Touring - Fenders yes or no

I have been trying to decide weather to leave the fenders on my LHT or take them off to save a small amount of weight and make shipping disassembly / reassembly a little easier. So what are your thoughts on the subject of fenders.

The Serfas fenders I have on my touring bike are easy to remove. The back one stays on 90+% of the time but the front one only goes on in wet weather. They are polycarbonate so they are very light. I don't think the rear fender is a significant weight penalty and since it is a 3/4 fender, not full length, it really doesn't add significantly to wind drag at touring speeds.

I like, and use fenders on most of my bikes, Have full type on LHT, think it protects bike frame & rider.

I'm all for fenders, but see your point about them being an inconvenience when shipping a bike.
How long are you going away for?
What's the probability of rain while you are gone?
I lean towards having fenders, but have never packed a bike for shipping.

Good fenders, properly mounted, are a real PITA. Mine are mounted more-or-less permanently and only come off in extrema. So I voted "leave them on".

Bad fenders are available which are easy to install and remove. That is good, because you can't wait to remove bad fenders after you've installed them. So you've been using bad fenders, you should probably take them off at every opportunity.

HTH!

I've never toured with finders save for a mid-winter/early spring overnighter. I put fenders on in the rainy season as a courtesy to my fellow cycling commuters, but not on tour. They are added weight (not too very much). The added wind resistance is noticeable. With panniers and racks in place when touring and my fat aluminum down tube, fenders become kind of redundant. Plus I can't switch to dirt tires on if I decide to go off road.

Big Amtrak/United boxes , in one direction and KLM box coming Back and the fronr wheel mudguards and rack stayed on..

but my last tour was feb to nov ,in wet countries.. only bike , home, without mudguards
has not been ridden much, in the last couple years..

i like fenders, but they aren't necessary. i wouldn't leave them at home for weight reasons, but i might leave them if they were inconvenient to transport or (dis)assemble. i might bring them despite the inconvenience, depending on the duration and destination of the trip. i recall riding a rainy col where sheep and cows roamed free. they pooped everywhere and it made a nasty gravy on the road. i wish i had fenders that day. good times...

Living in an area where the roads can get wet or dirty any time of the year, I hate riding my LHT (or any of my other bikes) without fenders, so they stay on year round. Not getting your clothes, gear and the bike covered in mud makes quite a difference when using the bike to go places instead of only for sports. And also on sporty rides, staying clean/dry is nice of course :)
295787295788

12bar, The weight (and aerodynamic drag) of a pair of fenders on a touring bike is really insignificant I feel. I am one of those people that don't like the looks of fenders and rarely mount them, but realize that they are a comfort item and I do use them when the weather may turn on me for my daytripping. For anything longer than an overnight tour I'd have a set mounted.

Brad

Take them off. You will still get completely soaked with fenders, it just takes slightly longer. Also, fenders recycle the water back on to your wheel so your wheel has to shed it more than once. No fenders is more efficient, less hassle, less money less weight, and easier to maintain the wheel and brakes.

Thanks for all the replies that's one of the many great things about this forum everyone is willing to share and the depth of experience is huge. The two trips I have planned are the Atlantic coast in May and Alaska in July. For the Alaska trip I wil be switching to a tire with a more aggressive tread pattern and probably a little wider than I am currently running. The fenders I have on now are Woodies fenders they work well and look great but are a royal pain to adjust.

BWF, you will only get soaked with fenders as long as it's raining. Without fenders you'll get wet and dirty during and after the rain, for as long as the roads are wet. You don't get dirty with full coverage fenders.

I have mostly stopped using them and have not missed them. They are still on my heavy touring bike and will probably stay there, but I have been using a road bike for my road touring and a mountain bike if there is an off road component to the tour. Since I have been going very light, I am not sure if I will tour on the heavy touring bike again.

I didn't vote, but if you use them at home, I'd leave them on for touring. If you didn't use them at home I probably would skip them for touring as well.

BTW, when I used them I didn't find it that big of a hassle to remove them when packing for air travel or boxing the bike for shipping.

I find fenders useful for berries, wild cherries and goose droppings, not to mention the occasional puddle. We use SKS fenders which work very well. The rear fender stays on all of the time because its a bear to mount, the front fender is generally off the bike unless we are touring or expect to hit weather. I find the weight, as a percentage of total weight, to negligible.

Fenders, Don't leave home without them.
They help to keep everything cleaner and dryer.

I've just removed front and rear fenders from our bikes. They are SKS versions, and they have taken a beating because of all the packing and unpacking we've had to do. They were damaged.

To be honest, I am not sure that they served their purpose beyond being a nuisance -- and this comes from someone who has used fenders on touring, rando and commuting bikes for many years.

Frankly, if you have to pack and unpack a bike from a box, get on and off trains, shove the bike on to a bus, or simply get it through hotel doors and into elevators, the fenders become a liability. I cannot understand anyone touring with aluminium or steel fenders; maybe they don't have to cope with the situations I mentioned.

Certainly, the hassle wasn't compensated for with the heavy rain we rode through in the UK... we got as wet as we would have without them, and the Topeak rack on the rear with its solid platform, would ensure no skunk tail.

Anyway, on future overseas travel, we likely will be on Bike Fridays, and won't be worrying about fenders on them.

Never used them. Doubt I ever will.

I voted "leave them on" and have never even considered removing them before this poll. Maybe the "take them off" people are running really thin slicks, would that make a big difference from thicker tires with more tread?
I will consider removing them from my classic racer because I got them for free, but I remember the reason I put them there in the first place was because I had road dirt on the back of my shirt even after a short ride on a rainy day.

BTW, does plastic fenders EVER align perfectly? Both my sets are sort of bent and do not want to play ball. :crash:

I have been trying to decide weather to leave the fenders on ...

that's it innit! :)

I'd prob remove the woody's for the Alaska trip. I "used" to love my Woody's, that was before I had a stick get stuck and break my fender. I am going to order another pair but I will not use them when a chance of breakage exists.

I voted doesn't matter either way because after reading the posts is really seams a personal preference. I, personally, never use fenders, but I live in Tucson, AZ with about 10 rainy days a year. When I've toured, racks and panniers worked as finders. So decide what works best for you.

Fenders, Don't leave home without them.
They help to keep everything cleaner and dryer.

Echo that.

On my mtn bike commuter/everything bike, I have an easily removeable front fender made for front suspension

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Cycling/Fenders/PRD~4013-882/sks-shockboard-cycling-fender.jsp?bmLocale=en&utm_campaign=bazaarvoice&utm_medium=SearchVoice&utm_source=AskAndAnswer&utm_content=Default
which works well and has survived many years and dings and such.

on the rear I use two of these flexible thingees,

http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Cycling/Fenders/PRD~4000-410/mountain-cycling-accessories-rear-deflector-shield.jsp

one tiewrapped to the seatpost frame area+chainstays, the other tiewrapped under the rack, sticking out the back enough to stop a rooster tail getting me---this front and rear system is easy to remover and or just flex, making it easy to schlepp the bike into cars or whatever, and does a good job as fenders.

*my take on fenders is that they keep a good amount of gritty crap off the front derailleur (and maybe the chain too abit) that can build up and really gunk up the fd. For this I really like fenders.

On my drop bar bike, I have a rear fender only, a Planet Bike one, which is that tough plastic stuff that lasts and lasts, but is flexible enough for being dinged around. I dont use a front one as I do like being able to bung my bike into the rear seat of a car with the front wheel off (like others have said) and not having a front fender certainly makes this easier (or into a car trunk or whatever)

so basically Ive traded off the convenience of no rigid front fender against having two that keeps gunk down and probably helps keep a fd working longer and better over time.

caveat, if I rode in the rain all the time, I would want the front one as well, keeps crap off your feet better too (a heck of a lot less crap at that!) and I can always put my Planet Bike front fender on the bike if needed. Just have never done it.

Young Belgian racers-in-training, model themselves after the Pro racers of the Spring Classics.
so don't use mudguards lest they be mistaken for Tourists..

I didn't vote either. It depends. My fenders only go on the bike for tours in wet weather, and I used to use them for commuting in rainy seasons only. I have a love/hate relationship with fenders--love them when it's raining, hate them when it's dry. And I agree fenders are as valuable for keeping one clean as they are for keeping one dry. My clothing, drive train and packs are so much cleaner with fenders. I don't care so much about water, or I wouldn't be cycling in the rain.

I know some cyclists in Phoenix who put fenders on in the summer! They say there's so much over-watering from irrigation systems there. That's sad.

I always have fenders on my touring bike. Of course you'll still get wet in the rain, but you won't get nearly as dirty from road grime. As soon as it stops raining, I stop getting wet no matter how wet the road is or how many small puddles. The thermoplastic fenders are an insignificant weight addition and of no possible aerodynamic consequence on a bike with four panniers.

I didn't vote because it depends. IME there are two concerns, neither of which is assembly/disassembly.

1) Weather. No sense in running them if rain is a slim possibility. They are a PITA when fixing flats and other things.
2) Hotels. The easiest way to move a bike in an elevator is to stand it on end, meaning front fender only. And if you're touring, you have all this stuff on the back anyway and very probably will not have another rider on your wheel. So only the front makes a big difference anyway.

fenders for me. ever ride over mushy road kill?

On my touring bike, I leave them on. A good turns to a great ride when they are in place with wet weather, and yes, even road kill. I have some removable ones for my mountain bike, but half the fun of riding purposely in the mud is to get muddy with it.

I have some removable ones for my mountain bike, but half the fun of riding purposely in the mud is to get muddy with it.

Since you mentioned the mountain bike... I have been impressed by how little mud gets on me when mountain biking. Other than a streak up my back I found that I come home cleaner from mountain biking than from trail running. That got me to thinking that with the rack on the bike I wouldn't even have that streak. As a result of those two revelations, I wound up leaving the fenders off of my bikes that I used on the last few tours.

On a rainy day I prefer not to eat spray from the front wheel. It makes ridig with glasses a PITA. That being said on a nice day I'll ride one of my fenderless bikes by preference.

Since you mentioned the mountain bike... I have been impressed by how little mud gets on me when mountain biking. Other than a streak up my back I found that I come home cleaner from mountain biking than from trail running. That got me to thinking that with the rack on the bike I wouldn't even have that streak. As a result of those two revelations, I wound up leaving the fenders off of my bikes that I used on the last few tours.

Yup, the streak. Just to prove I was out having fun ;)

Its a big question for me at the mo.
My current bike, my Moulton APB, has worn fenders for the entire 17 years I've owned it.
The dropouts are vertical so its no extra bother to remove the rear wheel.
I'm looking at a Surly Ogre and am dreading whats involved in puncture repair.
As the dropouts are horizontal, it looks like remove the fender first and then try to remove the rear wheel.
I think its whats holding me back from buying my frame to be honest.
Shame as its the only "budget" off road touring frame thats disk brake and Rohloff friendly that I've found in 29er format so far.

296014rifraf, see my earlier post about these flexible fenders, I have had two tie wrapped onto this bike for years and years and years, theyve never come off, and being flexible, are great for transport.
Dont break, go back to their sshape, and keep crap off me and with the second one attached to the vertical part of the frame, stop crap going all over the rd.

they are ugly but work.

I voted to leave them on.
If it ends up raining on me, I'd rather only have to fight with it from above than also spraying me from the tires.

For on-road touring or mild dirt roads, definitely, even though putting them on is annoying.

For mountain biking/bikepacking, I use the same bike and don't want fenders. They get in the way and get knocked out of whack all the time.

In addition to wet weather protection, fenders also keep crap off your drivetrain when it is dry. Everything the front tire slings up is aimed straight into your crankset/chain, and transferred to cassette and derailleurs. Fenders weigh little and are a nuisance to install, but they can pay for themselves many times over in extended drivetrain component life.

If you're going to bother with fenders, then you need to also clean and lube your chain frequently for best shifting and component longevity. I've used homemade chain cleaner/lube for years, it works great and is much cheaper than commercial alternatives. Just mix motor automotive engine oil and paint thinner at a 1:5-7 ratio (it's not an exact science). Best to store/mix in an old commercial lube bottle that allows drop-wise application to chain, so you don't make a mess. Apologies for thread derail.

I scoffed at the idea of fenders for many years. Then I installed cheap fenders, and discovered they were almost useless. About seven years ago, I installed decent fenders on a new bike, and have never looked back. They make riding in bad weather much easier... no wet stripes on my back!

I wouldn't be overly concerned with the weight on a touring bike. 200 or 300 grams does not make a significant difference in performance. If you insist on saving the weight, eat 80 or 100 calories less every day, and exercise 10 or 15 extra minutes a day!

Alaska I've heard is rainy in summer & Atlantic coast can be rainy in May also so I'd go with some plastic fenders. With LHT removal/installation shouldn't be too hard with dedicated stay eyelets & not having to mess with brake bolts, eh?

With LHT removal/installation shouldn't be too hard with dedicated stay eyelets & not having to mess with brake bolts, eh?

Indeed easy to install/remove fenders on the LHT. For some fender models you might have to cut the stays to size the first time you install them (which is also easy anyway). A front SKS fender is fixed by 3 easily removable bolts, the tire can just stay in. The rear is fixed by 4 bolts, but the tire has to be removed to reach the chainstay bridge bolt (at least on my installation).

I have been trying to decide weather to leave the fenders on my LHT or take them off to save a small amount of weight and make shipping disassembly / reassembly a little easier. So what are your thoughts on the subject of fenders.

You want to take them off for the weight? Just don't eat that cupcake in front of you and leave the fenders on.

Or, just make sure you never ride when it is raining or recently rained.

If there's a non-zero chance of rain, keep them on. There's nothing like riding several hours in the rain to make you appreciate some good fenders.

I've found that the front fender needs to be detached for shipping, but at least my bike has no problem being packed with the rear fender intact.

Dirt is the main reason for fenders. If you ever go down a gravel road or cinder bike path you will be lubing the chain very often. Since I finally put on fenders I only oil the drive system 25% as often. Don't know why I waited so long.

I don't use fenders for the weight, and because I hate fixing/adjusting them on tour. Then again, I just spent an hour and a half today cleaning road sand out of everything, due to it being winter in the Northeast.

Road Salt is wreaking havoc on my bike, but you know what they say about Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance... I feel at peace.

Never used em. Don't like the clanking sound other peoples' always seem to make. Can't really see the point of them, to be honest - about the only benefit would be not getting a muddy streak up my back. I usually have enough stuff on the front of the bike that spray doesn't reach my face.

I take them off so I can pack them, does that count? I think I would keep them. I like to ride in the rain, but I like it more when I have fenders on.

I don't use fenders for the weight, and because I hate fixing/adjusting them on tour. Then again, I just spent an hour and a half today cleaning road sand out of everything, due to it being winter in the Northeast.

Road Salt is wreaking havoc on my bike, but you know what they say about Zen and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance... I feel at peace.

just saying, the weight thing is one thing, thats up to you, but in all the years Ive used fenders, they never need fixing or adjusting--maybe once in a blue moon a tug on the metal stays to center a fender if it gets pushed in by something (hardly ever happens and its a 5 second operation).

I too feel at peace after bike maintenance, but a good set of fenders really does keep sandy crap off the fd and less on the chain too, so I can feel at peace faster.

Im pretty much in the middle with this debate, but riding in rain and or on dirt, they certainly keep the drivetrain cleaner.

Leave them on. Every well-dressed touring bike should have them.

It's true that if it's pouring rain you'll get just as wet even if you have fenders. What about when it's just light rain, drizzle, or right after it rains and the pavement's wet and there's puddles everywhere? You'll stay much dryer with a good set of full coverage fenders. They also keep your feet and drivetrain waaaaay dryer and cleaner. Rainwater is clean - roadspray is not!

I used to cart my bike around in the back seat of my car, and fixed it up so that I could remove the front fender in about 30 seconds with just an allen wrench (and no, it never rattled loose).

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8518/8434536074_72a7643305.jpg

Properly installed fenders are silent and last essentially forever, barring misadventure. They also weigh pretty much nothing, especially in the context of a touring bike - and wind tunnel testing shows them to slightly reduce aerodynamic drag. Of course, claiming that you should put fenders on your bike to reduce drag is about as silly as saying you should take them off to save weight...