bjjoondo 

As a noob, I was kinda wondering why there seems to be so little "fender" usage on the tandems in the photo's on this site and quite a few others? I know many of you go for "longer" rides, LOL, how do you "stay out of the rain"?? Here in So. CO. we get "thunder storms", all summer long, without fenders on our Trek T-900 we'd be a real mess.

I ask because we put our old Planet Bike MTB fenders on our Trek and since we've gone to 26x1.50 tires instead of the OEM 26x2.0 tires our fenders look HUGE. I've only found some "less wide" 26 inch wheel fenders made for "large wheel recumbents", that look "modifable" enough to replace the WIDE MTB fenders. Still looking at all your tandems, I wonder if I should just "bail" the fenders and live with the mess??

jnbrown

living in SoCal we don't get much rain.
When it does rain we don't ride, chances of an accident are much higher and we don't really enjoy it.

DubT

I spent a lot of time and money building a light weight bike (27.65 pounds) The thought of adding fenders makes me cringe. Our usual ride is 18 - 40 miles and we usually ride loops and do not get to far from home. We have ridden some organized tours that take us out of our normal riding area but if it looks like rain we stay home. I guess we are just dry weather riders. LOL if it does rain we get wet and dirty.

Wayne

bgross

Ditto here.
Like today, for example.

diabloridr

Same on the Central Coast.

Rain means it's the off-season, and time to be lifting weights instead of riding.

Carbonfiberboy 

I live in the PNW. I put on full coverage fenders about the middle of September and take them off about the middle of June. If I know it's going to rain on a ride when I have the fenders off, I put on clip-on SKS fenders, lengthened with old fender scraps and pop rivets. We don't mind the rain particularly. One does have to adjust riding style slightly and have good wet-weather tires, and it does get the bike dirty. But it cleans up nice. We don't melt.

We have a CoMo Speedster at 36 lbs. stripped. If one goes to one of those bike calculators, like this one:
https://bikecalculator.com/veloUS.html
one can see that one is actually not much impeded by a pound of extra weight, spread between two riders. Adding one pound to our rig increases our time up a mile of 5% grade by 2 seconds, or would require us to put out 1 additional watt to achieve the same time. This might matter if we were pro racers, but we are not.

PeFSQ

We are in Montreal, Quebec. We have full fenders on our Co-motion Primera all the time (slim Planet Bike fenders that fit our 28c tires). While we usually avoid riding in rain, we often do ride on wet roads AFTER the rain. This is when the fenders make a real difference. If it is pouring, you (and the bike) end up soaked whether you have fenders or not...

rdtompki

I have a "fender" that clips on to the down tube. I wish I had used it on the recent Lighthouse Century. Took me 2 hours to strip my bike down and get tubes, chains (3), chainrings (4), timing rings (2), cassette and wheels (2 of course) clean. And it wasn't even raining, just fog and mist.

That "fender" is now a permanent part of my tandem travel kit. It's wide of course and will keep us below our usual flat-land 32 mph cruising speed

mkane77g

We use em', starting about now. Were using some made by CRUD, called roadracers. Very light, full coverage, even keeps my feet dry. We won't ride in the rain. As soon as it quits, were out there. If your riding while it's raining, fenders only help a little bit.

mycoatl

We use fenders on our tandem. In Portland, if we didn't ride in the rain, we wouldn't ride much.

Carbonfiberboy 

They'll help a lot more if you either put a mudflap or scab some more fender onto the front fender, so that it comes down to about 2" above the road. And of course to within 6" of the road in the rear if you want to play nice with others. Modifying the front fender keeps a lot of the road grit off the drive train. Riding in the rain can be nicer than riding after, because the rain washes a lot of the grit off the bike. To keep your feet dry, cut the bottoms our of a couple of grocery store vegetable bags. Put them over your shoes, one end even with your shoe soles, the other tightly wrapped around your bare ankles. Roll your tights or leg warmers down over them and then put on your booties over them. That way the rain running down your legs goes over the bags and not into your shoes. Wear enough non-waterproof but windproof clothing so that you stay warm even though you are wet. I actually like it.

zonatandem

Whether we lived in the Midwest (back in the mid-70s) or Arizona (now) we do not utilize fenders.
Having a rear rack with a trunk bag stops stoker from getting a black streak up the back of her jersey in inclement weather.
We do not purposely start off in the rain but we have been rained on, hailed on and snowed on.
99% of the time we ride in dry conditions; fenders can be a nuisance and can rattle/rub on tire.
Just our input.
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

Clarabelle

Living in the Northwest fenders were pretty well a must for us. The weather changes quickly, so on any given day we can get rain.

Chris_W

We also use fenders throughout the winter months, and also whenever we go on a multi-day trip with the bike at any time of the year.

I agree that finding fenders for a 26" wheel that are designed for a tyre less than 2" wide is a bit of a problem. Planet Bike's 26" fenders appear to be 60mm wide, so it might be helpful to you that both SKS and Stronglight make two fender widths for 26" tires - 60mm and 52mm; although I don't know how available they are on your side of the Atlantic. Plus, for a 38mm (1.5") wide tire, a fender at around 45mm wide would probably be ideal.

diabloridr

Have you done similar analysis on how many watts of aerodynamic drag the fenders are adding?

Onegun

Top ten reasons tandems don't run fenders:

10. Personal preference
9. Geographical location
8. A conspiracy against fender manufacturers
7. Weight considerations
6. You're a member of the AFL-CIO (Anti-Fred League - Cycling In Obliviousness)
5. Maintenance considerations
4. It annoys the sensibilities of Republicans
3. Aero drag considerations
2. Personal preference
And the number 1 reason tandems don't run fenders:
1. Because the stoker said so!

tredlodz

Don't tell her about the skunk stripe!

wheelspeed

We have Planet Bike fenders for 28mm tires. They were from REI. Once set up the first time, you can take them on and off pretty easily. We only use them for events that we want to do despite a chance of rain, or for prepaid events that we run rain or shine, and it turns out that it's going to rain.

That is, we normally don't have fenders since we normally don't ride in the rain, but I'll throw them on the afternoon before a rain-ride.

I like 'em! At least when it stops raining, you can start to dry out even if the roads are still wet and with puddles.

waynesulak

I would love to see that analysis. Maybe someone with power meter on their tandem could ride in a velodrome with and without fenders. I suggest that the difference may be less than expected. Covering the top of the tire which travels at twice the speed of the bike would be a help and its pretty dirty air around the tires anyway. Fenders with fuller coverage in front of the front tire and around the sides might be better than race blade type fenders. In any case a tandem has only one fender per rider vs two on a single.

We don't run fenders even riding six days a week year round we can usually avoid the rain even in winter by choosing when to ride. We don't start rides in the rain and sometimes have to skip a day or two but it is not that often. My stoker and would rather have the mess than fenders so it is no fenders for us. I guess that last one is the real reason.

Wayne

waynesulak

Another thought on fenders. We are not a strong team but we often ride as hard and fast as we can. When the weather gets bad we see only a few determined riders and racers in their kits. We have found that the racers treat us with a lot of respect and I believe it is because even though we are not nearly as strong as they are they see us out there riding as hard in all types of weather. I think the same would work with fenders. It is not the bike but what you do with it that counts.

Ride what you enjoy riding - just ride.

Wayne

conspiratemus1

Why don't stokers like fenders? They're the ones that get the wettest without them, no?
A front fender with a nice long "custom" (i.e., home-made) mudflap that dangles just off the road keeps the timing chain dry enough that very little water gets carried back to get flung off onto her feet. That was the thing that really impressed her. Yes, it keeps my feet drier too.

Granted when it's pouring rain you get wet, but you stay clean and so does the bike. No cow poop on the nipples of your water bottles is a good thing.

Having a quick-on quick-off mounting scheme allows the best of both worlds. No fenders when it's nice and dry, as it has been here all summer, all the way into the coming weekend, but full fenders including proper mudflaps with less than 5 minutes of installation time (assuming I can remember where I left the fenders....) With careful one-time attention to installation they don't rub or rattle but they do resonate, so it is nice to be able to shed them in an instant.

I might post a how-I-did-it with photos some time soon.

Carbonfiberboy 

An excellent point. It turns out that wind tunnel work has been done with bicycle fenders, see Bicycle Quarterly, Volume 6 number 1. I'm not a subscriber but it is said that there is little or no additional drag from fenders. Apparently this is because they are stationary w/r to the rest of the bike and tend to shroud the wheels, decreasing their drag due to rotation. For those interested in more information and thoughts on fenders, I'll give links to a couple of articles with information which I have found to be correct:

https://valvejob.wordpress.com/2010/1...d-experiences/
https://www.ecovelo.info/2010/04/08/s...astic-fenders/

After breaking many sets of Zefals and one set of aluminum VOs, I'm now running SKS chromoplastic laminates and find them by far the most satisfactory fenders I have tried. The first mounting took all afternoon, but that done, they could go on and off fairly quickly. The 35s just barely fit over my 25c tires, so the 45s should fit up to 35c.

It never hurts to have a well-equipped shop when mounting any full fender set, or turn if over to your LBS if you get frustrated.

Feedback from Stoker is that the front mudflap protects her feet even more than it does mine. She is quite particular about my mudflap mounting.

mkane77g

Fenders don't weigh much if you choose the right one's. We ride year round and wouldn't be without em'.

justcrankn

On my bikes, the TOE OVERLAP is very frustrating with fenders.

JanMM

If there is any chance of rain or wet roads, I'll keep a Planet Bike SpeedEez on the rear, modified for our recumbent, attached with a couple of zipties on each side.
If there is a good chance of wet, then I'll put on the front PB Harcore that the Screamer shares with my V-Rex. Takes just a minute to put on or remove the front fender.
If it will be very wet, I have some extra pieces of fender that can be added front or rear with tape.