Hello fellow rain riders. I recently installed some SKS p65 fenders over Schwalbe Big Apples. Rode in the rain today and got no spray on my shoes from the front tire. Very happy with that.

I have a VO contructeur rack up front, which basically sits over bare tire, the SKS's front fender's being somewhat short at the top. That means that if I had had a bag or something strapped to the rack, the bag or thing probably would have gotten pretty wet and filthy. Anyone got any ideas about how to extend the top about four or five inches?

I was thinking of making a sleeve from high-quality rubber. But I dunno...

Rubber sounds like it might work if rigid enough, maybe cut a plastic bottle or old nalgene. I really need a visual.

I don't have a digital camera. My daughter does, and she will be coming down tomorrow. I will try to get a pic posted then.

Planet Bike sells their Cascadia mudflaps separately. You get 2 flaps and plastic rivets for $5 shipped! Worth a shot.

If you can find a broken fender, then there can be a bolting on of that to the front of the fork.

Cutting the fender from at the L clip, then making another L clip to fit the remainder
onto the front of the fork, gains you the width of the fork.
I gained clearance under the fork crown, at the same time..

I extended the rear of my fender using the stiffer back side of an old report cover (black) somebody was trashing here at work. It's a very light and durable plastic (very difficult to tear) which will retain a crease if you mounted it to your front rack with zip ties. Crease it down the middle and it may extend beyond the rack without falling onto the tire.

I've used a set of planet bike mudflaps, think the previously mentioned Cascadia for $5, on steel 45mm fenders before. They work great if one drills the fenders and uses stainless steel fasteners. Worth a shot.

old mtb tires

Old mtb tires! Yes. Dadburn, I'll drop by my LBS over the weekend and see if has one in the trash. Great idea. Other ideas above are certainly worth considering, but old mtb tires gets the prize.

Sounds like you need to rearrange the fender so it sits further forward (easy on SKS fenders until you've clamped down the mounts, then next to impossible). Then, as others have said, mudflaps. Mine's made of an old shampoo bottle that's about 10-11 years old. I'm so embarassed by it, I'm going to replace it as soon as it falls off. But it hasn't yet.

Cascadia mudflaps are great (Cascadia fenders are great, it's nice that you can retrofit others w/ the mudflaps).

Rubber stairtreads have a good consistency for mudflaps but hang flat, don't curve to the front or sides like the cascadia flaps do.

I did this with an old pair of SKS fenders:
Get a scrap pair of fenders from the LBS, cut a section to the length you need, pop-rivet that sucker on the front fender.
For clearance reasons, rivet them "heads in" and use a rivet washer on the outside to keep it from pulling through. You can use a tack hammer to round over the visible side of the rivet if it much matters to you.

I treat SKS fenders as stock material and always keep few redundant ones lying around, both new and broken pieces + stays, brackets etc. I glue them together with epoxy (slow-setting, urethane also OK) to any length I want (read 180 deg coverage or more). The front of the front one can be suspended under the rack with a bracket normally used for suspending a fender from the seatstay bridge. Such a bracket is preferable to another L-bracket because it is easier to dismount and mount the fender.

What width are your Big Apples? I have a set of 60mm, and had been wondering if the P65 is wide enough? Are there any wider stock fenders out there?

More good ideas. Thank you.

2-i: That would be the perfect solution, and that was my first thought. I just don't have extra or pieces of p65's.

coldfeet: I have the 60-mm Big Apples. I haven't measured how far out the fenders are from the tire, but it looks like about 3 to 4 millimeters on each side. That's not optimal coverage perhaps, but it seems to be sufficient. And like I said above, I road in the rain the other day and I got no spray from the front tire on my shoes, BB, chain, etc. I had to file some material on both sides of the fender at fork to get a good fit. I installed them without filing at first, but there was pretty much deformation. The bike is mid-80's MB-2. I don't think there are wider fenders on the market.

Pictures were requested above. So here are a couple:

Why no just attach a light plastic sheet under the rack and cut to size?

Marc

Seeing the pix, that's what I was thinking, too. Go for the Kent Peterson solution and nab a coroplast sign, chop it down to the exact dimensions and zip tie it in place. No more frontbag splashies.

That SKS fender IS short on the front side. Another good reason to buy Planet Bike Cascadias, which also include spray flaps on the back side. My Cascadias look to be about twice as long in front of the fork as your SKS fenders.

My plastic SKS fenders seem to be as short as in the pictures. But I had no problems with the spray in front of the fender during Missouri winters. Now I have a Jandd front rack which has a large flat plate on the top. So I guess I won't ever have that problem now. I like the ideas you guys have implemented with an extra spray flap. I may have to put one at the back of the front fender though. Sometimes a deep water puddle lets a bit of spray come back as far as the pedals.