joyota

Hey everyone,

I know lots of folks buy full fenders like the Planet Bike Cascadia fenders I just installed on my bike and have a hard time figuring out a way to get the fenders to wrap around the tires with uniform distance between the fender and the tire. I came up with a couple nifty solutions for helping to solve that and wanted to share them. Hopefully this will make somebody's life easier after I spent 2 hours figuring out a way to do my installation.

First a disclaimer: I mean no disrespect to anyone (especially whoever owns the beautiful Trek 970 in my example photo below), but in my humble (perhaps OCD) opinion...

This:


...just looks nicer than this:


On rear fenders, the hardest part to get right is where you attach the front of the fender to the rear fork cross member just behind the crank. (see below) If the cross member is a considerable distance apart from the tire, attaching the fender directly to the cross member will make getting the rest of the fender to fit properly impossible.


So here's what I did. This set of fenders come with disc brake adapter cylinders. (see below) Since my bike doesn't have disc brakes and thus doesn't need them, I decided to make a spacer out of one of them to move the fender closer to the tire. (If your bike has disc brakes, you could accomplish the same thing using a stack of washers instead of making this spacer.)


I cut one of the cylinders to the approximate length I needed with a hacksaw. Then, on only one end of the cylinder I used the hacksaw again to cut a short groove down the center (see red line in illustration below). This served as a guide for me to then use a metal rasp to file the end of the cylinder down such that the profile of that end of the cylinder formed a shallow "V" shape. (see orange lines in illustration below)


After that, I used one of the long allen bolts, washers, and a lock nut to fasten it to the crossmember. The "V" end of the cylinder goes toward the cross member. The V shape should help keep the fender more stable, less prone to wobbling. It turned out really well IMO. To get the rest of the fender wrapping around the tire uniformly, I just made appropriate adjustments on the fender stays.


For the front Fender, I used a technique I've seen a lot of guys do, nothing new here. The top of the fork was way too high over the tire, so I cut a piece of galvanized Plumber's tape to length, folded it in half to make it more sturdy (making sure that that the holes matched up), and bolted it to the fork and the fender to it. On the nut and bolt I used that wasn't a lock nut (see green arrow below), I put on a drop of Loctite thread adhesive to keep it from wobbling loose.


Finally, here's the finished product. Shoot me any questions or comments you guys have! Not bad, eh?

HillRider

Your installation looks nice but I've always left a bit of space between the tires and the fenders to give errant debris (stones, sticks, etc.) an escape route if it gets picked up by the tires. Otherwise anything that gets in there can lock the wheel.

Booger1

Looks good.....

Does anybody actually know somebody that has been thrown from a bike from crap in the fenders? I don't.I've had fenders on my touring bike forever,it gets all kinds on crap in the fenders,not once has the wheel started skidding out of control.It pumps sticks and rock and who knows what thru there.....It just makes noise.

I think I'll get struck by lightning first......

joyota

A very valid point, but I prefer the look of the fender tight to the tire like that. There is at least a 1/2" gap between the fender and the tire all the way around but with the radial bend of the fender, it cups around the tire so it looks like there's no gap. Plus I'm a pretty cautious rider and avoid as much debris as possible. The fenders are mainly just to keep the tire spray in check. If I run over something and break them someday, then so be it. They were cheap enough I'd be fine with replacing them. Thanks for the tip, though. Many others may and probably do feel differently about that.

joejack951

Instead of using those clunky-looking (and gram-adding!) cylinders for clearing disc brakes, I simply bent my fender stay to adequately clear the disc brake caliper on my commuter. It required a z-bend which meant a bit of fine-tuning to get the struts pointing properly but was easy enough.

I also used aluminum (and gram-saving!) spacers to position my rear fender closer to the tire at the chain and seat stays. There is a threaded insert at the seat stays for mounting a fender on my frame but it points towards the wheel axis. In order to use it with the mount included with my SKS fenders, I had to bend the tab 90 degrees. Due to the sloppy fit between this piece and the fender and the extra stress from my added bend, the mount eventually cracked. So, as a fix I drilled a hole in the fender where my thread insert is and installed a fastener from the inside of the fender through the fender and the spacer into the threaded insert. Very clean and secure, but not shown in the early pic. I should have done from the beginning.

Finally, I used some aluminum (always counting those grams) p-clamps to attach my fender stays to my rack rather than stacking both stays and rack struts on long fasteners at the rear dropouts. I've been meaning to bend the rear stays slightly to even out the fender spacing to the rear wheel just a tad more as the spacing is compromised by the fact that the fender struts no longer point through the axis of the wheel (offset slightly due to the p-clamp mounting). Still looks pretty tight to me though.

Chris Chicago

I installed fenders a few months ago and this video helped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG_WZVS9SUY

OP's installation looks good. the long spacer rig he pulled was something I also faced but was able to find aluminum spacers at a hardware store that worked. the galvanized plumber tape solves another familiar issue. If I had thought of that I would have gone with it but I had some hardware from a topeak bike rack that also did the job lowering the fender.

only issue I've had is the sliding bracket that holds the rear fender on top cracked apart and I had to order another.

fenders are great in wet weather. pita to set up though, for me.

bobotech

I'm glad I'm not just super OCD. Yes, your fender install looks awesome but I'm happy if my fenders just don't rub.

Matariki

Yes, me! Went over the bars. Fender was trashed but the rest of the bike was ok. I sported a gouge on my right thigh for a month or so. I had the fenders tight with the tires - less than a quarter inch clearance. My recommendation is to allow at least 3/8" clearance between fender and tire. That, and to watch for road debris - even the small stuff.

I've never been struck by lightning though.

arex

Not on a bicycle, but it's happened to me on a motorcycle.

KZBrian

Nice looking install, and good tips!

I installed Cascadia fenders on my '86 Super Sport with 700X28 tires in June. It was a very close fit, and took some hours before I was happy with the result.

joyota

It seems us Michiganders like to fill up those fender wells. Very nice!

joyota

Wow! That's rough. Thanks for the tip on minimum clearance. I'm satisfied I left enough clearance on mine, then.

KZBrian

My Cascadias came with a quick release for the front fork attachment. That should prevent any wheel lockups.

Metaluna

You can also use a nylon bushing for the spacer, which will be easier to cut and shape. They're available at most hardware stores, usually in the aisle where they have all the drawers full of miscellaneous fasteners.

Fender clearance is one area where vertical dropouts are handy. I had a Surly Cross-Check for a while, and it was a pain to get the tire out with fenders mounted, because the semi-horizontal dropouts require you to slide the rear wheel forward. If you use a spacer it would be impossible without deflating the tire.

dankev

Exactly. On a bike with semi-horizontal dropouts, you're stuck leaving that gap at the forward end of the rear tire. There's no way I'm willing to make removal of the rear wheel a bigger hassle just to have a prettier looking fender.

sreten

Hi,



FWIW, especially in the above case, the fender stays
should be cut to the right length, and the rubber caps
glued on to prevent them mysteriously disappearing.

rgds, sreten.

Chris Chicago

here's how mine turned out. pretty happy with the back (except for the sliding bridge breakind) guess i could use some plumbers tape in front to keep it from lifting away fron the tire at the front tip

E56789

Thread resurrection time. I'm going to be doing my first fender install soon and was wondering if anybody uses foam weather stripping tape to space out the fenders from the tire. I have seen 1/4, 3/16 and 1/2 inch at Homeless Depot so that should cover whatever I decide the right look for the fenders is and assures a uniform spacing.

Apologies if this is an old, well known procedure, but I didn't find anything when I did a search

Chris Chicago

Are you going to lay the foam tape over the tire to get the fender spaced correctly above the tire?

Does the foam tape compress?

E56789

That's my plan. I don't think that the weight of the fender will be enough to compress the foam.