The lower part of the front fender, if it extends low enough, blocks spray that would otherwise hit bottom bracket, chainrings, and feet. My Longboards keep all three clean and dry in wet conditions. (They might get wet from rain falling, but that's clean water, and doesn't leave the gritty residue found on parts exposed to spray.)

Edit to add: Grant Peterson might have explained it best in Rivendell Bike's SKS Longboard description:SKS Longboards have very little ground clearance. I would absolutely not recommend installing them without the quick release stay attachments. (Mine have released twice in use, likely preventing two accidents.)

Make it three for SKS Longboards.

http://www.brucew.com/images/portrai...ommute-800.jpg

No fender will keep things clean and dry. Longboards absolutely keep everything cleaner and drier. I get almost twice the wear out of my chains since switching to Longboards

SRAM GXP bottom brackets have no serviceable parts. If you took it apart to "service" the bearings, that's what killed it, not anything else.

In four-seasons, all-conditions use, and commuting up to 30 miles a day, I've gotten over eight years out of a GXP BB. It was still in good shape when I had to replace the crankset. (The pressed-on spider was coming loose.)

Finally, yes, fenders look frumpy. But I'm not out there to make a fashion statement. I'm out there riding to work, trying to stay cleaner and drier in the process.

In all honesty, everyone who sees you riding a bike to work thinks you're a drunk who lost your license. Frumpy fenders won't spoil that image.

Trust me on this: They're not checking out your gear and thinking, "Nice bike. I'd do him."

Wow, dem's some low, low mudflaps. I don't think I could run that low around here, they'd be dragging in the snow some days in the winter, and they'd probably clog up and jam the wheel.

Mine look like those! So I'd guess i'm the 4th.

I've got full-coverage fenders. Not Longboards, no. Maybe that long front flap makes that big a difference, but the majority of fenders available for sale don't come with them.

Worth re-emphasizing. You don't clean these things. And a replacement BB is so cheap it hardly matters. But they should last a while under the relatively benign conditions of commuting by bike.

When will people learn that people care about aesthetics totally independently from their concerns about what others think? What everyone who sees you riding a bike to work is thinking isn't the point. Personally, I don't have strong feelings about the appearance of fenders, and I want a drier butt, so my commuter has fenders. But I do generally care about how my bikes look. Because I like to have a nice-looking bike. It pleases me. For someone who does think fenders are ugly, well, that's going to be require some compromise one way or another. But you have to stop thinking all aesthetic concerns disappear when you realize other people don't care. No one cares if I walk down the street in sweat pants, either. But I care.

A few years ago my commute took me past a semi-truck wash where they hosed out all the trucks that had just unloaded at the nearby stock yards. A lot of what they washed out of the trucks floated out into the street. Pretty sure that wasn't mud I was riding through every day.

I have two bikes with fenders, and the rest are without. If rain is in the forecast I'll ride a bike with fenders. While I prefer the non-fender look, I don't prefer it more than getting soaked from all the moisture coming up off the road. They may or may not help with keeping gunk off my drivetrain, but they undoubtedly help with keeping the gunk off me.

That long mudflap makes a HUGE difference. Compared to the bottom 8-10 inches of the front Longboard fender, the rest of the fender is merely decorative.

I've not been overly satisfied with the general quality of my Longboards. It's good, not great. But until I find an alternative that's just as long and utilizes quick release attachments, I'll continue to use them. I also really wish the 50+ mm versions were actually as long as the 45 mm Longboards.

I use full fenders not to protect the bottom bracket but to protect my clothing and prevent all the road crud , road spray and other crap from messing up my clothes.

My utility bike has steel fenders that came with the frame, and are painted the same color. That was the deluxe option in Schwinn's line.

It was raining today when I left the house, so I wore my rain gear and waterproof shoes. I saw one other cyclist on my ride, where I usually see dozens. So now I know how cyclists in my locale deal with rain.

[/smug]

Thanks so much for all the replies.

Looks like consensus is fenders are good for keeping the rider comfortable but not totally necessary for keeping parts in good order. I always take a full change of clothes to work in paniers - and the back rack keeps water from hitting me - and I hate hate hate fenders that you have to constantly mess with.

That being said I rode an hour to work today - post-rain along the lakefront and got SO much crud all over my bike - so would like to know what's the most maintenance free full fender I can get?! I'm riding a Soma ES with 28 Conti 4Seasons - with 32 studs in the winter.

Looks like these SKS Longboards would do the trick? Is there any reason to spend over a hundred for Portlands?

Despite other people's opinions, I find most fenders to be roughly equal in quality. They all work approximately equally well, except that longer is better. Also, if you have a choice of widths, get the widest that will fit.

I don't have to mess with my lightweight fenders often. Occasionally, they'll go a bit out of alignment. The struts are made of steel, so I just bend the right one with my hand. No big deal. I have no problems with rattles.

Interesting. And a little depressing. I've only used my SKS Longboards, and I've not been blown away by the quality (compared to my impression of the quality of, for example, my first pair of Schwalbe Marathons).

I haven't met any fenders I didn't like. What's wrong with yours? I have SKS Chromoplastics on my Bianchi Volpe. They haven't given me any trouble.

The P45 SKS Longboards are 45 mm wide, and should have plenty of clearance over your 28 or 32 mm tires. Your ES should have wide-enough fork crown and seat stays to fit them. The SKS fenders (plastic with a metal foil embedded) are flexible enough to vibrate when you go over bumps, which is a minor annoyance.

The Portland FMF's are aluminum, so they'll be less flexible and could possibly rub less often.

FYI, if you go with the FMF's you should get the CITY width (up to 35 mm tire) instead of the ROAD width (for skinny 23 mm tires).

Planet Bike Cascadia fenders are similar to both, and are steel.

Velo Orange makes aluminum fenders that are trying to look like Honjo's (which are gorgeous but expensive, and a pain to install), but at reasonable prices.

I prefer the easy install of SKS fenders (2 bikes have them), but I prefer the looks of VO "hammered" (1 bike has them).
I have a set of Honjos that I got a clearance deal on, but I'm not going to bother installing them until I break the VO fenders.

Well, I quit.

There is not much reason to spend over a $100 on portlands, I am a huge pdw fan and have a lot of their stuff but just cant justify it.

I personally use cascadia's which I just sold to a guy because I bought a set of these, I figured I will be the guinea pig due to the prices I am able to get on them and they have them in 29x2.35 which is the size I need.

You don't need fenders, but should definitely consider them
Also +1 for anyone saying full coverage is the way to go.

I inherited some cheap plastic fenders, that are not full coverage. Partial fender = partial coverage = some back(pack) splatter, but not full streak up back.
I removed by front fender, and for got to replace it.
If you enjoy facials a road oil/dirt slurry, I highly recommend not getting front fenders.

I don't own an umbrella. Never have. Never seen the need. They are useless on a bicycle and, if it is raining, I'll wear a rain jacket. And if I'm riding a bicycle in the rain, I'm usually wearing rain pants as well. Since I'm wearing a rain suit to keep me relatively dry, I'm not worried about what's falling out of the sky or bouncing up off the pavement. The jacket and pants work just as well to keep me dry and clean as fenders do.

Especially when using a modern cartridge bearing. Old cup and cone bearings were much less well protected and I've worn out many of them from water and dirt infiltration while mountain biking.

I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with them, except that they haven't been particularly durable. They still work very well, despite being held on, and together, with zip ties. One of the rear mounting brackets has broken in two. The front fender has broken in two pieces at the top mounting point. (To be fair, the latter is more related to damage than wear.) I realize a plastic fender's life will be shorter than a steel bike frame, but it would be nice if a pair of fenders lived longer than a pair of my tires.

Still, I've not seen any better options, so I'll replace them with another pair of Longboards.

The Longboards should be fine. Because of the rain here, I've had to ride through puddles two weeks in a row and they do a good job of keeping the puddle liquid off off me - except maybe a few droplets onto my feet.

They're better than the stock fenders on my Uptown 8 - the front one always seems to easily get knocked out of alignment.

Look at the pictures of how "clean" fenders keep bicycles in this thread. After seeing the pictures, I really have to question just what fenders are good for. They obviously don't keep the drivetrain clean and the some of the pictures so that they don't do that good a job of keeping anything else clean. I've used them in the past during the winter but I really am wondering why I bother. Frankly, even with fenders on the bike, I've noticed that my glasses, face and chest are covered with road grit as is the drivetrain. Sure my bike isn't but it seems like a lot of bother to go through to keep my back dry.

[MENTION=218808]Jaywalk3r[/MENTION], you've had worse than average luck. I have had a pair of Bluemels (made of plastic) for over 30 years. They're pretty battered by now, but they're still there. I would expect a pair of fenders to last 20 years or more with normal care.

[MENTION=21724]cyccommute[/MENTION], I love how your perspective is based in deep experience but comes up with an unusual conclusion. More power to you. My rough guess is that fenders reduce water and grit by two thirds. If your hope was for them to eliminate that stuff perfectly, you were set up for disappointment. If 2/3 improvement isn't much to you, that explains why they're useless to you. In a long heavy downpour, I'll get totally drenched with or without fenders, but I don't encounter them often, and I don't head out into them deliberately. But there's no question they keep me and my bike cleaner than a lack of fenders does.

Do the fenders really do the job you think they do? Go take a look at the bikes in the thread I linked to. There's a bike there with panniers on it that are covered with grit, so what do the fenders do? There's another bike that shows a bottom bracket covered in crap, so what do the fenders do? There's alan s' bike with sand all over it from riding on the C&O in the rain and about the other part of it that is clean is a tiny patch below the top tube/seat tube junction. Is that really an important part to keep clean? Would it really be any cleaner without fenders?

And, finally, take a look at my bike. It's as clean as the others and it had been ridden in a day of rain on dirt roads about a week before the picture was taken. It's not exactly a dirty bike. And I swear that I had not washed the bike prior to the picture. Any dirt and crap falls off when it dries.

That could very well be true. One pair is not a huge sample size. It's also possible that my bike sees higher than average use/abuse (which also would not be the fault of the fender). Hopefully my next pair lasts longer.