After two days of fighting traffic driving the car to work I was looking forward to a nice relaxing bike ride into the office today. The first half of the ride was nice and relaxing. Then the cable to my front derailleur snapped, but I was still able to ride and it's not a difficult or expensive fix. But 15 minutes later while gliding around a corner a 3 inch nail injected itself into the sidewall of my rear tire. First I heard the pop, then the simultaneous sounds of air escaping and a tire skidding to a stop. After puncturing the inner tube the nail managed to stick out far enough to smack one of the rear fender supports hard enough to twist the fender enough to tear it half apart and pull the Jagged Edge into the rear tire tearing it and freezing the rear wheel. I was lucky enough over lunch to get the shifter cable replaced and buy a new tire and inner tube. The new fender is on order.It's an SKS p45. The front fenders have quick release clips so that if something gets caught in the spokes the fender disengages and the spokes are saved. However, for whatever reason the rear fenders did not have the quick release clips. I don't remember if that was my doing, or if they were designed that way. Even so it's hard to know if that would have saved the fender.

All in all, still less frustrating than driving.

Rear fenders don't have break-away clips on SKS, or at least they didn't come with mine. Reasoning is that not having them in front could prove quite catastrophic. On the rear it's likely not, but your fender might get shredded, as you learned today.

Wow! Still, any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

Glad you are alright. Sorry about your bike. I will have to remember this in case I ever get real fenders.

I remember on the Charge Plug the fender mounting threads were larger than normal. That may be why I thought there may have been clips I didn't use...but I think you're right...no rear clips.

My planet bike fenders don't have a quick release on the rear fender either.

Glad no injuries though

Quick release clips are only mandatory on front fenders according to the German StVZO (not the rear fenders.) SKS Germany is based in Germany and thus follows the minimal requirements of the StVZO, hence the rear fender is toast. Also, it could cause quite a bit of damage to the rear mech is the rear fender came off.

I thought about that.

So I am saving the fender struts since they are already cut to length. On these fenders I had drilled a hole to line up with a thread on the cross bar where rim brakes would be mounted, if there were rim brakes. The hole points down towards the fender and is no doubt intended to be a support for a fender and not for rim brakes. The tear in my fender was 5 inches away from this hole.

yikes! that's some radical nail!

good times, NOT Rear derailleur & fender mishap

I've since added QR tabs front & rear. of course, no mishaps since ...

Cold will sometimes affect fenders. After years of use, they will snap. The only one that holds up are metal fenders. They are more costly and a pain to put on. Anyone know the lifespan of say, VO fenders?

the SKS FENDERS SKS F&R COMMUTER II B53 700x53mm SL held up well after getting folded & then spread out again. I've since removed them from the bike cuz I've been riding it in better weather after getting an MTB

Jinkies! Glad you and your bike didn't suffer major damage.

EDIT: Dang, fooled by a zombie thread.

That's the common wisdom, but I've ruined more metal fenders than plastic so far. My fault -- I didn't support the bolt at the fork crown properly and the metal tore around the hole. Fender #2 is faring better, but I still check it regularly. On the other hand, my cheap Serfas fenders on another bike have put up with more than 10 years of being forced into alignment by the stays without cracking. /shrug

Looks like you've ignored multiple indications to mount that rear tire the other way, what's up with that?

sad I know

darn, sorry