Yet another fender thread
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Wow, those look great! Nice work!
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Neat job :thumbsup:, and match the bike 
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"Yet another"?! There is no such thing as too many home brew threads.
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Bad a$$!!!!
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Dude, that is an awesome implementation of a fantastic idea! Just friggin' nice! :thumbsup:
Funny, I've been a lurker on this forum for years and was about to post up bragging about my fenders - .063" camera-case finish ABS plastic. It works well and is easy to make, but is very flexible. I needed luggage racks front and rear to support them. The drum idea gives much more rigidity. I will go this route next time! Anyway, here's some pics of my attempt. For the record, I like yours better:
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Cheers, and thanks for the post!
Funny, I've been a lurker on this forum for years and was about to post up bragging about my fenders - .063" camera-case finish ABS plastic. It works well and is easy to make, but is very flexible. I needed luggage racks front and rear to support them. The drum idea gives much more rigidity. I will go this route next time! Anyway, here's some pics of my attempt. For the record, I like yours better:
Cheers, and thanks for the post!
Thanks all for the great feedback. This turned out much more easy to do than I thought it would. I was looking at doing the split fender/add material method but thought they would not hold up to my abuse, plus I didn't like the cost of the base fenders. I have had a few plastic barrels behind the shop for years that I was going to use for trash cans, but without handles I never got too excited about that idea. (I am a cabinetmaker by trade and have a small wood shop) The most expensive item on this project was the $4 freeze plug used to attach the front fender to the fork. That also turned out to be the time saver as I thought I was going to have to fabricate some thing to bolt into the tube with a nut to receive the fender. So, here is a quick run down of the barrel fender;
The barrels I have are only 24" in diameter. Not to worry. The material is a piece of cake to work with and it is colored all the way through so you don't have to worry about scratches or chips showing. You could use a heat gun to re-shape, but hot water works well too. I first cut a 4 1/2" band from the barrel, centered on a support rib.(I didn't think of using the rib until I looked at the barrel and thought to myself, "Self, that would look better and be much stronger, my you are a handsome man.) But I digress!
Then I notched out some material to fit the fender between the fork tubes and seat stays so I could keep the fender at 4 1/2" inches. This plastic is easy to cut, sand, or grind with standard wood working tools. I am at 9" in front of the fork crown and 22 " behind. I used what was left fron the "hoop" for the rear. If I had to do it over again, I would only go 20" behind the crown. That would leave me 2 more inches to drop around the rear. I tested the set on 14 miles of ATV trail and hit every mud puddle and slime section I could find. I was still getting a small amount of splatter on my back pack from the rear tire (that is how we spell it here you Scotts, but don't be offended, I come from a long line of Duncans) and the front tire was still slinging mud on the BB and rear derailer. I am going to add a mud flap to the front and raised the rear end of the rear 3/4" to deflect the mud better. Since I didn't want the front to come down too low to catch frozen ruts and such, I would prefer it to be a little shorter and add a flexable flap to do the job. Adding a couple inches to the rear will still keep it from extending past the back of the tire, again making sure it doesn't hit when going over logs etc. Even as they are now, I can plow though deep puddles and my feet and water bottle stay dry.
After cutting and fitting around the fork and seatstays, it's time to bolt things together. My Pugs has mounts below and behind the front derailer and at the seatstay crown. I just drilled a 3/16" hole and used the screws that were filling those holes. On the rear, I mounted a Bontrager "large" rack for disc brakes. These work well for the offset Pugs. Both sides of the rack have a standoff to clear the calipers/center the rack for a standard frame. Cut off the standoff on the cassette side and it will center the rack for our offset frames. I have a zip-ty connecting the forward rung of the rack and made a braket (bent aluminim flat bar) at the rear. There is not enough room to use the struts sent with the rack as they mount under the rack and space is too tight, but the barrel material is very strong and supports the rack great. I also cut a groove in the top side of the fender to allow the cable for the rear derailer more room.
On the front fender, I cut off a couple rods from a rack I had bought at a garage sale years ago and made struts from them. They attach to the fender with a couple of padded wire clamps, and attach to the fork mounts with nylon spacers to clear the radius of the fork tubes. At the fork crown, I bought a 1" freeze plug and sanded it down to fit in the tube. For those that don't know what a freeze plug is, it is a thick rubber washer around 1" thick, with a steel washer on both ends. It has a bolt that runs through it and as you tighten the bolt it squishes and gets larger in diameter and gets tight inside the tube. This fills the tube and as you have run the bolt through the fender, bolts the fender to the under side of the fork.
All in all, it only cost me about $7 and a few hours of tinkering.
Good luck and fun with the project.
I can't remember how I wound up with these, but they were free. They are 55 gallon or close to it. I think they had soap in them when new. You can google used barrels or hit Craig's list to see if there are some local. If anyone is in the north Idaho/Spokane area I would be happy to part with one for a good cause.
I work in the dairy industry. If you have any dairy in your area, or any Ag in general, I can guarantee you there are barrels to be had for free. Farmers have to buy needed cleaners, sanitizers, teat dips, etc. And often they get them in 55g drums. Luckily I work for a good company that takes back and re-uses all of our barrels, but many do not. And we can only re-use the barrels in certain colors.
Farmers and dealers usually have many of these around that they would love to get part with :thumbsup:
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