Uh...not sure what to say to the guy above's post. If he's getting water soaking through his raingear, he needs new raingear. But fenders won't protect you from getting wet if it's raining. They won't even protect your feet from getting wet if you ride fast through a big puddle. The last sentence is why fenders sometimes legimately aren't used - if you're going to get wet and somewhat dirty anyways, how much of a difference is there between a little dirty and really dirty? You may well have to wash your clothes either way.

That being said, they significantly reduce (but not eliminate) the amount of road grit and water your bike tire throws up at you.

Here's a pic of the "tan line" effect I got on my foot from riding *after* it stopped raining -


It does, it totally looks like a tan line. But I assure you - having washed my leg, I have *absolutely* no sock tan line *whatsoever*. :-) And that's not even from riding in the rain! Or in the spring when there's still stuff on the road - that's from riding 2 weeks ago (in August) *after* it stopped raining!

Fenders aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they do protect you from a ton of the stuff on the road (sand, salt, *other nasty things* that have mixed with the water on the road). When you get by rain, it's just water. When you get wet from spray off the wheel, it's got a whole bunch of other crap in it, and good fenders can protect you from like 90% of it.