Fenders
 

Doe's anyone have fenders on their tandem?
We have scheduled 4 or 5 events this year & chances are it will rain for some of them. Overall boredom has me thinking of putting fenders on the tandem. The idea of some nice Velo Orange aluminum fenders makes me smile.
I can also see them being a constant nuisance, getting knocked out of alignment & such. Pros or Cons?

Thread / Poll from November '08

Mud Guards / Fenders: Yes or No?

Good ol' plastic ones by SKS. Much appreciated when the road is wet or when we get caught in a shower.
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...Standem002.jpg

Rode the End to End ride in England in early July last year. Lots of rain and we knew we had to ride each day rain or shine. Very glad we had the fenders. Yes, with the panniers and other stuff, we knocked one out of alignment every now and then, but easy to straighten out.

Hey TG, you're link is interesting, but doesn't point to fenders.
Could you please correct for us.
Thanks

Weird... Both should point to the right place now.

Thread / Poll from November '08

Mud Guards / Fenders: Yes or No?

Ive found the stoker makes a pretty effective splash guard.

Ah! Good point! Maybe all I need is a fender for the front!

We ordered our tandem with fenders and I have never considered taking them off. I've never thought about them being a nuisance; I consider them to be just another part of the bicycle and treat them accordingly.

I put fenders on just this winter, and find them to be a pita, but as expected. I just hate fenders, but riding in New England in the winter without them is worse.
The real question is whether they are going to come off at some point; the stoker will decide, but I don't want to be changing them every week.
I have the quick-on Race Blades on my single, might go to that for the season.

Also use Race Blades. So easy. I find most any fender not much of a nuisance. There's not much strain on them, so they tend to just sit there. Mostly a PITA fixing flats and the inability to rub possible glass off the tire. Put a long mud flap on front fender, also long one on rear fender if riding with others.

Mine are sitting on a shelf at home collecting dust....have not used or needed them much in years but wished I had them a couple of weeks ago in White Springs Fl... now it looks like we'll need them again this weekend in Katy Tx ...what are the odds?? Now I just know, if I put them back on when we get home, we'll have a 10 year drought for sure!!

Bill J.

I am going to hold off on the fenders. I still want to buy something for my tandem just to make me feel better & help the economy. Maybe a nice handle bar bag! Velo Orange has some real classy bike accessories.

I'm new to tandeming, but plan to install fenders pronto.

The one thing I might be able to add to the discussion is that fenders are like most bike components: Good quality stuff properly installed works great and might make you a believer. Junk and/or improper installation is likely to not work and, worse, annoy you.

Over a couple of decades I tried and threw out fenders a couple of times. FwIW I finally installed a set of Cascadias (PlanetBike) on my Surly CrossCheck b/c I was going to be riding it through a drizzly Dutch winter. I'm back on the "put fenders on everything" team.

Pros:
+ Greatly reduced spray on legs, back, etc, when it was raining but has stopped. No need to choose between riding through puddles and traffic.
+ Significantly reduced dirt on drive train when riding in sloppy weather. This was the clincher for me.

Cons:
- They don't stay in place perfectly, although the SKSs aren't bad in that line, provided you don't take off the wheels and lay the bike in the back of the car. The main reason I never put them on my single.
- They don't install without issues when used in conjunction with racks.
- They add more things to assemble when stripping down and re-building an S+S coupled bike.
- They increase the effective length when you take off the wheels. This has an effect on transporting the bike minus wheels on the back of or inside of a vehicle.
- If the bike wasn't designed for fenders plus wide tires, it's one or the other, not both. This is keeping me from putting fenders and studs on my old single for winter riding. (then again, with the weather we've had lately, it seems just as well).

We are definitely the sort to take advantage of the added freedom to ride in a greater variety of weather, and not mess up ourselves and the drive train. And we have and will tour. Over all, for us, fenders are the right thing.

Had 'half fenders' on our Follis tandem back in 1975 when we lived in Michigan. Have not had any fenders on any of our tandems since.
If you have rear rack, a trunkbag will save stoker from having dirt streak up back of her jersey. Also if you have rack (and no bag) a slat from a venetian blind (or in a pinch: a piece of corrugated cardboard) does the trick.
As for the pilot, he/she gets their feet wet.
Did a 3 day tour by the south rim of the Grand Canyon few years back; were really dumped on and at higher elevations (7,000') that can turn out to be a bit cold; and, on the Navajo Indian reservation there are no convenient 7-11s!.
Fenders would not have helped. The occasional truck going by at 50+ mph drenched us totally.
We actually laughed it off and threatened to drill holes in our shoes: water in/water out.
Living in the desert Southwest, we get minimal rain (not even 6" in '09) so fenders are not needed.
Have toured in many states and been caught in rain storms, even a couple hailstorms (ouch!) and one snowstorm (Michigan). Keeps life interesting.
Raingear is another matter: on tour carry it, that way it does not rain.
Just our experience.
Pedal on into 2010!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

When you ride in the rain, wet is wet.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...7-14-09156.jpg
The only time I would consider using fenders is if I knew I'd be riding in a group, just as a courtesy to anyone riding behind me.

But when you ride after the rain, before the road has dried up, fenders keep you and the drive train (for the most part) dry.

I suppose, but that doesn't happen often enough to justify the hassle. If I lived in an area where it rained a lot, like the pacific NW, I suppose it might be more of an issue.

SKS Chromoplastics. Was trying to hold off on fenders in order to have a more streamlined frame on our old Burley (yah, right), but after a 70 miler on wet roads with most of the run off-on applied to our back sides we made put 'em on. Now happy to have them.

I have a set of SKS fenders that I can put on my Burley in about 5 to 10 minutes. No kidding.

My favorite fenders are Gilles Berthoud stainless steel that are mounted on my touring bike (doubles as my road bike) all winter long and during weeklong tours. No problems.

We put fenders on our tandem last summer for a 9-day trek on the C&O & Allegheny Passage trails. Stoker says two thumbs up! Not much of a nussiance at all and we came out nearly clean after 10 hours (over several days) of muddy trail riding. As soon as we saw what other riders looked like without fenders we immediately knew we made the right choice to put them on. If you are a day rider and can choose to not ride when wet, no need to put them on, but if it is likely you will be doing riding in the rain they are the way to go (especially for stoker comfort). We will never take them off, and I just put a set on my single road bike I was so happy with them. The Planet Bike ones were easy to install and very dependable. If they get out of line, easy to just push back straight with your hands. Do it! Heck with what it looks like, they add so much comfort if it is wet, and they keep the occasional gum wad from slinging on to your shins too. I think they actually look good too, but that is probably just me!

I just finished installing SKS fenders last night (actually just the rear fender), what a bear! It took about 3 hours over 4 weeks to get it on. The front looks to be a lot easier. Lots of futzing with adjustments, and deciphering the cryptic instructions. I had to hacksaw the stays to shorten them, get longer screws to share the rack mount on the same drop-out and improvise a wire tie attachment for the connection point at the chain-stay. All this for the "just in case" scenario of wet roads on our up coming tour this July. Time will tell if I leave them on after our tour since we won't ride in the the wet by choice.

Put Velo Orange polished aluminum fenders on our dark blue Speedster this season. Looks very sharp, were easy to install, and don't move at all. Almost time to take them off now.

I didn't have near the trial you went through. Installed two pair - one on our Bilenky, one on the kids' Santana. Last summer, so the scars have healed;).
I did have to redo the one bracket to attach it to the cross-piece between the chainstays. Shortening the stays was a matter of a really strong pair of side-cutters. Bolt cutters would have made it easier. We do have the necessary holes in the drop-outs to not need to share them with the rack. I may have needed a longer bolt and spacer for at least one. But it couldn't have been more than an hour or two to install a pair.