lannguyen.me

fenderized

I feel it might be proper or appropriate to say that I’ve single handedly fenderized my linus mixte with Velo Orange aluminum fluted 700c’s.  It took me a lot longer (1 weekend night and 3 weekday evenings) than i thought it would, but that’s basically because I had no idea what I was doing and I didn’t have the right tools at the get go, so I had to wait before i could continue on.

For instance, I did not own a bolt cutter to trim the fender stays. Many thanks to John for letting me borrow his:

I felt this one was too mighty for the job, so I opted for the one that I was able grasp with only one hand:

I must have quadruple checked where I wanted to trim the fender stay because it’s the thing that’s helping the fender maintain a good fender line (even space between fender and tire are even) around the wheel.

I still need to do some sanding because it has some sharp edges from cutting the stay with bolt cutters.

Front fender was a snap, but the rear fender which involves the gear hub and chain, plus it had 3 points at which to secure the fender to the frame vs only 2 for the front. Mentally, I also didn’t like taking off/messing with the chain, I felt my bike was very vulnerable in this condition:

Three points of mounting the rear fender were:

To the frame, near the kickstand - Velo Orange includes leather washers with their kit, so anywhere you can fasten those between the frame and fender, that will greatly help to diminish any noise.

L-Bracket bent around fender attached to rear brake -I bent the L-bracket halfway around the fender (separate from the bike), then securely attached the bracket.  Next I put the fender in and placed/centered it where I wanted to.  This part was not complete without a run to Home Depot to pick up pliers (another tool I didn’t own) so that I could neatly crimp the bracket around the fender.

Fender stays - easy peasy at this point after having done the front fender.

ready to be fenderized?