kbarch

Don't expect this thread to get so many entries, but figured what the heck: it's winter and I'm bored. Post your road bike with fenders here.

Just cleaned this thing and figured I might as well post it. Probably wouldn't get much love in the no-holds-barred Hot-or-Not, even if I'd put the fancy wheels on it, but figured I'd get points for trying, what with managing to get fenders squeezed onto this gimmicky frame....

No garage doors, just balancing in a window frame again....



May just go for a little ride up to the bike shop later. It's above 40 already, roads look mostly dry now, but it's a bit windy (all the more reason to keep the lower-profile wheels on).

blitzo

That is a nice rain bike..

K.Katso

I have a fairly nice rain bike, but I don't use fenders.

bicyclelove

Wow! My rain/salt bike is not nearly that cool. It's just an old Cannondale MTB commuter.

kbarch

Thanks. It was my only bike until recently.

By the way, for those of you who would judge, the bars have been fixed.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day, so I took the bike in this afternoon to see about tweaking the fit and maybe do a loop of the park. I've been trying to ride in the drops more, and things didn't seem quite right. Well, it seems the bars had rotated - maybe you can tell from the photo above - and not only did they fix that, but they gave me a longer stem (110 in place of 100). Who knew it would make such a HUGE difference? It's like a new bike!

If you ride alone, and do your own laundry, I guess no one can complain.

K.Katso

Nobody does, and I don't always ride alone. Fenders just aren't as popular in Europe. Most of the guys I ride with don't have them and don't care. People just accept that if you ride in the rain, you get wet.

Bandera

True, however what is coming down from the sky isn't of much concern for me. What is coming up from the pavement is.

Over a century ago "Mudguards" were the term for full fenders in British English when draft animals left their digestive end-product on the roadways.
It wasn't "Mud" that cyclists prevented from being slung onto themselves and their machines by fitting mudguards.

A nasty toxic blend of water, oil, ATF, pesticides, herbicides and "dog-mud" are intercepted by the full mudguards on my winter bike.



Riders on my wheel in a paceline are not soaked by a rooster tail of road spooge.

-Bandera

kbarch

Exactly. There's still plenty of horse on the drives at the south end of the park - in fact, one stretch is widely known as "Horse***** alley" Do a couple of loops on a group ride with folks who forego fenders when the roads are merely wet and you'll wish it would start pouring rain just to rinse it off of you.

So, is that a camping bike, too?

Bandera

Not at my advanced age. .
It's set-up for winter/wet roads as a traditional Audax/Randonneuring rig suitable for overnight trips to a lovely old hotel w/ the best chef and wine cellar in the area.

Although we are in a drought winter brings enough rain to wash months worth of toxic road grime and nasty agricultural runoff into our "low water crossings", not something that I wish to wear. In ten minutes it converts to summer duty, and back again in the winter.



-Bandera

milkbaby

Hot, tho points off for the bars and having the saddle slammed back.

deep_sky

What sort of bag support are you using there? It looks like something extends from right above the rear brake caliper and supports the bag....

Six jours

Really flexible fenders with a wide opening at the bottom, narrowing to what looks like about a zillionth of an inch of clearance between the front tire, the fender, and the down tube?

I have no opinion on the appearance of the bike, but I'll bet skin grafts on your face are definitely a "not".

deep_sky

Actually Crud Roadracers are fairly decent fenders for road bikes. If I had the clearance to mount them I would be using them on rainy days/wet roads.

kbarch

The clearance between the down tube and the tire is about 1/2". The fender itself is super flexible, thin and floats just below the downtube. Sometimes it grazes, but generally it's about 1/8" off at the closest point; the slight angle of the wheel and the photo make it look tighter than it is.

That's what I'm showing - didn't think I'd get anything to fit, but they do. It helps that they are narrow under the brakes and zip-tie on there. Are you sure you don't have clearance?

EnsitMike

Wish it rained here… just to have a rain bike.

Agree with the bars, but the SMP saddles run unreasonably forward. Good thing they have long rails so they can be slammed like this—mine looks the same.

Bandera

It's a Carradice Barley supported by a QR Bagman II attached to rack braze-ons on the seatstays.
Traditional, solid, reliable and very high quality.






I prefer the traditional British seatbag over the French decalleur/HB bag for long un-supported rides in sketchy weather.
On/Off as needed.


-Bandera

shelbyfv

First I've seen of that bag support. It looks like a good alternative to the rack I bang my knee on!

indyfabz

Check back tomorrow and let us know how it handles in 2 feet of snow.

Take care, my neighbor to the north. BTW...Don't you just love a big city snow storm? It gets so quiet outside and the local bars get packed.

Six jours

In all seriousness, that's a dangerous combination. Along with the large "opening" at the trailing edge of the wheel, it's a real invitation for something to get jammed into the wheel/fender and crumple the whole works into the fork crown. Good luck.

kbarch

How do you figure? The opening at the trailing edge of the wheel is there at the down tube with or without the fender, and the fender is extremely pliable, if not fragile. It's not like a vacuum is created that's going to suck rocks and sticks and metal rods up off the road into the forks.

Six jours

No vacuum or anything, but pebbles and sticks and various other garbage does adhere to the tire for a fraction of a second and sometimes makes it into the fender. If the "entrance" at the tire/fender is smaller than the clearance under the fork crown, problems are unlikely. But if the entrance is wide open and narrows into a pinch point under the crown, you might have a problem.

Flexible fenders actually exacerbate the issue, as they are more likely to accordion into the crown when a foreign objects gets momentarily caught.

kbarch

Hmm. Maybe that's why these fenders are NOT recommended for use on anything but regular paved roads. It's hard to imagine a fender any closer to the tire at the bottom than the fork crown is at the top.

Six jours

That's why bikes made for fenders traditionally have quite a bit of clearance at the bridges and crown. The idea is to have a minimum of 1 cm. between the tire and the fender, which means the bridges are normally at least 1.5 cm from the tire, and the crown usually a bit more, like 1.7 cm. minimum. I try to set up my fenders so that the "entrance" gap is about 1 cm. and the rest is about 1.1 cm. That way the fender still appears to follow the tire line, but the "choke point" is right at the beginning.

There's a lot I don't know though, and I could be wrong about your set-up. I personally wouldn't ride it, but I tend to be pretty conservative about such things. Good luck!

deep_sky

The stays are designed to snap when something gets caught up by the wheel. I have caught a full on branch on my wheels, and the stays snapped immediately, followed by the rest of the fender. Nothing else was harmed. I cannot see how the structure would accordion into the fork, it simply isn't strong enough to stay in place that long before it tears away as it is designed to. As far as stuff being momentarily being stuck on the tire, they are peeled off by inside surface of the fender, so you hear a "ziiiiip!' sound as the rock or debris is forced off the tire and dragged along the inside of the fender. Anything bigger than that just isn't going to stick long enough unless you are riding through fresh tar.

Your limits would make it impossible to ride a tire of any size on my Scott CR1 at all, much less with any fenders.

Long Tom

I really like the potential of this thread. Brilliant! I'll take pics tomorrow.