Originally Posted by
Iride01
Will it bother you greatly if some of that water and mud you hit get thrown up on the back of your jersey? If so, get fenders. As for whether gravel being thrown up is a nuisance, I don't know, I've ridden small stretches of gravel on my road bike and have never been bothered.
Maybe you should just ride your bike as it is without fenders for a time and find out what your actual conditions cause. And whether any of them are so bad that it cause you to feel need to install fenders.
It bothers me greatly when I feel a stream of muddy water running into my shorts, between my cheeks and totally sagging my chamois. Does that qualify or is that too wuss? <- That happened to me on a double century ride in the rain. Pretty miserable.
That’s why I have a dedicated rain bike with full fenders. I also extended the fenders on all four ends with Gorilla tape for better coverage. It looks a bit ghetto but as the Brits say, Works a treat.
OP, get some fenders, you won’t regret it.