Winter Cycling - Snow and Fenders, Do they mix?

I'm planning on mounting my Nokians this weekend. I also just purchased Freddy Fenders. How much clearance is going to be required? Or are fenders a bad idea for riding in the snow? I commute and want the fenders for rainy days like today. But I won't get any warning when the rain will turn to snow, so taking the fenders off just in time doesn't seem practical. Also It would be nice to have fenders for the road slop associated with melting snow.

I guess it depends on what kind of snow you expect and how much. I personally use fenders all the time, they are invaluable in winter for keeping wet salty glop off your bike and yourself. However I can imagine that the right consistency of snow or slush could jam them up and possibly freeze.

Fenders work fine in the snow -- in fact they are essential in it. Make sure that they are closer to the tire in back than in front, otherwise snow will build up in them.

Paul

I would say fenders and mudflaps all the time. PaulH has the trick with regard to proper setup. Extend the front fender with a mudflap such as http://phred.org/~alex/bikes/fendermudflap.html .
Your feet will be drier and your bottom bracket will be cleaner.

As for clearance, if you can have 1,5-2 cm, that's great, but anything above 5-6 mm should work.

Thanks for your input! :)

Fenders, the wider the better for snow, and the more space between tire and fender the better. Try to keep the fender evenly spaced away from the tire so that any snow build-up will eventually slide out instead of pack solid. The link is to my commuter, as it was 2 years ago, I've lengthened the front and rear fenders, changed taillights and added a 2 leg kickstand, but the basic setup is still the same.
http://hometown.aol.com/vtwjksr/myhomepage/index.html

why are wider fenders better for the snow as long as they are wide enough to cover the tire? Thanks in Advance.

Andy