on making frankenfenders - a five minute fix

Usually, I end up putting frankenfenders on my bicycles when I decide to use a fender. You see, the problem I have is that often I am attempting to attach a fender to a bike that is not really made for fenders (or, at least, is not made for fenders and a rack at the same time - like my Kona Jake the Snake) or does not have enough room for proper fenders and studded tires (like my Kona Dew City).

Sometimes, though, the frankenfender job is needed because the fenders I picked do not do the job as well as I would like.

The front fender which currently sits on my commuter mountain bike is a good fender. It is wide enough to cover the full width of a Schwalbe Ice Spiker 2.1 tire and, when combined with the splash guard on the down tube, keeps most of the crud thrown up by the tire off of me. Only a tiny bit gets on my boots. I don't mind this as I deliberately opted for a fender that fits with huge space between the tire and fender so some slop is expected.

The problem I had with it was that the front of the fender did not stick out anywhere near far enough to deflect spray tossed forward by the tire. It was flying quite high in front of the bicycle, and I was riding into it.

So, I needed to extend the fender enough to prevent spray.

Here is what I came up with.

Side View showing the two bolts attaching an old scrap of fender to the one mounted on the bicycle. It is clear to see how big the studded tires are from this picture, as well as the generous amount of clearance I have allowed for snow etc to build up. On previous bikes, I have had so little wiggle room that the tires ended up rubbing on snow build up. This will not be an issue with this bicycle.

Detail of the underside of the fender showing a front view of the new fender bit. I used an old used bit of fender that I happened to have lying around the workroom left over from another frankenfender project. This is why I never throw out any scrap of plastic fender that I end up with. You just never know when it will be useful.

Angled view of the new fender attachment. A significant amount of length has been added to the front fender. I trimmed back the leading edges of the fender to make them less blunt and to make it look a bit less of a hack.

Many would not like the aesthetics of this five minute fix of the bicycle, which is something I understand.

I, however, like the Mad Max look for my commuter bicycles. They get left outside while I am shopping, out for coffee, getting groceries, and sometimes at work. I don't want a bicycle that costs a fortune to do this, and don't want a bike that looks flashy even if it is inexpensive. The kind of mods I do make the bike distinctive looking, and "mine", without adding to the desirability factor all that much.

Some would argue that removing the suspension fork and adding a rack and fenders forever removes the cool from the bike.

To that I say good.