Fenders may have caused worse problems in that situation. You have a whole lot going on on a frame without a whole lot of clearance. It wouldn't take too much to have gummed up the works enough so that the bike wouldn't have moved. That's generally been my problem with fenders, especially with off-road riding. It doesn't take a lot to go from riding in the wet to walking in mud.

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of fenders. They rattle, they rub, they get gummed up with gunk, they make putting the bike on top of the car difficult, they make putting the bike inside the car difficult, and, honestly, they provide only minimal protection. If I'm riding in the rain, I'm usually riding in a rainsuit which protects me more than the fenders do.

For off road riding a tight clearance fender is just the wrong part. You'd want something that sits way up off the tire to prevent a little bit of the back spray. But in that type of riding getting dirty is just part of the experience. There's really no way to get around it.

You're right. Normal street fenders are just going to clog and cause problems in that environment.

maybe for cyclocross racers in thick mud all the time but happy to say the mild stuff I ride in has been no problem





I also mounted them on these two bikes w more clearance than, say a road bike









but my old MTB had way more clearance

SKS Longboards (highly recommended by many on BF.net) with standard flaps included.



Yes, there are some tradeoffs:

1. With fenders, you can't take the front wheel off and set the bike down on the fork... that's a little awkward sometimes; might interfere with some car racks too.

2. Getting the rear wheel off is a little trickier with fenders on - especially if you have track ends; my bike is a fixed gear but it has forward horizontal dropouts so it's easier, and it would be even easier on a bike with vertical dropouts.

3. You can't run as big a tire as you can without the fenders for any given bike.

When the OP asks a "question" and doesn't respond after >25 "answers"......
Troll-Fail?

-Bandera

Didn't you answer your won question ? (assuming you don't have fenders)

They also keep the bike cleaner.

He did respond - post 18.
He might be a troll anyway I guess.
I like a good fender thread once in a while.

Damn, you're a badass, [MENTION=134410]rumrunn6[/MENTION]. You too, [MENTION=21724]cyccommute[/MENTION].

Thanks.
Missed it in the sea of mud and slop discussions.
We all know what that post-Victorian euphemism referred to as the "mud" that mudguards were designed to keep from being flung upon one's self while cycling....

-Bandera

I put a Fender on this bike and it doesn't keep me clean at all

Rocks hard though....

[QUOTE=work4bike;20101129]Do they get in the way for things like maintenance, i.e. changing tires or whatever?

As [MENTION=21724]cyccommute[/MENTION] says, they make it difficult to mount a bike on a roof rack that grabs your fork tips, if you have the type that requires front wheel removal. And the rear fender takes up space even when you remove your rear wheel, so taking the rear wheel off doesn't shorten the bike, which can make tossing the bike in a car difficult. But I've managed anyway. These have been minor inconveniences for me. And they are the only inconveniences for me. They don't make removal or replacement of the wheels any more difficult, since the mount points are not the wheel axles.

There are trade-offs for sure. Full fenders rattle, rub, and make transporting your bike a pain, as noted above. But they do keep crap from being flung from the ground onto you and your bike.

Raceblades and the like will prevent the Freshman Stripe and save your group ride comrades from a face full of mud, but they don't protect your brakes, FD, and crankset from getting covered in gritty, wet crap. Viz:

rumrunn6 may I ask what schwinn is that in your pics? there's a crisscross on cl here somewhere and I was wondering what size tires it would take with fenders.

They make adapters for roof-racks so they can accommodate fenders, so it's a solved problem.

if you are squeezing big rubber onto a bike & adding fenders there can be an issue removing the rear wheel w/o letting some air out. there's a spot on the chainstay where you use a screw to hold the front part of the rear fender. the screw head takes up some clearance



that bike had other issues in that location tho





yeah fenders are a real joy

every time I think about taking them off, I remember what I went thru to mount them

it's a old CrissCross

I squeezed on some 45mm Riddlers. the fenders were a trick (aka headache) tho

Fenders for wide tires

I like the bike, bought it for $50!

My observations re: fenders from someone who has ridden year 'round in Boston, Ann Arbor, the San Francisco East Bay, Seattle and Portland, all places with roughly 40" of rain in various forms per year: Fenders should have ...

Two front stays, not just one unless the fender is designed frm the start to use just one set and be as rigid
Solid mounts at the brake bolts
A deep front flap that can be bent back without damage to either it or the fender
Breakable front stay ends at the dropout
Be rigid enough to not vibrate at speed and/or on rough surfaces, especially after front flaps are installed
Should be offered in yellow or white

I haven't had anything jam in the front fender and stop me yet and have never had or needed the front stays to fail but I have been wondering when that "yet" will happen for decades. I have had fenders that pass the rest of the above and fenders that flunk many of those standards.

There are several easy ways to make good front flaps. Cut down water bottles are very popular in Portland but I worry about them being stronger than the fender and breaking it. (If you ride a loaded bike with a heavy front end, ie loaded LowRiders; my preferred snow setup, the day will come when you wheel it off a curb and forget to lift long enough for the fender flap ti clear the curb. Crunch! Did your fender and flap pass the tests?

My preferred flap - I make them from 1990s era architect's film (as used for overhead projectors, large displays, etc. I double it up and tape the edges with clear packing tape. Plenty stiff enough to not deform in deep puddles but folds back with little damage when that curb thing happens. I only get several years out of each flap, but they are easy to make and install. (First one is the hardest. I drill out the rivets and replace them with #10 or M5 bolts, nuts and washers before the fender goes on the bike.)

When my film runs out, I will try leather since we have a very good leather store here, Oregon Leather. I'll report back when I do but don't hold your breath. I still have a few years of film to go.

Popular US made fenders that sadly flunk almost all of my standards are the Planet Bike fenders. One set of stays for a fender with less than rigid plastic. Front vibration happens very regularly, esp after you put on a real flap that generates air vortexes. Mount at the brake bolt is very poorly designed and not remotely stiff enough. The flap is a joke (but takingit off is just the drilling out of the rivets so work that was happening anyway). The plastic hanger at the brake bolt in back changes shape and fit relative to the plastic fender, becomes loose and starts rattling. I always end up making my own fitting at the chainstay gusset, again to stop rattling.

Fenders that pass all those standards save the flap are the SKS fenders. They are a joy. Now it they would just make yellow and white.

I keep posting about my experience re: Planet Bike fenders in the hope that someone there will see them and get the message. All they have to do is find an ancient set of Blummel fenders at some yard sale and copy them. 50 years ago, the British were making good fenders that passed all of my standards with flying colors (and in colors that could be seen on dark, rainy/grey northern winter days like today).

Ben

Fender clearance - a trick. If you need more clearance at the front of the real fender at the seatstay, cut a long ellipse out of the front of the fender, say 4 inches vertical and 3/8s inch across centered at the point of most contact. Fender can now move roughly 1/4" forward and the seatopost itself is not the closet point tot hte tire, just like with no fender. (You may also want to run the fender to the front of the chainstay gusset instead of the usual behind. This will help in keeping the fender pushed forward against the seatstay.)

On my custom fix gear I had to do this and cut the fender just forward of the seatstay and run a steel bracket over the brake to hold the rear portion. Before the rear piece went on, I cut the fender sides up to the crown of the top a few inches in front of the high point and a few inches behind. Straightened the fender a touch at both cuts. I then fiberglassed inside with carbon fiber and very thin fiberglass cloth. I now had a much longer fender that allowed me to move the wheel a full 2" inches so I can run any cog and do any possible flip-flop on the road with no tools except the hub wrench. Works really well!

Ben

[MENTION=392125]79pmooney[/MENTION], can you please post pictures?

Sorry. I'm still digital camera illiterate. Next time I see Gugie or another of the more advanced life forms. I'll ask if they can shoot the bike and post the pics.

Ben

The SKS ones that are extra wide, extra long, and extra-engineered are a godsend in sloppy weather. Setting up the rear one for clearance for wheel removal when you have rearward-facing horizontal dropouts will try your patience. I don't even think flaps are necessary when they are this long.


-Warr

Thanks you all, but I don't have to worry about that stuff And if I did I'd be looking for something other than fenders as a fix, like move somewhere else

I don't get how some think this is a trolling thread. I'm a cyclist with a lot of experience, but we all have our weaknesses, and mine is in the area of fenders. I used them once and I still had gunk get on me and my bike, granted I was an inexperienced cyclist at the time, but from that time on I made my mind up about fenders --- worthless (IMHO), until the other day when I considered them again and was curious of the opinion of those that do have much more experience with fenders.

As for allowing so many answers before responding...I've been reading and thinking...and of course my time spent here is just a fraction of my day...

Maybe some of the haters here need to get out and ride more often...



.

My riding is all on pavement.

If that's the reason for fenders, then as far as I'm concerned they are not worth the time, because you're going to get wet no matter what; I don't mind getting wet, I don't care if my bike gets wet, but I hate all the road grim. But I guess it's just a part of cycling.

My seat post mounted bike trunk acts as a good enough fender for my back tire. I think a front fender would be nice, but I haven't ridden in the rain often enough to motivate me to add one. I know my feet and shins get wetter more quickly from the spray. I even watch the water drops flying off the top of the front tire go up and fly back toward my legs and think, "A front fender may be a good idea."

However, I'm pretty sure my frame does not have any attachment points for fenders anyway. So I just get wet as I did this morning. If it is just a drizzle, the wind generated by riding acts as a blow dryer and keeps things from being too soaked.

My whole ride this morning was on wet pavement. (It's not raining. It's just wet out) Wet pavement full of road grit and rock salt.

Looking down at the tires you could see it. The tires were brown with this mix of wet dirty rock salt.

However, the bike and my body arrived at work clean.

Without fenders I'd have been dirty. With fenders, clean.