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Permalink Reply by The Doty on June 14, 2011 at 6:04pm

I roll 29x2.35 on one of my bikes and the only things I've found are the SKS Shockblade and the Planet Bike Cascadia.  It looks like neither of these are quiiiiiite wide enough to provide full coverage for either of us, but I think it's much better than no fenders at all.  Also check that you have enough room between the tire and the frame, fork, seat/chain stay bridges, and brakes before you buy anything.  There's nothing worse than getting a shiny new set of fenders only to realize that they won't fit between your tires and short reach caliper brakes ><  Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by gomattygo on June 14, 2011 at 7:13pm

Thanks Doty.  I cant wait to get on these tires....so do the Planet Bike Cascadias fit well enough? Because well enough is fine with me. Maybe Ill get the bike built and just hit some LBSs until I find the right set. I was also checking out --

Planet Bike Full ATB Front and Rear Bicycle Fender Set (60mm Wide) 

on amazon. 60mm is about 3 inches and maybe that will work...who knows. Thanks for your help. By the way, How do you like your Fat Franks?

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on June 15, 2011 at 2:41am

Interesting project.  When you get it further along some pictures would be nice to see. The girl who writes RideBlog recently bought a Viva Kilo with Fat franks.  The bike is huge but the ride is sweet.   I like to look but that is because I have a fat-tired bike myself. 

 

I am using  Planet Bike 60mm MTB fenders on my 80's Mt. Hood over Kenda 838 fat/wide tires.  They barely fit in there and the tires have about 3mm of clearance on both side between the chainstays when the axle is pulled all the way back to the back of the dropouts.  When the axle is forward the clearance is less than 2mm as the stays narrow closer to the bottom bracket considerably.  I've got wide cantilever brakes so they clear both the fender and the rubber without a problem, and this is a wide 80's  MTB frame designed for fatter  tires.  What brakes are you thinking of using on your project?  Canti's or V-brakes should be OK although a proper Fat Bike should have an IGH  and hub brakes.  If one is going to go heavy one might as well do it in STYLE.

 

Most of the modern bikes that come with Fat Franks are pretty much designed around them so they have room for them and they use a smaller wheel knowing the outer diameter of the rubber will be big  A 26" 590 MTB wheel with Franks is basically a 29-er by the time the rubber is on there.  They are flipping HUGE with a massive diameter.  Make sure you take this into account when designing your gearing as well as the fitment of fenders.    

 

You are talking about 26' rubber so I am assuming this is one of the modern typhoons right?  I thought all the 60's-70's Typhoons were 24" wheels but I could be wrong -being a Raleigh dude and not a Schwinnster. 

 

I'd be worried that the Fat Franks would fit in the frame at all much less with the fenders.  If you can find fenders to fit you will be doing quite well.  Perhaps something like the 60mm MTB fenders can be made to work with a little bit of creative cutting here and there between the stays and at the brakes.

 

60mm is 2.3622mm which isn't really wide enough for 2.3 inch wide tires. But the "width" of many tires is nominal so you might just have to measure them on your rims to see what they actually are.  With the Kenda 838's on 27mm Rhyno-Lite rims they shake out to 54.5mm wide which only gives me 2.75mm of overhang on each side assuming perfect centering everywhere (not -these are plastic fenders.)  

 

The Fat Franks may be even wider depending on your rim.  I think someone somewhere (Sheldon Brown maybe?) said that fenders need to be about 1/4"wider than the tires in order to get good coverage from water shooting off the tire.  I'm doing OK with just the 5.5mm wider it seems so I guess it depends.  They certainly are better than nothing as fenders!

 

Good luck with the project -post pictures.

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Permalink Reply by The Doty on June 15, 2011 at 4:04am

I actually ended up getting the shockblade.  Reviews of the cascadia suggest that they flop around a lot when you take them off road, and my bike gets used that way.  I don't think the shockblade is going to match the style of the bike, but maybe something like these will: Typhoon fenders on ebay

 

When I'm doing rides on asphalt, I take off the knobby mtb tires and put on the 2.35 wide schwalbe big apples.  Same tire as the Fat Frank, just styled differently.  They are a ton of fun :)  I run them at low pressure (20PSI front, 30PSI rear, and I'm 200lbs) and they just kinda roll over a lot of road hazards.  They aren't as fast as a skinny road tire, but they aren't (in practical terms) that much slower (on rides in the 40 mile range, I usually end up taking 10-20% longer on the fat bike than on my road bike.  Of course, your mileage may vary).  Good luck with the fenders and I hope you enjoy the bike!

 

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Permalink Reply by igz on June 15, 2011 at 5:18am

wont your basic walds work?

 

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Permalink Reply by gomattygo on June 15, 2011 at 7:32am

Thanks for your responses. I think Ill get the tires on and go from there. Its been a slow build. Im getting the bike powder coated this week and hope to get it built up soon after. It should be pretty sweet.

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Permalink Reply by gomattygo on June 15, 2011 at 7:39am

The tires are 26 inches. Im a little bummed that I might not get the right fenders at all. Tha nks for the link. Ill post some pics soon. Im going with a an American Boy Scout/Forest Ranger theme. Kind of an "Always be prepared" Smokey the Bear theme. Got got a really great Brooks Saddle for it and it should pretty awesome when its done....by fall...lol

James Baum said:

Interesting project.  When you get it further along some pictures would be nice to see. The girl who writes RideBlog recently bought a Viva Kilo with Fat franks.  The bike is huge but the ride is sweet.   I like to look but that is because I have a fat-tired bike myself. 

 

I am using  Planet Bike 60mm MTB fenders on my 80's Mt. Hood over Kenda 838 fat/wide tires.  They barely fit in there and the tires have about 3mm of clearance on both side between the chainstays when the axle is pulled all the way back to the back of the dropouts.  When the axle is forward the clearance is less than 2mm as the stays narrow closer to the bottom bracket considerably.  I've got wide cantilever brakes so they clear both the fender and the rubber without a problem, and this is a wide 80's  MTB frame designed for fatter  tires.  What brakes are you thinking of using on your project?  Canti's or V-brakes should be OK although a proper Fat Bike should have an IGH  and hub brakes.  If one is going to go heavy one might as well do it in STYLE.

 

Most of the modern bikes that come with Fat Franks are pretty much designed around them so they have room for them and they use a smaller wheel knowing the outer diameter of the rubber will be big  A 26" 590 MTB wheel with Franks is basically a 29-er by the time the rubber is on there.  They are flipping HUGE with a massive diameter.  Make sure you take this into account when designing your gearing as well as the fitment of fenders.    

 

You are talking about 26' rubber so I am assuming this is one of the modern typhoons right?  I thought all the 60's-70's Typhoons were 24" wheels but I could be wrong -being a Raleigh dude and not a Schwinnster. 

 

I'd be worried that the Fat Franks would fit in the frame at all much less with the fenders.  If you can find fenders to fit you will be doing quite well.  Perhaps something like the 60mm MTB fenders can be made to work with a little bit of creative cutting here and there between the stays and at the brakes.

 

60mm is 2.3622mm which isn't really wide enough for 2.3 inch wide tires. But the "width" of many tires is nominal so you might just have to measure them on your rims to see what they actually are.  With the Kenda 838's on 27mm Rhyno-Lite rims they shake out to 54.5mm wide which only gives me 2.75mm of overhang on each side assuming perfect centering everywhere (not -these are plastic fenders.)  

 

The Fat Franks may be even wider depending on your rim.  I think someone somewhere (Sheldon Brown maybe?) said that fenders need to be about 1/4"wider than the tires in order to get good coverage from water shooting off the tire.  I'm doing OK with just the 5.5mm wider it seems so I guess it depends.  They certainly are better than nothing as fenders!

 

Good luck with the project -post pictures.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on June 15, 2011 at 5:55pm

I hope you waited until you see this. 

I've got Planet Bike Cascadia 29" fenders on my Fat Frank tires. Since the radius is different, I pushed the fender closer to the tire so the radius APPEARS the same. While pushing on the fender, I tightened the nuts on the fender stays to hold it at this new, tighter radius. 

 

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