Fender Time!

 

The Gilles Berthoud now fenderized.

The end of October saw  few showers pass over my home in Northern California. This marked the beginning of the "wet" season here, so, during the final days of October, I began installing the fenders on my principal bicycles.

The old Longboards on the Olympic.

My two Mercians were easy enough. I used the SKS fenders from last season and they were already trimmed and fitted for each bike. The Olympic received the old SKS Longboards. These were great fenders but unfortunately SKS doesn't sell them anymore. I have two pair of slightly beat up sets, (one was used on my other Olympic which is now retired due to a broken frame, so I have a spare set.

The KOM with it's SKS 50mm fenders.

The KOM got last year's SKS Chromoplastic fenders, 50mm wide. These are the second set of this type that I've used for the KOM and I like them a lot. They're easy to install and offer very good protection.

Berthoud fenders on the GB!

Last but not least, I needed fenders for my newish Gilles Berthoud. Bens Cycles, from whom I bought this frame, also have some GB stainless fenders for sale at a pretty reasonable price. I'm not crazy about metal fenders as I've had some break on me before, but I thought it would be fun to have fenders from the bike's maker, so I sprung for them.

GB fenders are pretty nice and come with pretty much all you need for the install except for one item which may be unique to this particular bike. The front fender went on without any drama at all, GB supplies a daruma for installing the fender to the fork and the fender itself is predrilled and shaped for the install.

The rear fender installation on the bike was a little more involved. There are no holes in the rear fender to allow for the various different methods on installing it. This frame has an eyelet under the brake bridge for bolting the fender directly to the bridge. The is another eyelet on the back of the seat tube for attaching a fender. I'd never seen that before, but a picture from an old GB catalogue, (courtesy of GB!), showed a fender bolted down and terminating there!

A shot of the seat tube eyelet for the fender.

I wanted the fender to continue to the bottom bracket so I used a "P-clip" down there and bolted the fender on. I had to trim the fender a bit down there to allow it to fit between the chain stays.  This fender is pretty well stuck in place now, being secured by three bolts!

A P-clip, (and spacer), provide a third 

I hope I'm all set for the "super" El Nino this year!