HardyWeinberg

I won this bike fork on ebay, and it came today, looks great, but I notice that while it has eyelets at the ends to bolt my fender stays down, there is no cross-piece at the top (between the v-brake studs, say) to attach the fender itself to. Is that a part I should be able to find, or am I going to have to scavenge other forks elsewhere to get that piece?

Little Darwin

I think the piece you are talking about is built into suspension forks. I don't know if you can add one on.

I can't be certain from the picture, but does your fork have a hole through the crown? If so, use that hole.

Is the crown too high? If so, you can do what I did and fabricate a drop bolt. All it takes is a piece of metal the right size (I used a 1/8" thick aluminum bar cut to length, I bought a section at Home Depot or Lowes) and drill 2 holes in it. One to put a bolt through to attach it to the fork crown, and one to do the same for the bracket on the top of your fender.

I have about 2 feet of aluminum bar that I would gladly mail you a short (2-3") piece of it, if you estimate the length needed to allow the fender to clear your brakes. Heck, I'll even drill the holes if you think you can get the right measurement and hole locations on the first try... If I do the work, I would only ask for a donation of a couple of dollars to my LiveStrong ride. The piece of metal is free for the asking... Just let me know in PM and we can work out the details.

I estimated mine by using a folded piece of paper to figure out how long the drop bolt should be and where to drill.

So, in conclusion if you have a piece of metal the right size with two holes in the right places or the parts and tools to make it so, along with two bolts with nuts with washers etc, you have no problem.

This link brings you to the site that inspired my solution:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/home-drop.html

For a fender, you don't need two pieces, as Sheldon shows for brakes, since the stresses are so low... but if you make 1/2 of his drop bolt in the right size, you are home free.

Because of the location, the drop bolt is not very visible on the bike, and it can be primed and painted if you want to blend in even better.

HardyWeinberg

I will have to look into all of that, thanks. I'm wondering about redrilling a big hole in the fender too and using a star-nut attachment.

Are there star-nut attached fenders that are full fenders that would need stays going to the eyelets, I wonder?

HillRider

You could use zip-ties to fasten the fender to the fork crown.

HardyWeinberg

Yes. That kind of gets me back to where I'm at right now, before I change the fork at all, using copper wire to attach the stays to the dropout ends of the forks. But I would be minus the suspension at least, which I don't really need.

It occurs to me that if I attach the fender to the fork crown it will have to go above the brakes. Right now, on the shock fork, the fender goes under the brakes.