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Fenders

Fenders, a Comparison

(Update 10/2/2014: SKS have updated their fender line and the Chromoplastic fenders and Longboard fenders have been combined and are now called SKS Chromoplastic Longboards)

The SKS Longboard fenders are in at the Bike Touring News Store. I have been anxious to see how long these really are. So I did a side by side comparison with the Honjo alloy fenders and the Planet Bike Cascadia fenders.

3 fender sets to compare lengths
rear Fenders- the SKS Longboard on the bottom, then the Planet Bike Cascadia and the Honjo

The rear fenders are about equal in length, but with an aftermarket mudflap the Honjo fender would provide the most coverage, maybe not as important as front fender coverage- except maybe for whoever is behind you!

Arguably, the coverage provided by the front fenders is the most important because the farther the fender comes down on the trailing side the less spray onto the rider’s feet. And as we can see, there is quite a bit of difference in the coverage of these three front fenders.

Photo to compare lengths of 3 front fenders
front fenders- SKS Longboard on bottom, Honjo, then Planet Bike Cascadia

In the above photo of front fenders the fenders are positioned according to the point where they would attach to the bicycle fork, and you can see that the Longboard fenders are the longest providing more coverage in the front as well as in the rear than the other two. To be fair, with an aftermarket mud flap the Honjo fender would provide equal coverage.

Picture of mudflap on front Honjo fender
Aftermarket mudflap provides more coverage on the front fender.
Categories
Fenders

More On Honjo Fenders

I have been researching other resources for Honjo fenders in preparation for adding them to the store and to supplement my post on touring bicycle fenders.

photo of honjo alloy fenders
Honjo Koken alloy fenders

I came across this article on Raymond Parker’s VeloWeb. The web address is http://veloweb.ca (he’s Canadian eh.) Very detailed and well photographed instructions there. While he is installing Honjo fenders, the guide will work as well for other metal fenders such as Gilles Berthoud and Tanaka.

Also, lo and behold, there is a Honjo Fenders group on flickr.com. Lots of good photos and ideas for  mounting fenders there.

Categories
Fenders

Touring Bicycle Fenders- An Overview

Arguably, fenders are one of the essential accessories for the touring bicycle. Even in Death Valley, one of the driest places in the world,  it does rain.  And I say arguably, because, as you can see on this Adventure Cycling forum, people argue. When riding offroad in wet conditions, mud packing between the tires and fenders can bring the bike to a standstill pretty quickly.  Aside from that, when it does rain or there is water on the road, without fenders you will be soaked in short order with spray from the front wheel on your feet and spray from the rear wheel on the back of the legs. Besides being uncomfortable, on a cool day it could add to the possibility of becoming hypothermic.