Paranoid.Guy

In your opinion, are bicycle fenders a useful piece of equipment or are they disturbing/annoying etc.?
And my other question: are mudguards available for BMX bikes and MTB's?(you can look at my profile to see what bikes I have).
In some situations, it can be annoying not to have fenders. Whenever I happen to ride in a puddle, my bike gets dirty and I get water and mud on my clothes.

MichaelW

For everyday transportation in rainy climates, fenders are essential. Only a fool would ride without them. Are you a fool? Well are you?
The best ones are SKS chromoplastic, they come in lots of sizes. For BMX bikes, Planet do fenders in 20" size for recumbents that may be persuaded to fit using p-clips or zip-ties.
MTB clip-on fenders are not quite as effective but good enough.

rawhite1969

I run a SKS X3 Sta-Dry on the back of my roadbike when necessary. Have yet to find a clip on for the front that doesn't attach to the downtube (shift wires on the bottom of downtube and those fenders negatively impact cable travel). Would LOVE to be able to clip one on the front as easy as the X3 goes on the rear!

stapfam

I only ride the road bike when I am in cycling clothing and if it rains I am going to get wet so No fenders on them for me. However if you commute and need to keep cleaner/dryer then I should think they are a must unless you can change clothing when you get to work.

MTBs and mudguards are necessary but not fully effective. They will keep most of the Crud off the back and the face but not all. Anything below the saddle will get splattered unless you have the "Road" type full fender and if you have those- they will fill up with mud and be heavy or break. The rear one has to be set up different to how you think aswell. Not to cover the tyre but to stop mud going up the back



There is still the problem of the usual small covering lump of plastic on the downtube and it does stop some crud but not much. Inparticular stuff flying off the front wheel and into the face and to stop that --You need a full Fender as shown here- They are effective

Paranoid.Guy

Full fenders are default on utility bicycles and children's bikes, but they wouldn't fit MTBs and BMX bikes.

SweetLou

Just not true. There are many fenders made for 26" and 29er bikes.

DCB0

Fenders allow comfortable riding in more conditions, therefore they are useful.

I was on a group trail ride the other day and a bunch of people were riding full susp. bikes with complex shaped frame tubes (mostly Specialized bikes) and I asked if the company makes fitted colour-matched fenders for them, because that would increase their usefulness 1000%... everyone looked at me like I had two heads.

I have full fenders on my commuter bike. I also have a set of cheap clip-on fenders available for use on my MTB, but these are a pain to keep mounted and straight when riging rough trails, and if I am not riding rough trails and it is wet out I will just take the commuter bike. I do not have fenders for my road bike, although it is an older racing bike and has enough clearance for 23mm tires and narrow full fenders, if they are carefully mounted - I used it for a longer commute I used to do when I lived in a different city.

I disagree... even if you can change clothes when you get to work fenders are necessary... the only thing worse than wearing wet clothes all day is pulling on cold wet slimy clothes that have been festering in a locker for 8 hours. I speak from experience.

8Fishes

The SKS raceblade long set looks excellent, too bad they aren't on the market yet.

eddubal

Yes. Two words: Garbage water.

stapfam

Fenders will only keep wet that is sprayed from the wheels off you and then some of it will get past. But If it is raining you can wear a wet suit that will only allow you to get wet from the inside. On the few commutes I have done in the wet to work- I have used the road bike and No fenders and changed when I get into work. Going home and my Lycra leggings- shorts and jersey have dried out but won't be long before they are wet again so why bother? Just wish that the commute was shorter than the 30 miles that it is. Not a regular commute but only when clothing and appearance do not matter. My Son-in-law commutes the 10 miles to work every day unless there is Ice about and he changes into work clothes that are left in his office. Takes fresh shirt and underclothes in his waterproof Knapsack in a plastic bag- along with a long sleeved jersey in case it gets cold.

Just face it- If it is raining- you are going to get wet. No matter how good a clothing you wear or how good your fenders are.

Nermal

Overall, I like fenders. Instead of frequent rain, we mostly have intermittent showers that leave the road wet. The tires are going to pick up the water even if it isn't raining, and place a nice muddy stripe right down the middle of your back.

I ran into one negative. I have a bike with a minor toe overlap. Usually it's just a minor annoyance, but one time my foot pushed the fender into the front tire. The stop is instant, and this is my only fall that came close to causing serious injury - excepting an altercation with a Toyota.

Edit to add: I removed the front fender after this incident, and kept the rear. In my riding, the weight is not significant

Fenway

Fenders are a must unless you like getting wet or at least covered by mud or worse from tire spray.

njkayaker

Full suspension is needed for doing very rough trails. In that situation, fenders would be a bad idea since the likelihood of taking a spill or riding over stuff that would get stuck in fenders is very high.

Monster Pete

I wouldn't go without mine in wet weather. The rain falling down isn't much of an annoyance as it's relatively clean. It's the rain that falls up from the road that you need to deal with, which will also continue long after the rain has stopped. It's quite amusing to ride straight through a puddle and see a torrent of water falling from my front fender instead of showering me in the face. If you're gram-counting, without them you'll probably swallow their weight in muddy water anyway.

Grishnak

One of my co-workers just ran over a huge dog poo! I won`t ask him about the muguards he never had before this event.But,he does not like wearing it.

Nightshade

Well, Duh! Keeping road debris off you & your bike are exactly what fenders are made for.

Who gives a rats butt about how they look as long as they keep the road crap offa you & the bike?

catmandew52

Axiom femders on my 10 spd Fuji, converted to a townie, and oem fenders on old Schwinn racer. Thinking about putting them on Mongoose MTB since I run slicks on it.

scooter bopp

I grew up in the 70s. To me a bicycle looks unfinished without fenders. Until the 10 speeds became more popular, all the bikes I saw growing up had fenders. All the bikes I buy now, if they dont come with fenders, I put them on.

LesterOfPuppets

They make fenders for all sorts of wheel sizes. If you're using BMX and MTB bikes for their intended purposes then fenders can be a bit of a hassle, IMO. Always getting in the way, rattling and breaking off.

If you're commuting on these bikes then fenders might be worth the hassle to keep the street water off of you.

I have full fenders on my Western Flyer but if I'm gonna ride any other bike in the rain I just put a backscratcher on it to keep my backside clean and dry. I just have one backscratcher that I move from bike to bike when the need arises but it's not on any bike at all right now cuz it's the dry season. I just try to keep my mouth closed while riding and face spray ain't no big deal. Puddles can be wheelied or bunnyhopped. Out here in suburbia puddles are typically just water and motor oil as opposed to city puddles that are apparently mostly bum piss and frat boy puke.

commo_soulja

IMHO, fenders are essential for commuters. And full fenders with mudflaps. Bike and rider stay cleaner and drier.

Fenders on mtb's? I did have a set of fenders on my rigid 29er when I used it briefly for commuting, otherwise my mtb's do not have fenders. I don't ride the trails when its wet.

fietsbob

Coastal Oregon , the question is not sensible .

only the late summer dries a bit., other than that quarter, it rains.

I have a cycling Rain cape , they work great,
but only if you have mudguards on the bike.

My Bike Friday has 20" 406-47 tires ,I got 2 fenders made by Planet bike.
they package them separately for Recumbents
that may only have 1 x 20 " in front , or a pair of wheels
so order a front, and a rear.

TurbineBlade

This is my experience over a long enough period of time . I have front and rear racks and both have a solid platform, so fenders are not necessary -- no spray in my face and no rooster stripe. I don't mind the spray along my feet so much.

I hate plastic items that jam in the vertical bike rack at work, and fenders preclude me from using huge 42mm tires on my LHT. So I don't use them, but I also wouldn't tell others not to use them.

wahoonc

Thirty some odd bicycles around here, only 2 do not have fenders. Go fast race bike and MTB for gnarly trail work. I have just about one of every kind of fender ever made, ranging from plastic clip on to stainless steel to heavy painted steel. They all do the basic job they are designed to do: keep me and the bike relatively clean in most conditions. Some do it better than others. Pet peeve, most modern front fenders aren't long enough.

Aaron

Thor29

Not true. First, in regards to suspension, there are a significant number of people who ride rough trails with either just front suspension (hard tail) or with none at all (rigid). Off road motorcycles have fenders AND suspension, so there's no reason mountain bikes couldn't as well. Here in the Bay Area of California, there are trails that are rideable when wet and fenders would be great. However, the ones I tried had issues and I had to remove them. The front fender contacted the tire when the fork bottomed out and the rear fender (attached to the seatpost) would not stay put. If I was riding more often, I would definitely try to find some decent MTB fenders. It is really hard to see when mud keeps hitting you in the face. As far as stuff getting stuck between the fenders and wheel, that's why you would want some clearance in there. Which would also be necessary to account for suspension compression (assuming you have suspension).

The Chemist

Yup, and that's why I don't even bother with rain gear when riding in the rain in the summer. The humidity here makes me sweat so much inside it that I get just as wet wearing it as without.

The only reason I have fenders at all (and they're only small, covering less than half of what a full sized fender would cover) is to keep a little of the copious amounts of road grime that gets splashed up by wet roads off of me and off the bike.