SKS Longboards for my Mercian

KOM with the beige Longboards

I mentioned in a recent post, (Bonus century!), my rear aluminum fender snapped off of my King of Mercia, (KOM). The fender failed at the point where it is attached to the rear bridge, (normally a brake bridge, but not on a cantilever equipped bike)!

Alu fender failure.

This is the second time a metal fender has broken on one of my bikes. Previously, a stainless steel fender had snapped at the same spot on my Motobecane Jury commuter. Obviously, I will have to rethink my installation of alloy fenders.

Close-up of the failed fender.

It would seem that there is need for reinforcement in that area. But I decided to try SKS composite fenders, which feature an aluminum center clad in plastic. I chose their Longboard version, the same I had used on my other Mercian, (Adjustments to the old Mercian.). It's nice that SKS offers a couple of colors, I again went with the beige, I just like that shade and it seems to go with the color scheme well enough.

Pretty good front fender line...

I wanted to be sure that the front fender was supported by the Nitto front rack, I positioned the front edge just a tad behind the leading edge of the rack. The Longboard is long enough that it still stretches down far enough to offer more than adequate protection.

...rear too!

Rear fender installation was greatly aided by the threaded points Mercian provided for mounting the rear fender. It was easy to set a nice fender line. I didn't install the rear mud flap, I'll save it for a spare.

A look at the rear installation.

And a look at the front, notice the attachment to the Nitto M-12 rack.

So, I've been riding with these new fenders for a few weeks now and I am very satisfied with them so far. They are rigid and quiet and fairly light. Lets see how long they hold up!