Consider, fenders aren't just for you. I had a set of fenders on my rain bike last year that didn't quite come halfway down the rear tire. This resulted in a nice Oregon racing stripe up my back on a regular basis. Since I was riding in the rain anyway, I justed accepted this.

Then one day as I was stopped at a traffic light, a guy who had been riding behind me commented (quite nicely, all things considered) on my fenders being too short as he picked some of the bigger pebbles I had flung at him off the front of his jersey. Now I have better fenders.

Well thanks Guys,I went to bed just after posing this an d knew that I would have plenty of responses. Thats whats cool about the commuting forum. First I'm perfectly willing to wear rain pants, as long as they breathe. I hate the whole skunk stripe thing, and planned to compensate with a clip on fender. I do carry a minipump, spare tube, and phone as my gear. I will need lights for commuting to work after school. I'm thinking just a smaller headlight and a blinkie mounted where the brakes on my bike once were. (Yes I ride brakeless,please no lectures) I'm just the opposite of captain dashboard, with my chopped down flatbars.But can you guys reccomend specific equipment.Frank

I think a true minimalist approach would be to walk everywhere.

No, the true minimalist approach would simply be to go nowhere.

At any rate, a "minimalist" philosophy is not a valid excuse for not using fenders (or brakes) on a commuter bike. Usually it boils down to the rider not liking them because they ruin looks of the bike or some similar nonsense. The OP admits this. Its still stupid.

I'm not convinced a clip-on fender would eliminate the stripe. Then again, I haven't used one. Maybe someone who has can comment. With a nearly full fender and a rack last year, I got the stripe.

Watch another rider in the rain and note where the water flys off the wheels and at what angle. You will quickly realize that partial fenders are basically worthless. Only a full fender, that comes down at least 90 degrees down from the top of the rear wheel, will effectively prevent water from spraying onto your back. The fender has to come down ever further than 90 degrees to prevent spraying a following cyclist. Likewise, the front fender has to come down much more than 90 degrees to prevent spray from hitting your shoes and drivetrain. In these cases, long mud flaps do the trick.

I tried RaceBlades for a season. They were slightly better than useless. Mihlbach has it dead right: a rain bike requires full fenders, not to protect you from the rain, but to protect you and your bike from the filthy spray that comes off your tires. Even if you don't have fender bosses, you can fit full fenders on virtually any bike with some p-clips and zipties.

That is a nicely set up fg commuter/rainbike. Nice steel frameset with road(ish) geometry, good full fender coverage, front and rear brake, with hoods and drop bars, two bottle cages, clipless pedals, reasonable saddle-bar drop, and no hipster bull****.

I mostly agree. Front fender must drop pretty low to keep spray off of your drivetrain. IME experience though, a seatpost mounted rear fender can be sufficient to keep the spray off of your back if it extends far enough rearward. It may not help the guy behind you at all however.

Thanks! It's a '89 Trek 660. I wanted a fixed gear ROAD bike, not a stupid wannabe track bike. It looks like the bike manufacturers are finally figuring this out and there are good choices now, but at the time, your best bet was to find a good old steel road frame.

Yes, its actually pretty basic geometry. As long as the fender extends to the steepest imaginary line that intersects your backside and the very back of your rear wheel, it will basically protect you.

I have a very similar bike, build around an old Centurion frame. Unfortunately I left it with my parents to ride when I visit. While I have several other FGs, none of them are really set up for commuting or rain riding. My current bad-weather commuter bike is a Long Haul Trucker, which is really great for handling loads, but I do miss the days of riding my sleek fendered FG road bike in the rain.

I ran some on my bike back in the early 90s, but kept breaking them, only getting a season or two use.
My backscratcher's going on 10 years now and is easy to switch from bike to bike. Front derailers are cheep enough and fenders probably make things slightly worse for rear derailers. I do have to repack the BB a lot more than the fendered years, however.

I suppose since I have a shorter commute these days, don't lock up to parking meters a couple times a day, close the bar down then throw the bike in a taxi's trunk anymore full fenders would last me longer, I might get a set this winter.

These are the pants I wear for my 20 minute commutes. I wear 'em with hi-top boots when it's wet.

You lost me here.

You got me.

Or maybe even more minimal would be simply... not being.

Killing oneself is very eco-friendly.

complicated this minimalism is....

I think you need a second bicycle, for rainy days.

More bikes -- problem solved!

Originally Posted by LesterOfPuppets View Post
Front derailers are cheep enough and fenders probably make things slightly worse for rear derailers.

As far as additional drivetrain destruction from going fenderless is concerned, my local shop has NOS front derailers for $8, this is of no consequence to the OP, however. I've noticed that having a full fender on the rear causes lots of gritty water to drip off the edge of the fender all over the cogs and rear derailer.

I have never noticed water dripping from my fender to the derailleur, unless riding through lots and lots of water. Usually, the spray from the tire runs along the underside of the fender and drips off the front and back, although I am certain that the RD is not immune to road spray even with fenders.

At any rate, without fenders you are spraying the same stuff directly onto the chain, derailleurs, chainrings, pedals, and cogs, thus introducing the same abrasives to the same components, but in much greater quantities with much higher and more forceful velocities.

Actually his argument makes sense. With no fender, guck flies outward, away from the wheel; with a fender; some of it is contained and may be redirected inward towards the center of the wheel.

+1. My fenders don't drip off the sides.

If I get fenders again this winter, I'll take some video.

I'm just trying to present both sides. I've found locking bike to parking meters/racks a few times a day and then tossing bike in the trunk totally destroys fenders, making them less cost effective than backscratchers. Backscratchers are WAY easier to swap between bike than full fenders too.

On the negative, I have to repack my BB a lot riding without a full front fender. My pedals seem to be doing fine. I can get decent pedals for $20, so I don't mind if I have to replace them every 15 years or so.

My whole rear wheel area seems to get nastier with a rear fender. All that crap on the braking surface, black brake dust slurry combining with road grime just makes a mess of cogs and, let's just say almost everything rear-triangle related except the rear brake caliper.

If I didn't mention it, I have a short commute, 3.8 miles each way, similar mileage to the OP's. If I was still doing my 15 mile commute I did back in the day, I'd have to have full fenders.

This is completely and utterly misguided. When riding on a wet surface, the wheel splashes some water to the side, regardless of whether a fender is there or not. Water that actually adheres to the wheel (via surface tension) does not fly outward. The centrifugal force of the spinning wheel obviously directs the water to the midline of the tire where it is flung directly off the tire from the midline of the wheel. The spray hits you and your bike. Thats why you get the stripe in the center of your back. When the front wheel is turned slightly to the left, the back spray from your front wheel is aimed right at your DT. With a fender, the spray hits the underside of the fender and it either drips back onto the tire and is flung again, or the surface tension holds it to the fender and it runs along the undersurface until it drips off the front or back. Watch your fenders carefully when you ride. Most of the water drips off the ends and only a tiny amount (if any) ever drips off the sides. What's worse, a few drops, or forcefully spraying your DT with road grime?

5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, in an area with several rainy days. Yes I do recall a vast majority of slurry getting spit out on the pavement right behind the bottom bracket, not all of it, however. Hmm, right behind the bottom bracket, then where's it go?

Nevertheless, it's likely quite pointless to try to talk someone into fenders when they're just not their style.

Here's my snow-day setup. Move the backscratcher from road bike to MTB, put the studded tire on front and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...