Recreational & Family - Fenders, racks don't fit Specialized Exped.

I am new here and just recently purchased a Specialized Expedition after being a lapsed road racer for many years. I adore this bike! I had no idea how comfortable riding around and running errands could be.

I want to outfit the bike for utility purposes, so I can leave my four wheel Expedition in the garage for getting a few groceries, going to the library, etc., but none of the standard fenders or racks will fit on this bike with its altered geometry.

This can't be a new issue but I can't find threads here on it. The LBS sold me a pair of fenders, and the front one fits but the rear one does not - not even close. I put that one on my husband's road bike. I got a bike rack for the back, since that would do the job of a fender anyway, but the brackets don't come close to reaching to the seat post area. Are there racks/baskets that I can get that will fit this bike? I am interested in the Wald baskets but hesitate to order them without being able to see if they will attach properly. I can fabricate something to make this rack fit, and bungie a crate on top of it, but it won't look very good!

TIA!

It's not unusual, just make whatever kind of bracket you need. You can make any fender fit any bike, just fabricate brackets or cut plastic fenders, or both. Sometimes the local bike shop will have extra rack mounitng bars, that can be drilled, cut, etc. I find that ocasionally a lousy looking bracket looks better if painted black. You can find nice plated or stainless bolts at a bike shop too sometimes. Left over from other parts put onto bikes. A lousy looking bolt head can look better painted black too.

Or just buy flat bar stock, and some nice bolts from the home store or the hardware store and start a longer bracket from scratch. That might look better and be stiffer that two sets of rack mounting bars bolted together, although I have bolted two sets of rack mounting bars together, it works fine.

The frame on my bike is similar looking to yours. I put a rack on the back with some extra long mounting hardware that the LBS had. What helped the most was that the LBS guy switched that little black clip (seat binder/ quick release?) that sits at the bottom of the seatpost/ top of the seat tube to one that has extra bolts to attach the rack. I attached it myself without problems. It looks a lot like this:
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/lifestyle/1272/29315/ (in this pic the clip and mounting hardware is silver).

Here is what we did: DH used some galvanized steel strapping material that was relatively rigid and bent it to fit to the rack and to the rear forks, where fittings were already in place. We used the bolts that came with the rack. I painted the fabricated brackets black (I wish I had thought to get a picture before they were covered up) and then we used Kydex thermoplastic sheeting and a heat gun to cover the ugly brackets and at the same time create a fender of sorts. Kydex is very hard plastic that can be shaped when heat is applied, and it is used to make knife sheaths, primarily. I am very pleased! This is a very sturdy bracket assembly.