stryper

https://imgur.com/AH7LfKn

I haven't owned a car for quite a few years now and every winter I try to do a bit better with the rain. This is my first year having a real commuter bike built up though and I'd like to get it "rain proof." I rode to the gym earlier today wearing shorts through a decent rain and noticed my calves back and front still got pretty wet, my shoes soaked in fact. I'm not sure where I'm getting spray from the rear, but I can see in the front the water seems to be spraying out the side of the fender a bit, near the bracket. I know I need some mud flaps to extend the coverage down further, but any ideas about water leaking out the sides or spraying the back of my legs?

Never mind the weird bracket over the front tire. Trying to figure out how to get my new basket on around the brakes.

Leebo

More details would be helpful. Bike, tires size, rim width, current fenders, photo? Thanks.

scroca

If you can fashion a mud flap for the front fender that should help with your feet and also help to protect your drive train.

stryper

Photo is linked in the first post. They're 33mm tires on 28mm wide rims. I took the fenders off this bike: Town Bikes | Classic, Stylish City Bikes | Urban Bikes | Commuter Road Bikes | Windsor Essex Deluxe from bikesdirect.com

TransitBiker

With steel fenders you'll probably have to drill holiest add any flaps... You could get a rivet thingie and drill the holes out and attach polycarbonate extension which then would get the rubber flap.... at least that's how i would do it... you need to get lower without having a big floppy mud flap hanging down.... The other option is to 1put in screw plugs and screw a flap on.

- Andy

Fizzaly

Getting a more traditional "full coverage" fender would be the best bet but like others have suggested getting a mud flap or spray skirt also helps? Your biggest problem is your fender is nearly the same width at your tire you need a wider fender that'll help with e spray problem quite a bit.

Medic Zero

This. IIRC, your fender should be at least 5mm wider than the tire, otherwise, you'll get water around the edges of it.

irwin7638

Definitely a mudflap for the moment, but the most successful fenders I have used are the SKS Longboards.
They provide great coverage.


Marc

takenreasy

I have both Planet Bike and SKS fenders. SKS are A #1 and highly recommend them.

ragnar.jensen 

Probably from the bits of the mounting hardware on the inside of the fenders. I think you have screws poking through your fenders, with nuts on the inside and also a riveted-on mounting tab. The screws/nuts/rivets can form a "dam" of sorts, that forces the water out to the sides.
--
Ragnar

TransitBiker

You could try putting a piece of vinyl on the seat tube & zip tie it on, cutting it in a shape that's skinny up top and wide where you think it needs to block goo from tire...?

- Andy

stryper

The tires are actually measuring 35mm on these rims and the fenders are 55mm, so they are quite a bit wider. Perhaps the fact they are ( shaped instead of [ shaped is also and issue. And like somebody else said, they have rivets and a small bracket inside that would be damning the water and causing the drips out the sides.

Medic Zero

Ah, I couldn't see that, from the side view they looked very close in size to the tires. In that case, yeah there have been threads here about folks having issues with brackets deflecting the water in a not good way. I'd google search for that thread (our search feature sucks), I think there were a few recommendations. I'd be tempted to see if I could buy fender stays of a different type to retrofit it.

TransitBiker

The only way i know to correct the "dam" effect, is to buy slightly longer U shaped stays. You then mount it from the outside via a bolt, nut & a pair of washers & small bit of metal if they are wire vs flat.

This way you can remove the whole fender via the dropout mount. i'm sure there are a few other ways to do it, but that's how i've done it on several older bikes (not my own) where the stays got crunked in a crash or damaged while locked up.

- Andy

noglider 

I feel your front fender is much too short in the back. The longer, the better. The folks who say you need it wider, too, might also be correct.

wphamilton

I don't think that's it, in fact I believe they can be completely flat and still work fine.

The bracket and rivets damming the water sounds logical, something to look into anyway.

Too short in front. I'm not sure that the mud flap or extension needs to be any wider than the fender, unless you have snow or mud.

Fizzaly

Do you have any shots from the front, I'm having a hard time understanding how you fit 55 wide fenders on that frame. I'm not trying to say you're wrong I just can't see from that angle, I had a hard time fitting my 60mm fenders on a newer trek MTB frame is the only reason I'm questioning this.

stryper

I guess the front is actually 52mm
Rear:
Inside the rear fender, tire fits snuggly:
Anyways I'll work on a mud flap this weekend when I'm not working. Hopefully that solves most the wet shoes issue.


And while I have you guys here, having trouble with the front brake. I got my rack installed and it's great, but the bracket for it that attaches so the brake hole is interfering with my stuff. I know I can get a cable hanger that attaches to the stem, but the Y shaped thingy is at the perfect height to hit the bracket too. Fixes?

Fizzaly

I Rebent my bracket for the front rack to first go down then out and up basically made a "U" to get it under the cable(I was running v-brakes) if you need a picture let me know I can snap a quick picture of it. That frame hides it's width very well they didn't look that wide from the side... I don't have much of an answer for you though unfortunately aside from maybe playing with the distance the fender is from the tire, I've seen but by no means suggest people basically wrap a trash bag around from one side to the other around the fender. It looked pretty dumb but have no idea if it worked or not.