Reason for fenders besides water deflection?
03-29-17, 11:29 PM
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Reason for fenders besides water deflection?
Is there any functional reason to put fenders on a bike other than deflecting water?
03-29-17, 11:40 PM
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I first began using fenders due to all the goose crap in the NW suburbs of Chicago.
03-29-17, 11:57 PM
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Fenders keep you, your clothes, your bike and your drive chain cleaner year 'round. Rear fenders are the best place on the bike to put lights and reflectors if you want to be seen. And if you use highly visible fenders, they in themselves are far more visible than any paint job. (Sadly, the fender manufacturers have a thing against providing us with performance bikes with appropriate narrow fenders in those colors.)
If none of that matters to you, leave them off. (I have a bike that has fenders always, two with fenders nearly year 'round and two where taking them on and off takes minutes. Two bikes over 50 years that never had fenders.
Ben
If none of that matters to you, leave them off. (I have a bike that has fenders always, two with fenders nearly year 'round and two where taking them on and off takes minutes. Two bikes over 50 years that never had fenders.
Ben
03-30-17, 12:11 AM
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If you tend to hang bags on the bar or ride in coats, fenders offer some protection against dangly stuff getting caught between wheel and frame/fork. A front fender with a tall mud flap will keep the cast-off from the front wheel from hitting the chain and crankset.
It'll keep your feet drier and cleaner too. But chains wear faster when dirty than shoes do.
It'll keep your feet drier and cleaner too. But chains wear faster when dirty than shoes do.
03-30-17, 12:18 AM
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It's not so much the water as the mud and crud it carries.
So, while the answer to your question is basically NO, the benefits are more than staying clean and dry. Reducing the amount of crud sprayed onto your bike can improve the life of things like your chain and sprockets, protect a leather saddle, etc.
So, while the answer to your question is basically NO, the benefits are more than staying clean and dry. Reducing the amount of crud sprayed onto your bike can improve the life of things like your chain and sprockets, protect a leather saddle, etc.
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An ounce of diagnosis is worth a pound of cure.
Just because I'm tired of arguing, doesn't mean you're right.
“One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions” - Adm Grace Murray Hopper - USN
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03-30-17, 03:36 AM
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A rear fender makes a bike more aerodynamic.
The front fender would too, if it was as long as a rear fender.
The front fender would too, if it was as long as a rear fender.
03-30-17, 04:49 AM
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Yes. They add to the Fred look. 
03-30-17, 05:48 AM
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They look cool? I like the look of them, the chrome ones compliment the paint job. Just my thought, YMMV.
03-30-17, 06:17 AM
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03-30-17, 06:18 AM
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03-30-17, 06:21 AM
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They keep car bike rack designers on their toes.
03-30-17, 07:07 AM
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03-30-17, 07:09 AM
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03-30-17, 07:19 AM
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I'm going to be Dutch here and say it makes your bike look more like a rusty beater. 
That or because you enjoy arriving everywhere with a ****-brown stain on your back.
Most bikes around here without fenders are either:
- Road (racing) bikes
- Mountain bikes
- Stationsfietsen (beater bikes that get used to get from home tot the train station)
- Fixies
Everyone that uses their bike on a regular basis (aka not just when the weather is nice) usually has fenders.
That or because you enjoy arriving everywhere with a ****-brown stain on your back.
Most bikes around here without fenders are either:
- Road (racing) bikes
- Mountain bikes
- Stationsfietsen (beater bikes that get used to get from home tot the train station)
- Fixies
Everyone that uses their bike on a regular basis (aka not just when the weather is nice) usually has fenders.
03-30-17, 07:20 AM
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Many fenders look cool on certain bikes. I love those hammered fenders, for example; and have a set on one of my old steel bikes.
Water deflection is enough, though. A cold, wet butt is no fun.
Water deflection is enough, though. A cold, wet butt is no fun.
03-30-17, 07:30 AM
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Exactly. The original Fred's ride in all sorts of weather, and couldn't care less about approved or non-approved equipment... or any rules. The later definition Fred's are actually more poser.
03-30-17, 07:45 AM
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No, but that is really all the reason you need. Especially as others have mentioned, when travelling on anything but a pristine clean road, that road spray contains tons of gunk, let alone any dirt road that will cover you in mud. Any riding partners will appreciate not having the road spray in their face, too. My fiancee told me in no uncertain terms that fenders were being put on the bikes after the first day riding in the rain on our first tour, and early the next morning we were at the LBS buying them.
03-30-17, 07:50 AM
#21
Non omnino gravis
...which is not to say any fender would reduce the drag coefficient, or even change it at all. As with other things, the big bag of meat plopped atop the bike is the greatest source of aerodynamic drag by orders of magnitude. Just imagine how fast bikes could be without us.
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03-30-17, 08:07 AM
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Here in the northwest we have giant slugs, they can be on MUT's, and narrow roads in large numbers at certain times of year.....
03-30-17, 08:09 AM
#24
Non omnino gravis
