Commuting - Fender Installation Angst

OK, I decided to bite the bullet and put a set of fenders on my SS commuter so I can try to ride in the wet and muck this fall/winter.

I got the planet bike "freddy fenders" and although I consider myself passable in putting things together, I had a real hassle with the front fender. I finally got it installed reasonably well, but it took an hour. I had to dremel the fork mount so the brake binder bolt would fit through the eyelet. And the stays....they were very challenging to get the fender even...it is still a teeny bit uneven at the front (off by about 3 mm from center). If I could do it all over again I would have dremeled the fork eyelet mount so the fender would be slightly higher, it is nearly rubbing the tire but clears it ok. Should I remount it so there is more clearance?

Now I am dreading the installation of the rear fender. Please tell me the rear one is easier!

Doug

Hard to comment without knowing your bike. Pictures would help and be pretty intereswting. Tis the season for fenders.
Did you consider other brands or model fenders and why did you select this?

Not like this helps:
http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008-09-16

I had some hair-pulling moments when installing my first set of fenders (SKS/ESGE Chromoplastics). I too started with the front and found the stay adjustment to be pretty aggravating. The rear was considerably easier for me to do, mostly because of knowing what to expect from my battle with the front fender.

The front fender never stayed perfectly centered or perfectly straight in relation to the front wheel, but I suspect that's just the way of things with flexible plastic fenders. As long as they keep me dry (which they have), I have no complaints.

I'm with Nightdiver...

I had to dremel both front to fit below the brake caliper, and rear (finally I just cut it through half) to get it mounted below the rear rack.

Thanks for the tips. I chose the planet bike freddy fender because they seem to be the right fit and (mainly) on sale at Performance for 25 bucks.

Hey, I am a cheapskate....my SS commuter is a BikesDirect Dawes SST!

I will try to post some pics of the front situation....and will try the rear fender when I can summon up some courage.

Doug

These links have detailed info on installing Honjo fenders. Don't know if they'll be applicable to your situation, but there might be some tips you could use:

http://www.jitensha.com/eng/honjinstl.html

http://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2007/08/installing-vo-or-honjo-fenders.html

OK, I decided to bite the bullet and put a set of fenders on my SS commuter so I can try to ride in the wet and muck this fall/winter.

I got the planet bike "freddy fenders" and although I consider myself passable in putting things together, I had a real hassle with the front fender. I finally got it installed reasonably well, but it took an hour. I had to dremel the fork mount so the brake binder bolt would fit through the eyelet. And the stays....they were very challenging to get the fender even...it is still a teeny bit uneven at the front (off by about 3 mm from center). If I could do it all over again I would have dremeled the fork eyelet mount so the fender would be slightly higher, it is nearly rubbing the tire but clears it ok. Should I remount it so there is more clearance?

Now I am dreading the installation of the rear fender. Please tell me the rear one is easier!

Doug

I found the front fender installation to be a total pain, and the rear fender was even more of a pain. I did them both at once, and it took me three hours or so. (Installing SKS.) And I have a bike with a lot of clearance for fenders, center-pull brakes, and fat, forgiving tires.... However, it's totally worth the hassle, especially while riding in the winter. Even your feet stay a whole lot drier when you ride with fenders.

BTW, you might want to consider using zip ties to eliminate rattling noisesfrom the fender, esp. if you have a rear rack.

Thanks for the tips and pointers. This morning was my first commute since installing the front fender, and there were no rubbing problems (it was dry, so it's not a real test of the fender).

I will probably tackle the rear fender this weekend. I understand it's short term pain for long term gain.

Doug

I put those Freddy Fender Hardcores on my Bianchi Nyala in about 20 minutes. After a couple of days, I checked all the bolts for tightness and made some slight adjustments to get things a little more centered on the front.

Best of all, I got to ride on wet roads and my feet, chest, back, and trunk bag all stayed dry and clean.

If you have problems installing these, I wouldn't malign the PB fenders.

You should try my campaign sign fenders. ;) I made them in less time than ya'll have spent installing and I love them!

Its frustrating, but the good thing is that ideally you only have to do it once. It took me about an hour to bust out the front and rear fenders, and then another 20ish minutes tweaking them. I still think I need to dremel a touch out of the front fender as its pressed between the forks right now but it works pretty well.

I now love finding puddles to run through (on that bike, the other bikes don't have fenders). Its a great feeling knowing that I won't be getting soaked by road-water.

For those that have had problems installing fenders let me ask you something. Are they fenders meant for your model ans style of bike? Or are they something close taht you bought, knowing you would have to modify even though the correct style of fender is available but at a higher price then you want to spend? Or is there no specific style for your bike and you bought e the closest thing you could, knowing you'd have to modify it?

I can see purchasing a fender knowing you will have to modify it to work if there are no other options available for your bike. But if there are the correct fenders for your bike and you are trying to be cheap then maybe you should have spent the additional money for the correct fender that probably would go on a lot easier then the cheaper one that you had to modify.

Sometimes even though you buy the right fender for your bike you still have to modify it to work. Maybe this is the case for the OP.

....my SS commuter is a BikesDirect Dawes SST!
That probably explains the difficulties. I have the same PB Freddy fenders on the IRO and they're easy to install and adjust. Nothing needed dremeling and the provided screws went right in. I dunno how closely BD inspects the tolerances of the braze ons for racks and fenders, but from your experience, they're inspection might be lax.

I have the Freddys on my bike and the rear one was easier to install than the front fender. I fiddled with the front fender for nearly an hour when I first installed them, then continued to fiddle for the next couple of weeks as I kept losing the bolts in the eyelets. I switched to zip strips until my next trip to the hardware store where I bought new bolts as well as nuts. That's held them quite nicely now.

The rear fender was easier to install maybe because I clipped them in to them in first and then bolted the rods. No clue.

I did have a heck of a time re-adjusting the brakes since they run underneath the brake pulls. I finally had to take them to the lbs and got them to adjust the brakes for me.

Three years later, the fenders work a charm, except that the front fender sometimes goes nuts and vibrates like crazy if I swerve too quickly.

I just had the same fenders put on my commuter. The shop put them on for me for $6, it took about 45minutes.