geeky bikey question

[moominmolly]

So, my bike frame looks more or less like this:



I have bar-end shifters, not downtube; regular wheels; etc etc; but the FRAME looks like that, which brings me to my problem. I can't attach anything to the bike by standard means -- there is no place to attach anything using the standard means. I've gotten around not having a rear rack by sticking an awesome foldable backpack inside my beam bag, but my sticking point is this: no fenders.

Here I am in the office today with a big mudstripe up my back from this morning's awesome ride, feeling good about my body and the world but REALLY wishing I wasn't wearing wet-butted jeans. Fenders are really a must. In the past, I've just used this bike on sunny days, but I'm beginning to love it enough that I want to weatherize it, and that's turning out to be a bit of a problem!

So: help me solve it? How would YOU put a rear fender on that puppy? I have a few decent ideas, and if you don't talk me into one of yours, I will still solve this problem somehow -- but I'd like to hear some thoughts that didn't come out of my own head.

Comments

[veek.livejournal.com]

I don't know any details, but there's got to be Sugru involvement in there somewhere.

[enf.livejournal.com]

Wow, what an interesting looking bike you have!

Maybe I don't understand the problem—is it that there isn't enough clearance around the rear brake for a fender to fit through the fork?

I think I would be tempted to have the fender mostly be supported by stays to the rear axle and to try to stabilize it at the front with something that ties onto the joint between (what I am still wanting to call) the top and seat tubes, and hopefully doesn't interfere with the brake. But maybe that is too optimistic?

[redbear07.livejournal.com]

Race Blades would attach fine: they mount on the seat stays in the rear and on the fork in the front. They're not going to protect you as well as a pair of Hatori Hanzo steel Honjo's but they'll definitely keep that skunk stripe from happening.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Interesting. You don't think that the rear stays being so freaking far forward would be a problem?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of something not unlike that, actually -- taking a standard rear fender and just cutting some sheet metal to come all the way down and attach between the frame and the top bottle-cage braze-ons. There's clearance, I think, it's just that the frame is too far away for most fenders to work properly.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I was thinking hose clamps, but you may have a point. :)

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

I'd build a clamp and drop-bar sort of thing that attaches to the
bar just in front of the seat, and drops down toward the wheel.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh, see, that's an awesome plan, and I totally didn't think of it (because under the beam, I have a bag that attaches and hangs there). It could still work, though, and seems like it might be an elegant solution.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Obviously this will be a custom job: maybe talk to Mr. Lefton?

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

hm, although thinking of it: how much vertical play is there in that weird-ass seat?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

A little. I don't even know how much - let's say on the order of an inch or two.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I could do that if I hung it off the seat stays - I have an underseat bag that runs the length of the beam.

Bungees! From the seat stays to the rear skewer!

[starphire.livejournal.com]

This seems the simplest solution to me. The stays aren't angled *that* much further forward, and the fender is long enough it should still catch the spray from the back of the wheel. Relative position of the brakes is the same too, and these fenders seem to be designed to clear them.

I'm sharing Dr. Memory's concern that hanging anything off that cantilevered beam is probably going to have varying distances to the wheel from any flexing that occurs. And if the fender is more than an inch or two from the wheel, it's not going to catch the spray as well, so you can't leave a lot of clearance. Plus there might be interference with the beam bag?

If you want to go with something that hangs below the beam, I'd look for a (much) wider fender and leave plenty of clearance above the wheel. But that just looks like extra work...

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's true that fenders that are further up are (a) less effective, and (b) wider. That's totally a known issue about fenders in general. I'm just brainstorming right now!

I'm pretty sure I could rig something up that doesn't interfere with the beam bag (since it's attached with velcro straps and therefore pretty adjustable), and, honestly, a wide foamcore seatpost-fender attached with an extra couple of velcro straps is a 5-minute $0 project, which appeals to me.

[cuthalion.livejournal.com]

Use corrugated plastic instead of foamcore. It will do better with getting wet.

[palmir.livejournal.com]

I don't know if my anonymouse comment made it through, but, to summarize: Planet Bike's Hardcore fenders tend to be adaptable so long as you have eyelets near the skewers. Failing that, PB's Speedez are more adaptable than Race Blades (due to the latter not being adjustable at all like whoa - they're designed for racing road bike geometry and clearances, and lightweight for actual racing in Paris-Roubaix and the like; adjustability adds weight!). You could probably extend the Speedez front/backward enough with, say, some plastic soda/water bottles (there's an Instructable for entire fenders made with them).

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking as a sort of proof-of-concept. Corrugated plastic would work well!

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Are there threaded holes aka brazeons on the rear drop-outs? You may be able to adapt a front fender, that uses two long thin wire supports.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I've added extensions to fenders. If it's the front, it works pretty well since it's hanging more or less straight down. On the rear, it needs a lot of reinforcement since it's typically mostly horizontal so it gets a lot of stress. Ideally the rear fender would go 180 degrees around the rear wheel so the extension would be vertical/hanging down.

hm, let me try this again while logged in

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to see what you end up doing. My vote is to leave the bike alone and wear protective gear -- specifically a peacock outfit:

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/10/princess_peacock_costume.html