Originally Posted by
bertinjim
skou-
"Also, you will need to partially deflate the rear tire to remove or reinstall the wheel in the frame when you wish to do so". What I meant was that this design has a tight rear triangle. The short chainstays help quicken the bike's agility and responsiveness but when using fenders, the fender itself and the attachments at the chainstay bridge behind the bottom bracket restrict the amount of space available for removing or installing the back wheel.
Typically, especially with larger tire sizes, when the quick release is loosened and the wheel slides forward in the dropout, the fender and bolt take up the available space for the wheel and tire to move forward. There simply will be insufficient space for the wheel and tire to slide forward far enough for the wheel's axle to clear the end of the dropout and move the whole wheel down and out of the frame. The only way to solve that is to greatly reduce the tire air pressure to allow the tire to squash down which lets the whole wheel slide further forward, with the axle clearing the end of the dropout and the wheel then coming out of the frame. Tire pressure must be kept low to allow re-installation of the wheel as well.
Since you plan to commute on the bike, wheel removal with fenders should not be a big deal since you will have few occasions to do removals. My Peugeot was a fendered randonneuse and every time I went to or from a randonnee, wheel removal was necessary for transport to the event. That begins to annoy and I finally replaced that bike with one having vertical dropouts to simply the problem.
Fender trick for short chainstay bikes - cut a long, thin ellipse out of the front of the fender. First, mount the fender. It will hit the seat tube. Mark the contact. Take the fender off and mark out an ellipse on masking tape 4" long and 1/4" wide centered at your mark. Grind out this ellipse with a tapered Dremel stone. Fit fender again and tweak your ellipse as necessary. Now the rear wheel fit will be completely unchanged since there is no fender at the contact point. (You might want to put electrical tape over the seat tube in the area to protect the fenderless paint.)
Ben