I am becoming very annoyed with my rear fender. My bicycle is so small, and there isn't much clearance between the brake and the tire. My fender slides in there, but it rubs on the tire. It didn't seem to do this much for the past 3 years, but has been doing this a lot for the past 3 months or so ... to the point where sometimes I can't even spin the rear wheel - the fender makes it grind to a halt right away.

I'm thinking of cutting the fender on either side of the brake, and then somehow fixing it so that the end pieces are attached to something ... but I'm not sure how that would work.

If any of you have successfully cut your fenders on either side of your brakes, could you post some pics or give me some tips.

Thanks!

I've stopped giving people a firm quote for fender installation - to me it's a time and meterials job. While it's true that they sometimes just pop right on, they generally take some modification to get them to fit to my satisfaction.

Some of the fender sets that I've worked with have a 4-finger sheet metal "thingie" that connects to the brake bridge. The directions tell you to slide the whole fender between the two sets of fingers but it also allows you to cut a section out of the fender and connect each loose end to two of the fingers. That gives you more clearance under the brake bridge.

Here's a photo of a split fender installation courtesy of River City Cycles


They have details on front and rear split installs. The brake will still get all dirty and wet but it's better than nothing.

Neat! I love those wood fenders.

I like that setup with those wood fenders! Unfortunately I don't think mine will work quite that well.

Here are some photos of my current setup:

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On the other hand, those look like Blackburn rack mounting brackets. I used to have a bin full of those things. I think I'd try pop riveting them on before I cut out the section of fender that gets in the way.

I'm afraid I don't understand.

I'd like to get my fender out from under my brake ... it's too squished under there.

I think it'd work just fine, your seatstay/brake config is quite the same as the sample pic.

My concern was more if it would work with plastic fenders ... I'm concerned they'd rip or something when I put the holes in them.

What are the brackets you've used, that go over the brakes and attach to the mounting bolt?

Also, how easy is it to remove the fenders?

Retrogrouch guessed that they are rear rack brackets and I agree, these can be found at most bike shops in their bin of unused rack brackets.

Your concern about the fenders not being easy to cut is valid, those type of fenders are brittle. It can be done with the right tools and skill, if your unsure then take your bike to your favorite mechanic (with the sample pic) and challenge him to do it.

Doesn't look like you have much to lose, the fenders already look like they've been broken anyway.

In the photo of the wooden fenders they are attached to the bike with silver colored stainless steel bars that come with a new bike rack to attach the rack to your bike. They don't always get used with the new bike racks and people just save them. They were just bent carefully to work for the fenders. I have a lot of them, they make great brackets for all sorts of things. In other words, make your own brackets and the possibilities are endless. Does anyone you know save brackets and small parts for things like that? I think I remember a bike shop is a long way for you? Bike shops usually have lots of these. You can often get steel flat stock from hardware or home stores, and drill holes and bend it anyway you want.



The fenders can actually just go right over the brake bridge too. It works but the brakes get dirty. One of my bikes has the forward piece of the fender just hitting the brake bridge and held in place by a zip tie. The rear piece just comes over the top of the brake bridge rests on the top and is also held by a zip tie. I carefully cover the gap with black electrical tape. It matches the black fenders perfectly. It's been working for years (maybe 5 or more?).

Those plastic fenders cut and drill and pierce like wood more or less. The cut great with a hack saw. They drill easily if you are gentle. I make nice round holes in my fenders like that with the awl on my swiss army knife. Just spin it around carefully and press down not too hard. Works great. I must have done 20 sets of plastic fenders that way.
A plastic fender is just a template to get started, you can modify it all you want. It just depends on you and if you like doing this kind of thing. Or if dad is ?

I might have some more of those brackets somewhere.

And no, the fender hasn't been broken ... it has been deliberately cut. I used to have a Lightspin on there and needed it to run on the tire, so I needed a bit of the tire exposed.

However, I was sort of thinking of a zip-tie option which would be easy to remove when I have to pack the bicycle in a box.

For now ... the rear fender has been removed!!!

What's changed in the last 3 months?

Have you had the rear wheel off?

Have you changed tires?

Is the wheel slid as far back as it can be in the dropouts?

I crashed badly 3 months ago ... the trouble seems to have started to some extent about then. Also I do have a different rear wheel now, I got that at the end of May.

Your use of zip ties is ingenious. I can see from your photo that the slot in the mounting bracket is not long enough to allow the fender to go higher. You can lengthen the slot by using a round file, or by heating a metal rod and melting the slot longer.

A few more millimeters can be got by filing or melting away the thickness of the bracket where it hits the cross tube and brakes. You could even cut through the top of the fender under the bracket too.

Wtf? Or you can just take a look at the bike and the fender and pretty much tell on the spot whether it would fit or if there would be problems.

I cut out the center piece of my rear fender underneath my brakes with a dremel tool. I then attached the side pieces with zip ties where my brake attaches. May not be pretty, but it works.

See pic.

Can you route this fender above the brake arch? It' will require some cutting around the seat stay, but try thinking about it. I've done it with a clip on style that was supposed to go under the arch, but I had the same problem, brakes in the way. So a few snips for the seat stays, and a few zip ties later, it was on, about 4 minutes and 3 zip ties to re-install if I take it off.

That is something to think about ... I was kind of wondering if it might be possible. It would involve cutting the fender down to one thin bit, which I might have to re-enforce somehow.

I successfully did what you're talking about doing - because I have a rear rack like you do, all I needed was a small L bracket, a few small bolts, and some zip ties. Unfortunately, I recently removed the fenders so I can't take a new, good close-up, but take a look at an old velospace pic:



and I'll see if I can explain. The L bracket needs to be bent to be more of "U" bracket, and then screwed into the bottom side of the rack and to the rear section of the fender. The rack that I had already had holes in a good spot for this, the converted L bracket did as well. I needed to drill a hole into this segment of the rear fender, and attach it with a very short bolt so that I wouldn't have to content with tire rub on the bolt.

The front section of the rear fender is attached using the clip that came with the fender, which is meant to attach inline with the rear brake bolt (it looks like you have something like this already. I used the hole in this hardware to run 2 zip ties to the rear stays to hold the fender in place just in front of the rear brake bridge. I used 1 zip tie to attach the fender at the base of the seat tube/chainstays.

Heyjaffy, what fenders are those? Planet Bike... Hardcores?

My LBS is putting the finishing touches on the build of my custom Waterford sport-touring frame. The only blip is that the front derailleur clamp (as I saw it), impedes the installation of the fender at the attachment point, and he needs to cut a section out of the fender, or cut and roll it back a bit, to properly fit and install it. It is a VO hammered fender. And I have a Campy Record Triple 10 speed set up. Otherwise, the fender fits fine, as does the front one.

I am new to fenders, and was taken back a bit by having to cut the fender. But it sounds and looks like the only solution. Is this an unusual occurrence, or are a fenders a "do what you have to do" type of installation? Thanks.

Machka
the flat stainless steel strips that many racks mount with , are useful in a lot of ways..

making mounts for the fenderus interruptus schemes is 1 of many.. fill in the gap with Duct-tape

I did just that, on my Winter Bike, at the fork crown.

Ya, but 7 years later I don't think this is a problem, which upon looking at the pictures I am guessing the real problem is trying to mount fenders on a sport/race frame with short reach brakes.