Thursday, January 13, 2011

Mudflaps rule

Yesterday we had 5" of new snow on top of the frozen ice slush. Today it's nearly 40 F. It was a wet ride to work.

I did get majorly doused by a car blasting through a mega puddle (of course the car had "bicycle" license plates), but otherwise, my front mud flap (Brits: in the US, a "mud flap" is the thing that attaches to the bottom of a fender, which of course, is called a mud guard -- for tyres -- over there) saved the day.

Thanks to Jan for pointing out the auto gasket rubber to use for flaps. And to Patrick, of Scoop fame, for picking up a stack of said rubber gaskets last spring.

Good counsel. Good friends. What more does a guy need?
>

6 comments:

  1. mikeJanuary 13, 2011 at 9:56:00 AM PST

    can you elaborate on the magic material? went to jan's site and didn't see anything...

    ReplyDelete
  2. John SpeareJanuary 13, 2011 at 10:09:00 AM PST

    Yeah. He mentioned it in a post to ibob. see link for example. By the time that link goes away, this one should work: www.johndogfood.com/john/gasket.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  3. RachelJanuary 13, 2011 at 10:15:00 AM PST

    Did you ever take photos of your mud flaps?
    Sounds like you did them yourself and I don't think I ever saw photos and can't find any with the search tool.

    You should throw up some photos!


    I've been happy with the flaps that came with my planet bike fenders. Thank goodness for fenders and flaps and rain gear on days like this!

    ReplyDelete
  4. DylanJanuary 13, 2011 at 10:16:00 AM PST

    Funny that you posted this today. On my way into work, my rear Honjo snapped in half, and I was left without a rear fender or my rear flap. Bummer.

    Even though I didn't have far to go, I felt like a huge ass riding around in the rain spraying everyone behind me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. mikeJanuary 17, 2011 at 9:52:00 AM PST

    thanks...

    i've been running the PB flaps on my honjos and other makes. work well.

    the stair tread stuff just didn't cut it for me. the gasket stuff just might.

    ReplyDelete
  6. John SpeareJanuary 17, 2011 at 10:36:00 AM PST

    Rachel -- followed up with pics in next post. Super simple simon. Drill a couple holes in your fender and attach with zip tie.

    Another way to do it (with metal fenders) is to un bend the edges of the fender and put the gasket under the edges, then crimp the edges back over them. That's the fancy way. I've done that on my 747. I'll likely do that on Liza's bike and on my Elephant too.

    Mike: agreed on stair tread stuff. I found that the tread didn't like being hung upside down -- which is how my bikes live when not being ridden. That caused a crack which eventually ripped.

    I have ripped a gasket fender though. But that was because I ripped it on installation and it grew.

    ReplyDelete