[QUOTE=desastar;19204744]If you are a handy person, you could get a 20" inch mudguards to fit.

Thanks. Nice bike! But is appears to be a slightly newer model than mine, with fender/mudguard mounting holes on the front fork. Mine has none.

I first tried some very cheap generic folding bike fenders from eBay, drop shipped from China. They had only a single center mount,m and no side stays. They worked, and could be removed easily for packing as airline luggage. But the coverage wasn't as good as I wanted, and I don't know how well they would have lasted.

While in Amsterdam, I visited Tromm Tweewielers (a/k/a Vouwfiets.nl, which I think translates as "FoldingBikes.nl"). They were able to adapt a set of fenders made for current Birdys to my older model by cutting and bending the side stays to spring-clip into the pivot holes in the lower front suspension hinges. "We've done this before", they said. The price was quite reasonable, and they did the work the same day. It seems pretty stable. They have several Birdys in stock, and sell and service the full line as well as other folding bikes:

Vouwfietsen

Riese Muller Birdy vouwfiets

They are located diagonally across the boulevard from the northeast corner of the Amsterdam RAI conference and expo center; you can get direct trains from Schiphol Airport to RAI station without having to go through downtown.

For train and planes, I got a folding bike carrying bag for about US$20 on eBay from another drop-shipper in China. It was sturdier than I expected, although on my next trip i will be sure to pad the axle ends so they don't punch through. It's large enough to fit the folded Birdy easily without pulling wheels or fenders. It fit in luggage racks on treains, even on the high-speed Thalys which has limited luggage space (like the French TGV). To get the size small enough for airline luggage, I unbolted the wheels and fenders. Not too difficult, and I could do it at the airport. Once the wheels are pulled, the rear derailleur folds into a protected position between the front forks. With a little fiddling, I found an arrangement that got the size of the package well within the airline checked baggage limit. On three flights, Turkish Airlines didn't even look twice at it or ask what it contained, much less measure it, but I felt better knowing it would pass if measured. I tied the Birdy package together with a couple of old inner tubes (better than bungy cords, a trick I learned from Kash at Warm Planet in SF) before putting it in the bag, to keep parts from shifting and make it easier to handle as luggage on subways and trams to and from airports in places where I didn't want to ride to the airport.

Aside from the ease of airline and train transport, what impressed me most was the handling of the Birdy on pave (stone paving blocks) in Amsterdam, Brussels (they don't call it "Belgian block" for nothing) and Istanbul (where the paving stones are often especially irregular). I'd ridden on cobbles and paves before in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe, but the Birdy suspension handles them far better than a large-wheeled bike, as it does potholes.