Originally Posted by
RubeRad
Really! From the pics the fender looks way to narrow, that's great to hear it is actually effective!
I'm a big fan of DIY solutions, but at ~ $10 for the carpet strip, plus more for the other bits, that seems to me not sufficiently cheaper to justify trying that instead of actual fenders.
However, I can envision a comparable solution using unfolded wire clothes hangers for the struts (free), and perhaps plastic garden edging (cheaper) or I've heard that election yard signs are made of good stuff ("lexan"?) -- those are free at the right time of year, or maybe you could get a big pile of long, straight scraps from a print shop?
Yep I thought that $10 was pricey but I needed the 6' length. Problem is, 3 ft lengths of whatever is too short to reach all the way around to the seat tube. Lexan or any polycarbonate would work if it was a reasonably thin but you might have a tough time finding a free piece long enough. I just now checked tapplastics.com and you can order a cut to size piece of clear or colored for coincidentally $10. Alas plus oversize shipping but that would look pretty sharp.
Aluminum lawn edging, that sounds like worth looking into.
I think you'd have to do better than a coat-hanger wire though, especially with a flimsier fender material. I happened to have the steel rod left over from something else - three or four dollars. Still, I'll take it over $40-$50.
ps, the one challenge with using plastics is getting it to curve right without any sharp bends, lumps, sways etc. It's tricky. I've never been very proud of the result, bending by hand with a heat gun.