Road Cycling - pics of fenders on bike?

I am trying to decide what bike to buy, have been testing a lot of different ones lately. I really liked the Giant OCR I tried yesterday. I would need to fit fenders for commuting though. I have read several posts here which refer to cutting SKS chromoplasts to make them fit tight clearances on road bikes, and would like to see this. If anyone has pics of this kind of setup, please put them up. Any other advice would be great as well. Accidentally posted this in racing earlier. Sorry if reposting here (where I originally intended to) is an offence. Please let me know.

Thanks

I am trying to decide what bike to buy, have been testing a lot of different ones lately. I really liked the Giant OCR I tried yesterday. I would need to fit fenders for commuting though. I have read several posts here which refer to cutting SKS chromoplasts to make them fit tight clearances on road bikes, and would like to see this. If anyone has pics of this kind of setup, please put them up. Any other advice would be great as well. Accidentally posted this in racing earlier. Sorry if reposting here (where I originally intended to) is an offence. Please let me know.

Thanks

How far is your commute? Are you going to wear your work clothes on your ride or change when you get to work? Do you need to carry stuff like paperwork or laptops home with you? The reason I ask is that if you need to carry anything, then you'll probably want something better for commuting than the Giant. You'll want to mount a rack so you can carry some bags. Also, you can put certain kinds of fenders on a the Giant, but full fenders fit better on bikes designed for them.

No need to cut anything. Just get the SKS RaceBlade fenders instead. They were the only one that would fit on my road bike...

I ride about 6 miles each way. No shower at work. I work inside at a small place, can leave the bike inside. I prefer to wear a tshirt and shorts to work and ride in. Sometimes when there are visitors scheduled I have to wear slacks and a button down shirt, that's as formal as it gets. It takes me 20 min. to drive to work, 30 to ride w/my current beater Mtn. bike (12-13 mph average). I don't think I'd ride if it's raining in the morning, don't really mind getting wet on the way home. The thing I dislike is having to ride around every puddle or slow way down for it if it's rained recently to stay clean on the way in. I live in Florida, so that's pretty much every day in the rainy season.

I really would like good fenders so I'm not forced to have other riding clothes as part of the attraction of riding is the ease. The fun would somewhat go out of it for me if I have to add complications like changing. I realize it's not that difficult but I know me. . .

As far as the snap on fenders go, I've read they are better than nothing, but not really that great. Anyone have a great experience with them?

The RaceBlade is not exactly a snap-on fender. It uses rubber straps that hold on to the seatstays (for the rear) and fork (for the front).

It works fantastic for me!

i have a zefal clamp on fender for the rear, and wet shoes for the front...meaning i have nothing on the front.

the zefal fender just clips to the seatpost. i'm pretty sure that it will not work on an aero seatpost though...and i think that's what the giant comes with...

I would not advise an OCR, they have very tight clearances and are designed for racing, not commuting.
Look around for a road bike with better clearance, and make sure it has threaded eyelets for fenders, and pref a luggage rack. You can hack a frame using P-clips etc, but why not get something commuter-worthy in the first place.
SKS chromoplastic fenders (not race blades) are probably the best, so look for something you can fit these onto.
A bit of clearance and some threaded eyelets will not slow you down

While MichaelW's advice is sound for someone contemplating a commuting-specific bike, I already had a bike when I decided to start commuting. I have LeMond Zurich and though it wasn't designed specifically for the commuter, I must say I rather like commuting with it. Some people may cringe, but I have fenders and a rack for rear panniers on the Zurich and commute about 6,000 miles/year (3 years with the LeMond)....so it can work.

I thought the Race Blades were a little too flimsy for everyday commuting and not near long enough to protect my feet from spray. I have the SKS chromoplastics fitted to my bike and I will try and post some relevant photos by the end of this week.

here's a picture of the bianchi eros that i owned for all of 5 months before i got my current bike. i bought it for riding to work and school in the sludge that is boston in the winter/spring.

sorry that i don't have any close-ups...it was a touring frame with fender mounts. it was a pretty fun bike to ride in the grossness, but nowhere near as fun as my "beater" track bike.

As promised, here are some photos of my fender setup. You can cut the fender with a Dremel or even careful application of a hack saw. Measure everything several times first!

I had to bend the front bracket to clear the headset and to lift the front part of the fender (probably an unnecessary piece, but I put it on anyway) up high enough to quit chattering on the tire.
http://www.gacnw.com/images/LMFrontFenderWeb.jpg

The auto-focus obviously liked the far stay and I didn't catch it until I got to the computer. It's good enough to see the use of the P brackets.
http://www.gacnw.com/images/LMFrontStayWeb.jpg

http://www.gacnw.com/images/LMRearFenderWeb.jpg

Thanks a lot for the pics. Where did you get the fender from? The narrowest I've seen online are 45mm from SKS. Seems they'd be good because they flex.

I got the smallest SKS size (P35 Road) available from a local shop (Bike Gallery).