Fender Options for Racing Bikes

Many modern racing bikes suffer from what we call "California Bike Syndrome", they were designed with the thought they would only be ridden on sunny days and have no clearances or provisions for fenders. While that might be fine in drier climates, in the Pacific Northwest fenders come in very handy for keeping road spray off the bike, the rider and the rider's companions. Commercial solutions, like the Race Blade fenders pictured below avoid the tight areas around the brakes and mount to the bike via rubber bands. They go on and off quickly, but don't extend down as far as full fenders.

At Bike Works, we've used corrugated plastic with success to extend the coverage of Race Blades. Coroplast can also be used to make an entire set of fenders, as Matt Newlin shows in the slide show below:




A set of standard fenders can sometimes be made to work on a bike with close tolerances by crafting some brackets from old rack stays to sneak under or over the brake bridges. The fenders are then cut and bolted to the metal stays. The fender struts are attached to the bike with plastic-coated metal p-clamps. Nylon zip-ties also come in very handy for installing various fender bits.






With a bit of ingenuity and adaptation, almost any bike can be fitted with fenders. At Bike Works we charge based on the complexity of the install with most install charges being around $25.