Fenders/mudguards for a wide-wheeled tricycle

I will tell you about my experience of “making” fenders for a tricycle with non-standard rubber.

The question of fenders for bicycles with wide wheels is already a quest, because in our realities it is very difficult to find such fenders. One of the options that can be used is buying fenders for a cruiser, which I wrote about earlier in the blog .

At first I thought about doing a project with them, but the high cost (about 60$ for one set for a two-wheeler, for a three-wheeler they would cost 100-120$) made me look for alternatives. Also, the reason why I was not warmed by the idea of ​​buying fenders for such a price was the appearance of my original metal fenders after the winter. To understand what I am talking about, here are a couple of pictures of the condition of the bike.

This is despite the fact that last fall I tried to protect the fender mounts from rust and covered them with two layers of clear varnish. It didn’t work, and the chemicals used to treat asphalt in winter to prevent ice build-up did their job. Everything rusted. So our path lay in the direction of plastic.

Variety

When I buy something in a store, I often take it with a margin. As a result, on the one hand, I have spare parts, and on the other, working material for creativity and experiments. I remembered that relatively long ago I had a fat bike, from which a pair of fenders remained. Their width suggests using them with wheels of about 4″. On my bike, Maxxis Hookworm 26×2.5″ tires are used as tires for the warm season. Their width is already large enough to fit into the original fenders of the Schwinn Town & Country bicycle, so I was forced to ride without fenders in the spring-summer-autumn. It also excluded the possibility of installing some more solid rubber in the winter season, since it simply would not fit in diameter. Therefore, I really liked the option with fenders from a fat bike. I was very pleased with the price of the fenders. For a set of 4 pieces (2 front and 2 rear) I paid 15$ excluding delivery. The order arrived and it was time to install. Unfortunately, the “in progress” pictures were not preserved, but I took detailed pictures of the installed fender to show what the final result looked like.

Production

I made the fender mounts from the mounts (as prosaic as it may sound) of the gutter of the drainage system, which originally looked like this:

All that was needed was to bend the bar a little, saw off the excess, and make two slots on which the fenders would be held.

The result will look something like this:

To secure fender to the bar, I used a cut piece of the original fender mount, which had two threaded holes.

As a result, we managed to implement the project without using any additional fasteners or nuts.

By a wonderful coincidence, the bar mount is very close in width to the bike basket slot, so there were no problems with installation.

A part of the original fender mounting was also used from the bottom. In this case, it acted as a washer. The edge of this washer rested on the basket bars, which added additional rigidity to our design.

After fixing, the fenders is “as if bent inward.” This was not done on purpose, I slightly missed the point that the fixed fender can “float” a little, but later decided to leave it as it is. The fact is that if you install fender flat, there is every chance that the water that gets inside will bounce off the surface and get on the contents of the basket. To prevent this from happening, a design like the one in the photo may make sense.

Both fenders have approximately the same curvature with a bulge outward. On the one hand, it looks strange, on the other hand, it adds some “strangeness” to the final design. Speaking of the design – its advantage is the ability to adjust the position of the fender in space – it can be installed closer to the wheel (lowering the mount lower) or, conversely, raised higher. Adjustment in the horizontal plane is also possible.

The wheel is covered across its entire width by the width of the fender.

As a result, we have a fairly customizable system that can be adjusted to your wheel width and needs. By the way, it didn’t get into the photo, but from the back side (the edge of the basket) so that the wing wouldn’t dangle – an additional hole was made and fender was attached to the basket with a regular tie. This allowed us to eliminate the rattling of the plastic fender, which was attached in one place.

Result

For about 20$ (a pair of fenders, pair of mounts, pair of bolts) we have wide fenders on our tricycle. In the realities of America, on the same Amazon you can find ready-made solutions fenders for tricycles, but their price (about 80$ without delivery) speaks for itself. It should also be borne in mind that purchased wings do not promise that they will fit your bike. Therefore, unfortunately and ah, it is easier to try to make it yourself.

By the way, an interesting point concerns the reliability of the fenders. The fact is that during their use I managed to get into two accidents. During one, I flew off the path into the ground of someone’s garden and the bike fell on its side, right on the wing. In the second, the bike was loaded with three heavy bags and fell backwards, landing, again, on the back of the fenders. As a result, the fenders are a little dirty, a little scratched, but absolutely alive. Is it worth saying what these wings would look like if they were made of sheet iron?

This is the rare case when I was completely satisfied with a construction that I made with my own hands. I haven’t been in serious rain yet, but I managed to ride through puddles after it rained. I arrived without any hint of dirt on my clothes (which happened once or twice when I had to ride without mudguards). The picture doesn’t show the front fender – I also use it from my fat bike. I’m not sure how much it protects against splashes (I’ll tell you a secret, the original fenders of this bike, or rather the front ones, did not protect at all from slush flying from under the wheel). But there are not many options here if you ride a bike in the rain. Fenders are designed to protect you from dirt flying from under the wheels, and the rear fenders cope with this with a bang. Which is exactly what I required of them.

On other bikes, the baskets are different and there may be problems with the mounting, but my Schwinn is a production model, so I’m sure my experience will be valuable to many 🙂

Author: Sa Crea

Hellmin