Bicycle Fenders – Can You Use Them And Still Eat Red Meat?

Holy cow flesh, batman. Bicycle fenders sure seem to bring out the vegetarian in ya! I’ve just spent some time in the world of bike fenders and I swear that little chunks of tofu are almost looking palatable.

Those bike fender enthusiasts are sure passionate about the bike’s role in saving ole mother earth.

I live in the Wild West, namely on the flanks of Mt Shasta, near the Oregon border. So…talk of saving the planet through the use of bikes, bicycle fenders, and all things tweed is a bit foreign to me.

However, I do have a set of bike fenders and after some research, have some bike fender info for you.

Why Bike Fenders?

First off, bike fenders extend the usefulness of bikes, whether it’s merely more recreational time on the bike, more exercise time, more outdoor training days, or more bike commuting days.

When I’m trying to get my base-work training done in the winter, I’ve appreciated how effective the bicycle tire is at concentrating a cold strip of road spray to my butt crack.

So even if there is very little rain in the air, the water standing on the pavement warrants a set of bicycle fenders.

I’m not completely sold out to bicycle fenders. If I could be assured that the guy in my draft would be catching a faceful of water off of my rear wheel, I’d probably be willing to forego fenders and ‘suck up’ the butt crack assault. But life isn’t so simple and just. Tradeoffs are seldom so predictable.

So I reach for my bike fenders.

I can get twice as much because I keep my eyes
open for deep discounts at Bike Nashbar.

Full Length Fenders Aren’t Full Enough For Some Riders

Bostonian bicycle commuters enthusiastically embrace full length bicycle fenders. They’re saving the planet while biking to work in wool slacks so relations with fellow workers may be strained should the cyclist sit on the office furniture after pedaling to work through standing water.

It’s in times like this that mud flaps may even be necessary. These are pieces of rubber that are made from the sap of the endangered rubber plants in the tropics. Some are made from recycled condoms.

All kidding aside, mud flaps are very effective in further reducing the spray off of the bike tires.

What hasn’t been addressed yet in this tome of brilliance is the usefulness of bicycle fenders in keeping the corrosive elements of salt, oil, and panhandler’s body fluids off of the bike. I’ve now addressed it.

Mounting Problems

It’s helpful if your bike has enough space betwixt the tire and fork. If it doesn’t, you’re limited in your options.

Clip-ons may be your savior, just as clip-on neckties are the savior for the digitally non-nimble.

A critical feature for mounting a bicycle fender is eyelets on the fork and seat stays. Without eyelets a cyclist is reduced to using clamps. SpeedEZ Road is a set of bicycle fenders that mount on road bikes without eyelets.

Politics and Bicycle Fenders

On one of the cycling forums I came across a posting about some homemade fenders that an ingenious cyclist was making out of election sign (campaign posters). The link to the instructions was no longer live, so I’m unable to turn you on to such a trick.

I smell a vast right-wing conspiracy in the dismantling of this critical link, since Bush/Cheney election signs were his posters of choice. Then again, maybe he got his hands on some Obama stimulus money and was busy stimulating himself. With medical marijuana, of course.

Planet Bike sits at the hub of the fender world. It’s here that an idealist becomes aware of the critical role that human powered transportation plays in the harmony of the planet.

And I thought ‘getting along in harmony’ and saving the planet had to do with something about ‘loving and being considerate of your neighbor in the manner you’d like to be considered and loved’.