I have fenders on most everything I ride, but I am in the Willamette Valley where we occasionally see a funny yellowish, bright object in the sky come July, but we ignore it until the rain starts again in September.

My wife isn't a big fan of fenders, although she has them on her town bikes. On the tandem, we have a fender on the rear, I ride stoker, and nothing on the front. She claims it creates a potential toe-overlap issue, and since front wheel spray doesn't reach me, who am I to complain?

In Oregon it seems prudent to use fenders. My touring bike and my around town bike have them year around. My commuter bike, a road bike, is a little more of a challenge, but wears fenders from fall to spring. I use snap ties on the road bike because there is no room for clips. My "good" road bike is almost impossible to get fenders on even if I wanted to.

SKS fenders are almost indestructible. I have shipped our touring bikes many times in bike boxes that allowed the fenders to bear all the bike's weight if they were stowed incorrectly in planes, trains, and buses. They came out in really good shape.

While traveling at 15-17 mph my commuter bike's back wheel picked up some debris and jammed my rear wheel, folding my rear fender accordion fashion. It also broke the snap ties I had securing the fender to the rear brake bridge. The SKS fender just popped back into a fair semblance of its former shape when I partially removed the back wheel. My wife had a couple of spare snap ties in her seat bag that got us home. SKS front fenders have a "break away" mount which prevents front wheel lock up if something is picked up and jams the wheel.



What I did not realize until I got home was that the tire had a pretty good gash in it. I was lucky because we hit around 25 mph on a downhill section shortly after the incident.



I don't try for a perfect fender line. I usually try to get maximum clearance without looking too wierd. I also bounce back and forth between 28 mm and 32 mm tires on my touring bike, and I don't want to be adjusting the fenders every time I change tire size. My around town and "go-to" bike is a cyclocross bike which I also change tire size on frequently.


Around town and light touring ride.

I use fenders on both a Cervélo R3 (SKS long blade in front, Crud Road Racer in the back) and a 4-season Trek Wahoo with 29ers (Planet Bike).

? Fenders required by law? How does one do that with a road bike?

Okay, that bike is entirely too clean.

Mikey,
I think he means the "Velomanati Rules" type of not allowed on a "true" road bike by 41 type roadies.

Doug, if you haven't already tried this, a heat gun on the lowest setting, used with caution, will let that wrinkle come out of those SKS fenders. Even a hair dryer will do the trick, we use this on the fenders on off road motorcycles all the time.

Bill

I just ride recreationally, no commute. Race blades on my winter bike in NJ. I don't intentionally ride in rain, and fenders are more for benefit of people behind me when roads wet. No need for fenders in NM. And fenders are no good on gravely roads when gravel can get caught between tire and fender.

Thanks for the detailed tips. One little item I have found handy when struggling with fender line is a spring loaded bolt that attaches the leading end of the rear fender to the chainstay bridge. Velo-Orange sells one they call the "Spring Thing".

All of my bikes have fenders except for a $5 Varsity that I use only for pulling a trailer on sunny days.
No problem mounting fenders as they are all OEM and I have no reason to ever remove them.

Yes fenders!
I don't have them on all of my bicycles, and as long as I have more than one bicycle, I'll have at least one unfendered. But I'll always have at least one fendered bike.

I ride over wet pavement, wet and/or dry crushed limestone, sand, doggie doodoo, wet and/or dry leaves, wet and/or dry grass clippings, small twigs, and post rainstorm worms just to mention a few...so yes. The whole fleet wears fenders, front and rear. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Man, that suspended Schwinn is choice! You sir are a man of high taste!

This one is new version with a Shimano 7 speed coaster hub. I had an original single speed Schwinn knee action balloon tired Schwinn of unknown age that was given to me for zero dollars in 1970 because the owner had just bought a fancy-dancy "ten speed racer" and wanted to get rid of "that junk in his garage." I rode it for 27 years until 1997 when I sold it to shed household weight prior to moving overseas.

I missed it, and bought this replacement in 2003 or so. I added the dice to give it extra class. It sports a political bumper sticker for President. Put it on before the 2008 election, served well for 2012 too!

A couple years ago, I picked up a nasty Campylobacter infection from a soiled water bottle that almost landed me in the hospital. Apparently, Campylobacter is fairly common in animal feedlots, and can wash onto the roadways. At least that's what the Public Health Nurse told me.

That why there's N+1, right?

I don't have time to dink around like that. Every minute I spend getting the bike ready is a minute I DON'T spend riding. So all of my bikes have fenders. Permanently.

SP
OC, OR
- where if you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride much.

I persevered until I found some pink ones . . . .

Pacific Northwest, so Planet Bike fenders on everything. I like the long mudguards.

I know not what of these fender things you talk about? The only rain gear I have is a cell phone.

Truth is I got rid of the only bike I had with fenders. Because of where I live and the stage of life I am in I don't go out in the rain. There is always tomorrow. I have often thought about a bike with fenders as a N+1 but once I start looking something else catches my eye. I have nothing against them other than remembering how they would rattle on my old baloon bikes when I was a kid.

Personally I believe it is in every cyclist's best interest to have at least one bike with full fenders in their collection

...but furthermore, I also believe it is in every cyclist's best interest to have at least one bike with absolutely no fenders in their collection.

I've fenders on two bikes. Not only do they improve comfort on rainy days, they help reduce filth on the bike anytime the pavement is damp.

On my cro-mo steel framed bike I have "full fenders" as since I'm car free, I do have to ride the bike when the rides have melted ice/snow so the fenders keep the "crud" off the frame. My alum. framed bike doesn't have fenders as I sometimes use it on the "dirt" MUPS/trails which we have a LOT of here in Colorado Springs. If I get into a bit of trail mud I don't want to have to keep clearing the fenders.

After 300,000+ miles of bicycling since the early 70s, have never utilized fenders.
Cycled in 30+ states and he worst wet weather we've experienced was on a tour on our tandem by the Grand
Canyon in northern Arizona.
A real soaker, driving winds/rain and no place to hide for many miles.
Worst part was trucks whizzing by at 55+ph and throwing sheets of water on us as they passed.
Threatened to drill holes in our cycling shoes so the water could run out!
Stoker on tandem was semi-protected from tire splashings by rack trunk on our rear carrier but not from driving rain.
When we got to Flagstaff we stopped at the first big reastaurant for coffee to warm up. Waitress felt sorry for us and gave us free pie!
No plans to use fenders.

Why?

Try using bolt cutters next time. Quicker and eliminates the heat issue.