fender clearance issue
 

I ride a 1997 Terry classic. The frame has front and rear mounts for fenders but my tire is practically scraping my front fork and I'm wondering how I can possibly fit fenders on the bike. I'm riding 700c x 28 Armadillo tires. I really need fenders on the bike since I commute on a dirt road to work and I get so much crud in my brakes that I can't keep the single pivot brakes centered. Any advice? thank you

I've seen split fenders mounted on vintage competition machines with tight clearances. They appeared to mount to the brake bolt on either side of the fork crown.
Can't point you to a ready-made example though. Bluemels spearpoint fenders were an early option.
Shane

Or this? (and 23/25 mm tires?)

http://store.velo-orange.com/media/c.../e/fe-0030.jpg http://tinyurl.com/8n94kgp

You really need to post a picture. But it sounds like the tire size is max'd out. Maybe 25's with puncture protection would work? You could also trim the fender where it goes through the fork, this would reduce some but not all the protection the fender offers.

I seen that on a mercier- concept is good but A devil to mount-

but if you took this concept into your own you could figure something out.

On my Miyata 310, I am changing it to ISO590 wheels with 37-590 Kenda K40HP (90psi) tires. It originally had 28-630 tires, but there is no fender clearance, ISO622 only gains 4mm radius, which leads me to ISO590........

Tektro R559 (and R556) dual pivot brakes have plenty of reach with the ISO590 Sun CR18 rims.

I agree with Nigel. Smaller rims and fatter tires is the best solution. 650A (iso 590, 26 x 1 3/8) is probably cheaper, but 650B (iso 584) would be more fashionable. I know it sounds radical, but given that you're riding on dirt roads, I think it's a good idea.

Do you have a pic of the bike? I think my wife's bike is this model. It came to us with 700c wheels and some old Bontrager 25 mm tires. They're finally too old even for me, so I just put on some Conti Gatorskins 700x28c. So far there is good running clearance, but nowhere near enough radial clearance to allow fenders, especially with daruma bolts.

For good fender clearance on roads with some debris that could get wedged under the fender, you need about 15 mm clearance between the bottom of the fork crown and the top of the tire. Same thing at the seatstay bridge and the chainstay bridge (if it's the same design as Mrs. Road Fan's bike, there is no chainstay bridge). This needs a wheel size at least 15 mm smaller, so your 622 (official "code" for 700c) needs to decrease to 590 (650a) or 584 (650b).

If you go with 650b, I'd be careful about maxing out the tire (42 mm), because that would have the same diameter as your existing 700c wheel. But tires for 650b are available down to 32 mm, which would reduce your tire diameter probably enough to work on fitting fenders.

In this case you'd absolutely have to seek out longer reach brake calipers.

Same fork clearance problem on my Panasonic DX3000. Not for fenders, but for 700 x 32 tires.
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So I swapped in a different fork with a few mm more clearance. If course this will change frame geometry slightly. Not noticeable for me on this bike though.
.

Not a devil to mount if you know the right tricks :). Personally I like using draw bolts (or "Daruma" bolts) to mount front fenders, because I think it results in a much cleaner appearance without any external brackets. One way to reduce the clearance interference of that nut at the bottom of the drawbolt is to replace the nut with a recessed brake nut with less shoulder height, like this:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5173/5...2fce3c5a_z.jpg

I've done this on a couple of bikes that had really tight tire to fender clearance issues. It also requires cutting off a portion of the daruma bolt threads such that they don't actually reach the fender; the recessed nut passes through the fender to engage the drawbolt threads. I actually really like daruma bolts over external brackets. I think it affords a much cleaner look:

Look Ma, no bracket!
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5343/7...788f8330_c.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7024/6...72ddc56a_z.jpg

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4031/4...261c17eb_z.jpg