Fender on /off

[Jack Stewart]

So I've got an AHH on order with Longbow fenders.  I plan on removing these during the dry summer months.  How hard and time consuming are these to take on and off?

[Cyclofiend Jim]

You might get it set up with Sheldon's Fender nuts.  That eliminates the brake removal step and makes a 30 minute task into a 15 minute task.  Either way is relatively easy.

I tend to leave my QB fenders in place year round these days, and that's probably easier due to canti brakes rather than center-mount type. But, I do have a front rack that needs to come off and on again during that process. 

Hope that helps,

- Jim

[René Sterental]

I just leave mine on year-round. I find that in the summer months, the fenders help keep the bike/parts cleaner as well from the dust/dirt on the roads and trails. The bike I've been riding with no fenders gets a lot dirtier than the fendered ones. I just don't see any penalty that having the fenders on during the dry months imposes.

 

René

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[Ryan Ray]

I love the sound (it was better with my metal fenders) of rocks hitting the inside of my fenders. One less scratch on my frame.

- Ryan

[William]

I just did a fender swap on my 650B Hilsen.  I removed an aluminum set of Honjos and installed a set of silver SKS Longboards that I just bought from Riv.  While I was doing the work I noted how much more efficient I have gotten at this class of task, having done it many times now.  I wasn't rushing, and I was multitasking with some other tasks in the garage and the kitchen, but I'd say that a meditative 45 minutes in the Spring removing them and another meditative 45 minutes in the Fall installing them again is a perfectly leisurely and enjoyable task.  Give the bike a dutiful wipe down each of those times, and make it a bi-annual act of gratitude.  Even if you decide to leave the fenders on year-round, it's a nice thing to give the bike some attention twice a year anyway.  

On Monday, January 7, 2013 3:34:46 AM UTC-8, NWAJack wrote:

[Kenneth Stagg]

I've had the Mariposa for 8 or 9 years now and the fenders have never been off.

-Ken

[Eric Norris]

I've found that taking fenders on and off is much easier once they're set up correctly. Many riders (not myself included) bring fendered bikes to PBP and reassemble them once they got to France. 

I traveled with a fendered bike in a bike case to a ride last year, and putting the (plastic) fenders back on an taking them off for the trip home added 10-15 minutes to assembly/disassembly time.

--Eric N

www.CampyOnly.com

CampyOnlyGuy.blogspot.com

Twitter: @CampyOnlyGuy

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[Manuel Acosta]

Fenders come off once the weather gets good and dry. Taking them off makes me feel like I have a new bike.

[Jeremy Till]

+1 on Sheldon Fender Nuts to make SKS fender installation/removal a breeze on sidepull equipped bikes, especially if the bike also has a threaded mount between the chainstays (do current AHH's have one?).  Any LBS with a Quality Bike Parts account can order them.  I do the on-in-the-fall off-in-the-spring thing on my light-ish sidepull bike.  It makes totaly sense here in norcal, where it doesn't rain from may to october and lack of fenders makes it easy to throw the bike on the back of the car or take it on the train for trips and also fit larger tires for more adventurous rides.  

However, I've recently fitted Longboards to my Quickbeam and I don't forsee taking them off in the spring, mostly because that bike's clearances mean it can wear plump-ish tires year round and their mounting is a bit more fiddly--neither the chainstay nor seatstay bridge is threaded, and on the seatstay bridge and single dropout eyelets they share mounting bolts with my rear rack. 

[Michael]

Here in MD, I will leave them on year round.  It rains pretty regular-like here in the Spring and Summer, and fall.

It took me a while to get mine set up. But I imagine, you could easily remove them from the attachment points without messing up the stays set-up. In theory, you could remount them and have the same stay setup. 4 points for the rear fender. 3 points for front fender.

 

Anyone tried this? Does it work out that easily.

 

Also, be prepared to know how to align and center your brakes, cuz you'll have to when dismounting/remounting the fenders.

 

[William]

"Anyone tried this? Does it work out that easily."

I do this on three bikes.  My most roadish bike gets stripped down in the summer, and then two other bikes I run sometimes with 650B road tires and fenders and other times with knobbies and no fenders.  It does work out quite easily.  You just bolt them back on where they had been, and there is minimal follow-up tweaking required.  All three of these are with SKS plastics.  

[Jay in Tel Aviv]

Michael,

That's how I do it.
First time I marked the stays with tape to remember where each one was
supposed to go.
Now I just leave them on and shove the whole thing on top of a closet.

Jay