Touring - Fender recommendations?

I need a fender I can mount to my lotus sport touring bike....any recommendations? Im looking at some planet bikes one on ebay right now ( I have eyelets on the fork and rear triangle, but thats all), but Im not sure if plastic is for me. Does metal weigh that much more? Are there any cheap yet light aluminum fenders I could use? Right now I have 27" wheels and caliper style road brakes, and I may eventually upgrade for 700C's for more clearance.

I just put some Planet Bike Cascadia fenders on my commuter-touring bike and they are really nice. They were easy to install and I like the built-in mudflaps. In my case, the job was much easier because my frame had eyelets for fenders on the dropouts and mounts on the frame as well, so I didn't have to rig anything up. Here's a photo.

I have yet to mount them but I just bought a set of SKS P35's in silver for my road single speed. These thermoplastic fenders are light and they feel very tough.
I was thinking of ordering metal fenders from Velo Orange but they were much more expensive, plus the shipping. Instead, I ordered the SKS's from Amazon.com with free shipping. First time I've ever ordered a bike part from Amazon. I got them in less than a week.
My frame has no eyelets so I got some rubberized metal P-clips at a local hardware store.
I plan on mounting these this weekend.

+1 for Planet Bike Cascadia.

I have never used metal fenders, so I cannot give you any advice concerning this option,

I put a pair of silver SKS P45s on my Aurora and they went on fine. I have yet to use them in bad weather, but I'll be commuting to work soon and they'll be well tested.

I think these are really cool - http://www.somafab.com/eurotripfenders.html I like the colors.

If you're only concern is strength, keep in mind that SKS plastic fenders - possibly others as well - are only plastic coating around a metal core. All-metal fenders are very pretty, though.

+2 cascadias

I have a pair of metal fenders from velo orange. They don't seem to weight that much more, and the velo orange shop is only an hour away so shipping them was no problem for me. They look very nice on the bike, but the only downside is if you are careless with the bike with the wheels off it is possible to bend them.

If you're only concern is strength, keep in mind that SKS plastic fenders - possibly others as well - are only plastic coating around a metal core. All-metal fenders are very pretty, though.

The amount of plastic in these fenders far exceeds the level of a coating. By mass and volume, there's probably 2-3X more plastic in them than aluminum. I cut some up once to make custom lengths (tip-just use tin snips or sheet metal shears, then file and sandpaper). They're tough SOBs. I think they're probably far more durable than aluminum by itself. It's nearly impossible to deform them in a casual collision, whereas Al would be permanently (cosmetically at the very least) damaged.

I like the clean look of the velo orange aluminum fenders, with custom (manual) stay fitting. I'm going to depart from convention and paint mine black on a future project. It's cheaper/easier to build with black components.

Trueblood - I think you'd find the molded rubber mud flaps to be too small to actually be very useful. Some of the PB and SKS have them too - they're useless IMO. You need a wide, low hanging flap in front to keep splash off your feet. You can make these yourself for nothing, from scrap rubber, leather, plastic, even a milk jug.

http://users.techline.com/tomn/bottle.jpg

Do give wooden fenders a look. They are light & rigid. I got mine from www.woodysfenders.com several years ago. All good, except for the low price thing.

Tom

Those look super nice, but theres no way in hell I can afford 100 dollar fenders.....

They're way too pretty to ride on a dirty road on a rainy day. For that, I wouldn't trade my Cascadias. They do look cool though.

Another strong vote for Cascadias. Found some on Amazon for cheaper than E-Bay, so you might want to have a look there too.

I did look at some aluminum ones too, the aluminum ones weighed slightly less but they were SO thin. A minor crash would dent/bend the crap out of them. The Cascadias are pretty indestructible (polycarbonate is what they make those unbreakable eyeglass lenses out of)

I think they're lighter. I compared my touring honjos to a pair of raceblades, and the honjos were lighter.