Originally Posted by Grasschopper
Yes that is why you have a beater bike. My Marin has full fenders but I have a question about fenders...I still get a spray coming off the top of the front wheel coming back up on to the bike and into my face...anyone got a cure for this or is that as good as it gets?
It's easy to fix, buy or scrounge another set of fenders, cut off a piece to attach to your existing front piece and extend the front piece until it starts to go down the front of the tire a little. If you have room you can bolt it to the existing front section, If you use a piece of a front fender you can even use the stays on that part. You can actually crimp the two pieces together with strong mechanics wire by just running a piece over the top of the fenders where they overlap and running it about 3/4" under the bottom fender ad carefully squeeze the wire onto the fenders with a pair of pliers. If you do it right they won't come off. Plastic fenders are just a starting point they can be cut and modified to fit just about any fender on any bike, including full coverage fenders on bikes that don't have enough clearance under the crown or the rear brake bridge...no problems it's easy. Long mud flaps almost to the ground are best. To be that long they must be flexible, two pieces of MtB tube glued together works great and can be made to look OK. Crimp them on the same way with strong wire, they will never fall off, but, if they get caught on something they will pull off without damaging anything. You can also take them off easily to repair.
Most of these bikes have a flexible mudflap that almost touches the ground. It catches more dirt than just about any part of the fenders.