# Fenders for a commuter/trail bike



## Lithified (Apr 14, 2007)

I am looking at combining my hardtail trail bike with my commuter into a mega versatile jack of most trades. This is a bit due to fundage, and a bit due to my obsession with having an on/off road touring, trail riding do it all whiz bike.

Fenders (currently on my commuter) are sweet. They keep the road grime/slop/wetness off of me whilst riding into work in my business cash, but I definitely wouldn't want them for 30 mile trail rides.

Anybody have a solution? I am thinking ideally tool-less on/off would be good because I know myself and if I have to get out so much as a screwdriver, I'll probably just leave them off more than on, and get rode grit all over my pants and shoes one day and just be angry. Not good.

mmm whatcya say?


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## SimpleJon (Mar 28, 2011)

Tool-less is going to be a problem but you could try:
1) Crud catcher on the down tube for the front wheel (Just an idea - I have never used one of these so I don't know how good these are compared to commuter type fenders at catching gunk off the front wheel)
2) Topeak MTX beam rack on the rear with the add on fender. this just has one QR bolt to take the whole shebang off the seat post. I use one of these on my commuter with the DXP bag and they work very well - get no gunk sprayed up my back from the rear wheel.


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## hunter006 (Jan 20, 2012)

IMO there is no replacement for a decent set of fenders, and I would personally just leave the fenders on and not worry about removing it. I did that with my last commuter bike and was very happy with it. There are some full length Planet Bike / SKS fenders suitable for wider, bigger tires.



SimpleJon said:


> Tool-less is going to be a problem but you could try:
> 1) Crud catcher on the down tube for the front wheel (Just an idea - I have never used one of these so I don't know how good these are compared to commuter type fenders at catching gunk off the front wheel)


I've used one before. It's great as long as you're going in a straight line. The instant you turn you earn yourself a big spray of muddy water. EDIT: I did notice my drivetrain copped a lot of spray with anything less than a full fender and buddy flap, and this was no exception to that rule.
If you have enough clearance for fenders, you can use something like a shockboard fender, which mounts on the underside of the fork, extends down about an inch, and can be unclipped pretty quickly. SKS Shockboard fender does pretty well there, although not as well as a dedicated full length fender. It also avoids the horrible turn-and-spray effect.



SimpleJon said:


> 2) Topeak MTX beam rack on the rear with the add on fender. this just has one QR bolt to take the whole shebang off the seat post. I use one of these on my commuter with the DXP bag and they work very well - get no gunk sprayed up my back from the rear wheel.


I have something similar for my 29'er. I have a SKS X3 Fender for my bike, and while it doesn't quite stop all the mud from flicking up (the cause is likely aerodynamics; the mud gets sucked forward on to my back) it works pretty well. My fender is a little shorter than I'd really like, but not poorly enough that I'd replace it with something else. A rack + fender has worked great in the past too.


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## Shalom (Nov 7, 2008)

Take a look at mucky nutz. Some really lightweight yet effective fenders/guards.

Mucky Nutz | Mountain Bikes | Road Bikes | XC | DH | UK Made Parts & Accessories


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

The SKS m.o.m. and d.a.d. fenders have good coverage and go on and off easily without tools (o.k., sometimes I used a small screwdriver for the front one as my fingernails fail me when the mechanism gets gritty). I use them on the 26'r and the fatbike when needed. The rear fender goes on the seatpost and the front needs a fork with an opening at the fork crown (I had a carbon fork that was incompatible but most work).


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## CommuterBoy (Oct 4, 2007)

I use Planet Bike Cascadias on my commuter, and they do fine on the trail...occasional rattle/rub sound here and there, but they're solid enough that they've never caused an issue.


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## Straz85 (Mar 20, 2009)

Glad someone posted this, I was looking for the exact same thing.


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## Bokchoicowboy (Aug 7, 2007)

I have used Planet Bike's "Speedez ATB" fenders on my commute/adventure/go-anywhere bike.

They have little rubber "feet" that sit against the frame and fork that use rubber straps to wrap around (the fork or frame) to attach to the bike. Kind of a quick release.

On the rear fender, there is a clip that bolts to the frame at the brake-bridge between the seat-stays and clutches the sides of the fender to hold it in place there, then a bolt that attaches the fender at the bridge between the chain-stays. I found the clip can stay in place attached to the frame and I could unclip the fender from it for removal. I did not use the lower stay bolt, but zip-tied the fender on so I could simply cut the zip tie for easy removal.

On the front fender Planet Bike intends you to zip-tie to a brake arch or brake-hole. I ended up ordering an additional clip (in the Hardcore ATB Fender Hardware Kit) like the one that attaches to the rear brake-bridge and bolted that to the hole in the brake arch on my suspension fork for the same quick-release clip action as the rear.









Since you can adjust the support arms (fender stays) when you do your initial install it was easy to set the rubber mounting "feet" out of the way of my disc brake calipers.

I could remove these fenders from my bike within a few minutes. Only had to sacrifice one zip-tie each time I had to remove them. After the initial installation, re-installation was also a few minute job.


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## waz0wski (Mar 23, 2012)

I installed a set of Topeak XC1/XC11 front/rear fenders on my bike. 
They're relatively tool-less to pop the fenders themselves off -- the rear is tool-less, but the front mounts require an allen wrench to remove (you can pop the fender itself off easily)

They're pretty light, and no major issues with bumps and fitment.
(note that the XC1 is meant for a suspension front fork, but I just added some additional padding on the fork mounts to keep them stable)

This is my ride with the full front / rear fender setup installed:


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## intheways (Apr 19, 2004)

BA fenders: CUSTOM FENDER SETS


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