How-To/Mechanics: Road Bike Fenders

Love fenders, love putting them on tight-fitting road bikes even more. A shop in San Francisco once made the mistake of telling me that I would "never" get fenders on my mid-'80s Super Sport -- and they had a point, as there weren't even fender eyelets. I took that as a challenge, however, and after a long day, had fenders in place. That was years ago, and I just upgraded the bike to have Honjo fenders, and they're beautiful. So, the answer's yes, yes, yes.

Among other challenges, the key is pushing the rear fender *around* the seat tube where it's tightest (think of pushing your thumb on the side of a soda can); one point can be tight on the wheel, but you need to pull the edges of the fenders back from the tires (away). Race blades do this by having no fender under the brake bridges (really bad idea), to say nothing of the seat tube. What you can do instead is to thin the fender at the point where it touches the seat tube or even put a hole in it that allows the tube to fit into the fender (block the hold with electrical or duct tape; it's effectively a super-thin fender at that point). Brakes are trickier as you have to have room for brake actuation. :) Here's where you might think about running smaller tires. My first cut on the Super Sport was 32mm tires, but they were just too tall; eventually switched to 28mm tires, and that made all the difference. Check out my bikes; all have fenders, and there were challenges everywhere. Overcame them all! It can be done.

L.

I installed 40mm Gilles Berthoud stainless fenders on my Paramount, and the process was pretty straightforward. Potential problems with fitting fenders to road racing (compared to touring) bikes are clearances for brake calipers, fork blades, and seat stays, but these clearance problems can often be solved by judicious "pinching" of the fenders where necessary. If you don't have eyelets, you can use Adel "P" clamps on the fork blades and seat stays near the dropouts for attaching the fender stays.

http://velospace.org/node/820

Do you think i could fit something like the SKS P35 on my Gios? the rear clearance is quite tight so i dont know. Any other recommendations for steel/silver fenders?
Thanks.

I've gotten creative with 1 or 2 bikes that didn't have clearance for fenders. It can be a hassle but if you're gonna be using the bike often enough it's worth the trouble of full fenders. Front fenders are easy. I just cut them off right at the tab to mount it at the back of the crown. Some water may spray up off the front of the tire, but I don't have too much trouble with it, especially if they are skinny road tires. For the back wheel, I have cut up an old fender to it was just long enough to fit between the chain stay and seat stay. Attach it to the back of the brake bridge(with a recessed nut and bolt if there is no brake), and some zip ties around the seat tube, through some little holes you drilled in the fender. Then you can do pretty much whatever for the top part. I covered the triangle in the seat stays above the brake bridge with electrical tape, and just used a clip on fender when it was raining, otherwise you'll have to come up with a way to attach it on the brake bridge as well. the benefit to the clip on fender is easily going to half fender when the weather is nice, and if you chain would ever come off, you can still wedge your foot on the tire, instead of possibly dying because you have no way to stop your bike short of wedging your foot in the spokes. Sounds like a stretch but my chain used to fall off all the time when i was new to fixed gears, so I know it's possible, and scary as shit on a steep hill headed towards a redlight at a busy highway.

I don't remember where the pictures are, but i have seen mounts made out of the little strips of metal that rear racks come with to hold a rack to the seatstays. You can bend them, and bolt one end to the fender, wrap it up over the brake and bolt it behind the brake, on bikes where the fender won't fit under the brake.