We have scheduled 4 or 5 events this year & chances are it will rain for some of them. Overall boredom has me thinking of putting fenders on the tandem. The idea of some nice Velo Orange aluminum fenders makes me smile.
I can also see them being a constant nuisance, getting knocked out of alignment & such. Pros or Cons?
Pros:
+ Greatly reduced spray on legs, back, etc, when it was raining but has stopped. No need to choose between riding through puddles and traffic.
+ Significantly reduced dirt on drive train when riding in sloppy weather. This was the clincher for me.
Cons:
- They don't stay in place perfectly, although the SKSs aren't bad in that line, provided you don't take off the wheels and lay the bike in the back of the car. The main reason I never put them on my single.
- They don't install without issues when used in conjunction with racks.
- They add more things to assemble when stripping down and re-building an S+S coupled bike.
- They increase the effective length when you take off the wheels. This has an effect on transporting the bike minus wheels on the back of or inside of a vehicle.
- If the bike wasn't designed for fenders plus wide tires, it's one or the other, not both. This is keeping me from putting fenders and studs on my old single for winter riding. (then again, with the weather we've had lately, it seems just as well).
We are definitely the sort to take advantage of the added freedom to ride in a greater variety of weather, and not mess up ourselves and the drive train. And we have and will tour. Over all, for us, fenders are the right thing.