So I broke down a few months ago and bought a Surly LHT (since it was an older year model they were looking to unload, I got a very significant discount from the LBS) to serve as a commuter / errand runner / city rider and compliment my MTB. It's that cream-colored "Truckaccino" color, and i've got a Brooks "honey" leather saddle on it (and will be changing out the bar tape for matching brown bar tape soon most likely). So i've decided to throw some fenders on the thing as the weather is turning foul, and i'm trying to decide on a color.

Silver?
Black?
Black, then paint a truckaccino-matching stripe down the middle of them? (or paint truckaccino down the sides, leaving a black strip in the middle?)

Opinions? Silver would match the spokes and hubs I guess. Black would match the tires and rear rack. Decisions, decisions.

That is a color scheme that calls for hammered copper.

I don't know of any copper fenders, and in my neck of the woods you'd be mobbed by methheads who want to steal your fenders and sell them to a scrapyard.

Oh man, hammered copper would look completely *boss*. And I actually do (very, very crappy) welding steel art stuff at a metal studio where I know one of the guys works in copper and would probably be able to make a killer set of fenders. But yeah, copper fenders would get stolen in approximately 15 seconds here would be my big fear

Ideally, the beige SKS Longboards are probably the way to go:



https://www.sks-germany.com/?l=en&a=p...0437&LONGBOARD

I think silver would be a nice complement to the bike, as well. With such big, blackwall tires, I feel that a black fender would just exacerbate the visual heaviness of the wheel.

I would not suggest to paint them, as I think that, in the long term, it would be difficult to maintain a nice appearance.

I have SKS Longboards on my bike. I think the cream color would be a touch too light for the Surly frame. I'd go with silver, as it brings with it a classic look that will go well with the honey leather saddle and handlebar tape. Hammered silver if you can find it.

I would go to the hardware store and see if I could find a color to match the frame as close as possible. Or maybe go with the SKS longboards from the above post. Those look pretty nice. Or maybe try to match the color of the seat. I painted my fenders about three years ago using Rustoleum Ultracover spray paint and they're holding up good.

Oh well, given that, forget what I said earlier! I've never painted any fenders, so what do I know?!

Black w/some sign reflector material on it (thats what I did). Got the stuff for free from my local county sign shop (ask for scraps). Stuff is blindingly bright - cars change lanes for me now.

Heres what it looks like during the day


And with lights on it

Here's my Truckaccino LHT sporting black SKS fenders to give you some idea of the look. Since this pic was taken, I've changed out the black B17 for a honey B17 and wrapped the handlebars with brown shellacked cork.

Hmm, running a strip of reflective tape down the middle of the rear fender might not be a bad idea. Now to pick between black and silver. I might run down to my local LBS and see if they have both, and just do a "don't install 'em, just put 'em in the wheel wells" back and forth sort of visual comparison.

I've enjoyed my white planet bike cascadia. I love the way my bike looks, but color isn't too super important for me : ) I like functionality, though I will admit that beauty usually follows if it's functional. . . usually.

3M has a nice selection of gold and silver reflective tape - I looked to see if they had copper-colored stuff, but with tape it would probably end up looking chintzy instead of awesome.

Great idea. Can I assume correctly these are flexible signs and not the rigid type? Also, what did you use to attach them to your fenders?

The material comes in large rolls of several hundred feet x about 5 feet wide. Its a sheet material with adhesive on the back - they put the stuff on aluminum plates to make signs. Its really just a heavy duty version of 3M tape.

Yea worrying about the color is dumb.

the 2" wide shorter rolls of reflective tape, are more common.