Comments on: Should I take off my fenders yet?

By: Osprey Packs Bike Blog » Should I Take My Fenders Off?

Osprey Packs Bike Blog » Should I Take My Fenders Off? — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:52:18 +0000

[...] Thanks to Sweetpea Bicycles for this little gem. [...]

By: Melinda

Melinda — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:42:55 +0000

I think you might have actually just made me relieved about the social atmosphere in engineering school for once.

By: Michael Andersen

Michael Andersen — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:45:36 +0000

This is awesome. My favorite is the “elsewhere” punch line.

By: Rita

Rita — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:21:13 +0000

I got my first set of fenders earlier this winter – previously I just ignored the spray (and the rack on the back caught the rooster tail). It has been nice not having my shins get wet & goey.

But I can’t wait to take them off.

They are noisy, they require adjustment to keep ‘em off the tires, and when a stone gets picked up it rattles under the fender for a few revolutions before flinging like the Star Ship Enterprise doing loops around the sun, and I don’t need holes in the space time continuum on my conscious. Besides, the naked bike looks better.

By: Natalie Ramsland

Natalie Ramsland — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:15:14 +0000

I love that folks have strong feelings about fenders – keep it coming.

I made the cyclist leg-shaving analogy as one of my admittedly irrational reasons why I like to de-fender my road bike in the summer. But I think the analogy goes a bit further. When I was in college at UC Santa Cruz, no self-respecting feminist was allowed to shave her legs without first proving that you had un-packed the freighted baggage of cultural norms and only then made an independent choice.

Same with fenders, Portland.

I get it. Bikes are transportation. Functional vehicles, not toys… And I still wanna take them off!

By: PeterH

PeterH — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:51:55 +0000

I will take the fenders off my bike at the same time I take the fenders off my truck.

By: Velosopher

Velosopher — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:28:57 +0000

LOVE the decision tree, Natalie. Delightful. If it’s any comfort, we’ve had the weirdest spring I can remember here in Mass, including a ton of grey, rain and wind that has blown down trees and power lines over and over.

Keep the faith, there will be sun.

By: Garlynn -- Undergroundscience.blogspot.com

Garlynn -- Undergroundscience.blogspot.com — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:50:04 +0000

Yeah, a true Portlander wouldn’t bother asking this question — or waste time on removing fenders (and later re-attaching them) that could be better spent riding to the pub & drinking a pint.

By: Natalie Ramsland

Natalie Ramsland — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:43:24 +0000

I think it is a completely reasonable question why you’d even want to take your fenders off. For me, there are two reasons, both a bit irrational.

1. I like marking the change of the seasons, even if it is only a 2 month “dry season.”
2. It also seems to be the bicycle equivalent of shaving your legs. Makes you feel fast.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 06:29:10 +0000

Rad diagram. I leave mine on all year in Tacoma. It took too much work to get them to fit perfect and look so damn hot. Fenders = the hot.