just the ones on the *side* of the tire, not the ones in the middle (e.g. don’t try to make DIY slicks…)

just clarifying.

I keep fenders on my commuting mountain bike. I’ve had this set of mtZefal clip-ons for about 12 years now and thousands of road and trail miles. I really only remove them to wash them off.

They are black, so when they are clean you hardly notice them unless you are right on top of the bike. (I will admit to having fenders when asked, but at a distance you really can’t see them.)

One note about MTB tires and fenders though….

If you ride 2.1″ wide tires you are still going to get sprayed. Swap to something less than 2.0″… 1.75-1.9 (1.75 is better). That’ll keep the water inside the fender. Also, the knobbies on mud tires pretty much defeat the fender, either cut them off (the knobbies) or swap tires (better). Good mud tires will also cause clearance issues and rub fenders.

I used to keep a separate set of tires for ‘weekends’ but found that I so rarely used them… I just sold them off and have a pretty good compromize tireset on my MTB now.

Being inspired by Ezra’s work, I have made a few sets of wooden fenders and love them. Just getting started, they are far from the detail that he produces, but as far as utility is concerned, I love them. The finished wood brings a classy look to a bike from a piece of wood that was once a pallet.

My bike does indeed have eyelets, since I have a rack attached by them. Will fenders fit on the eyelets with a rack already there?

Also, though it’s feasible, do many people put fenders on mountain-type bikes if they use them for commuting? I know that a road bike is really the best for commuting but hey, I have what I have and don’t plan on spending thousands of dollars when simply hundreds will do.

I’m not too worried about how it will look either. It only took about 2 months for fellow students to stop looking at me wierd when I pulled up the bike rack on campus in a mismatched rainsuit, helmet, and kid gloves riding a mountain bike with a rack and trunk on the back mounted with a headlight and back light :).

Short answer: yes, it is feasible to put fenders on a mountain-type bike.

Slightly longer answer:
The main difference, when it comes to fenders, between “mountain-type” bikes and road bikes is whether they have “eyelets” or not. Eyelets are little threaded holes near the dropout that fenders (and bike racks) can attach to. (And actually, many race-specific road bike don’t have eyelets, either.)

Here’s a picture of an eyelet on a rear dropout. (The eyelet is the topmost orange circle.)

If your bike has eyelets, then you’re set - just get a normal fender, ensuring that it is wide enough to cover your tire.

If your bike doesn’t have eyelets, then you have two types of options:
A) Seatpost mounted fender - these are garbage, see above.
B) Seatstay / fork leg mounted fenders - This is the SpeedEZ fenders referenced above. These will also mount onto most suspension forks, which generally don’t have eyelets.

Hope this helps…

I ended up getting some “L” brackets from my local True Value and used those for the back fender. I am still going to try and find some of those “P” clamps big enough to fit around my front forks.

Peace out

Thanks for the link. I need to do some further investigation at my local LBS or hardware store and get my fenders more securely mounted. So far the zip ties have worked well though.

Peace out

Such things may also be available at your local hardware store. They make fender mounting a snap for eyelet-less bikes.