Cutting a fender to get it to fit?

[J. Hanley]

I just installed a set of sks velo 65 fenders on my bike. The fenders were too wide for the brake arms to have enough clearance, so I cut notches in them with a hacksaw. This seems to have worked well, as the fenders are installed securely and the brakes work well, but now I'm wondering if that was the right way to do this. Is it typical to have to cut notches in a fender to get the brake arms to fit?

[elmore leonard]

[attachment=5659]

(01-12-2015, 01:17 AM)J. Hanley Wrote:  I just installed a set of sks velo 65 fenders on my bike. The fenders were too wide for the brake arms to have enough clearance, so I cut notches in them with a hacksaw. This seems to have worked well, as the fenders are installed securely and the brakes work well, but now I'm wondering if that was the right way to do this. Is it typical to have to cut notches in a fender to get the brake arms to fit?

On my bike I put on wide cruiser fenders. The brake cables clear the fenders with ease. So I suppose the brake type can determine the fender type. But if you fix works. That is really all that matters. Have uou got a picture?

[GeorgeET]

Without a photo its hard to tell. I would have pinched the fenders at that point with pliers. Make it look like it was there. By cutting you created a weak point. However in this application if fender does not flex it will work.

[nfmisso]

I have notched fenders to clear V-brakes and the fork. On the one case I became worried about strength and floppiness; I laminated a strip of aluminum underneath - beer can material is the same.

[J. Hanley]

Here are some photos:
[attachment=5662][attachment=5663][attachment=5664]
I don't know if you can tell what's going on here, because I'm having trouble downliading my photos, and they're being posted all crazy sideways.
These are pretty good fenders, and they seem to be installed correctly, with no rattling or rubbing anywhere. They work well too, I tested them out today on the way to the supermarket by riding through a puddle.
I couldn't find anything online about anyone else doing this though, and I was wondering about anyone else's experience with it. Ther was a lot going on when I installed them, because I changed the brake set at the same time, so things got a little complicated.

[GeorgeET]

I see these are plastic fenders. You needed a big cutout. You could reinforce it like Nigel said or just forgetaboutit.

As per photos maybe you should reduce memory before posting. BTW only one that shows what you did is the top one anyway.

[Painkiller]

Sorry John, Not much pic to work with. Take a look @ the picture. The pink dot on the dull piece. This is the socket that allows you to line up and pitch the brake. There are two per arm in two thicknesses. If you invert the setup in the picture, your "Thick" one should be behind the pad and the "thin" one should be behind the arm. This allows your pad to be closer,sooner and your arm spread wider which would make trimming less to none. The green dot area looks tight but hard to tell from the pics, this will be wider if you invert as I said. in your other pic of the front, most people cut cables to short. They should be cut long and tucked out of the way so later adjustments can be made without replacing and having some cable to work with. If your front needed inverted you would not have the cable to do it. If you feel like it look at this thread for cable cut/tuck and brake pitch
http://forums.bikeride.com/thread-4891.html

[J. Hanley]

(01-13-2015, 07:14 PM)painkiller Wrote:  Sorry John, Not much pic to work with. Take a look @ the picture. The pink dot on the dull piece. This is the socket that allows you to line up and pitch the brake. There are two per arm in two thicknesses. If you invert the setup in the picture, your "Thick" one should be behind the pad and the "thin" one should be behind the arm. This allows your pad to be closer,sooner and your arm spread wider which would make trimming less to none. The green dot area looks tight but hard to tell from the pics, this will be wider if you invert as I said. in your other pic of the front, most people cut cables to short. They should be cut long and tucked out of the way so later adjustments can be made without replacing and having some cable to work with. If your front needed inverted you would not have the cable to do it. If you feel like it look at this thread for cable cut/tuck and brake pitch
http://forums.bikeride.com/thread-4891.html

Right, the "green dot" part probably looks a little tight because the brake noodle is touching the new bike rack I installed, but I might try switching them just to see what it does. The thing I was wondering about though was cutting the femder. I don't know if you can tell (that's a neat trick with the dots by the way!), but the part of the fender just to the right of the brake arm has a notch cut in it. The brake arms wouldn't fit regardless of how I oriented the spacers you're refering to.
Judging from the responses though it doesn't seem unheard of to trim a fender a bit to get it to fit, although I couldn't find any examples of anyone else having done it.

[Painkiller]

" The brake arms wouldn't fit regardless of how I oriented the spacers you're refering to."
What you are telling me is that you tried that and changed them back to the way they are in the pic? correct?

[J. Hanley]

[

(01-13-2015, 09:57 PM)painkiller Wrote:  " The brake arms wouldn't fit regardless of how I oriented the spacers you're refering to."
What you are telling me is that you tried that and changed them back to the way they are in the pic? correct?

O.K., here's what's happening: yes, I did try orienting the spacers in the manner you proposed, but what I didn't do at the time was change the spring tension on the brake by using the topmost pin hole on the frame. There was a lot going on this weekend, so somehow that permutation of brake adjustment got left out before I put the fender on. Here's what it looks like now:[attachment=5675]
I don't know if you can tell from this photo, but your suggestion definately opened up the brake quite a bit. I think I might not have needed to cut the fender, but it didn't affect the structural integrity of it, so It doesn't seem to matter. Also, it looks as if when the brake pads wear down a bit, the brake arms might've touched the fenders, and now they won't.
I knew there was something about this I wasn't getting. Thanks for your help!

[Painkiller]

When ever I need to open up plastic, I prefer to use a radius. such as a dremmel tool with a sanding drum, I think doing it this way they are less prone to crack. Now for some pic help. The ones you posted are in the 2500 pixel range, probably straight off the camera. If you re-size them by pixels in the 1000 x 800 range they will fit the page right and enable us to click on your pic for a closer up shot. Its nice to see you getting your bike set up the way you like it. First time at bat can be trying at times but look at the money you saved on labor cost so far.

[J. Hanley]

(01-13-2015, 11:00 PM)painkiller Wrote:  When ever I need to open up plastic, I prefer to use a radius. such as a dremmel tool with a sanding drum, I think doing it this way they are less prone to crack. Now for some pic help. The ones you posted are in the 2500 pixel range, probably straight off the camera. If you re-size them by pixels in the 1000 x 800 range they will fit the page right and enable us to click on your pic for a closer up shot. Its nice to see you getting your bike set up the way you like it. First time at bat can be trying at times but look at the money you saved on labor cost so far.

Thanks for the reply. I've been thinking about this, and I think it's jjust as well I cut the fenders now, judging from the old brake set. See, the way these are set up now will work fine, but eventually as the brakes loose their springyness the pads will have to be oriented with the spacers the other way around anyway. The only way to create enough tension on the old set was with the springs in the highest pin setting and the cable considerably tighter than it is in this picture.
I like my bike a lot, thanks for the tips on fixing it up! One of these days I might invest in a Dremel tool, that's a good idea.
By the way, what's a pixel? Haha! (No but seriously, I have no idea how to do what you described.)

[Painkiller]

(01-13-2015, 11:28 PM)J. Hanley Wrote:  

(01-13-2015, 11:00 PM)painkiller Wrote:  When ever I need to open up plastic, I prefer to use a radius. such as a dremmel tool with a sanding drum, I think doing it this way they are less prone to crack. Now for some pic help. The ones you posted are in the 2500 pixel range, probably straight off the camera. If you re-size them by pixels in the 1000 x 800 range they will fit the page right and enable us to click on your pic for a closer up shot. Its nice to see you getting your bike set up the way you like it. First time at bat can be trying at times but look at the money you saved on labor cost so far.

Thanks for the reply. I've been thinking about this, and I think it's jjust as well I cut the fenders now, judging from the old brake set. See, the way these are set up now will work fine, but eventually as the brakes loose their springyness the pads will have to be oriented with the spacers the other way around anyway. The only way to create enough tension on the old set was with the springs in the highest pin setting and the cable considerably tighter than it is in this picture.
I like my bike a lot, thanks for the tips on fixing it up! One of these days I might invest in a Dremel tool, that's a good idea.
By the way, what's a pixel? Haha! (No but seriously, I have no idea how to do what you described.)

good quality brake springs do not lose spring tension in that manner and should not be an issue I hope with the choice of origin8 v-brakes.
think of Pixels as a screen dimension The screen on your computer in relation to what a picture file (sized in pixels) looks like on a screen. If you were to open your picture file in an editing software and go to image size you would see a "print size" ( in inches) and file size "k/mb" and Dpi such as 72ppi. dpi and ppi are basically the same, dots per inch or pixels per inch. an easy way to put it is when looking at your screen 72ppi = 1inch, your picture was say 2500 pixels wide, 2500 divided by 72 = 34.7in of screen to see the whole picture without scrolling. the print output @ 72 dpi would be 34.7in and low resolution.optimum print resolution would be 300ppi which would have a print output more like 8in(high resolution) picture that would look nice printed on photo paper. not knowing what type camera or setting you used, I would say that your camera was in the 5 mega-pixel range, being somewhat of a digital forensic expert let me know how far off I am on this.
So most people's screens nowadays average 16in to 24in. you need to size by pixels that fit these size screens. Resolution (72 dpi, 300dpi) does not matter for screen output, only print output. Most people can see 800 pixels on the screen without scrolling. so keep them in that range and you will be fine. quality print output is a different game that would require another paragraph ha. find a cheap editing software and size your pictures for the web. One important note: Do not corrupt/change the Master/original file. Simply rename it after sizing.i.e. (frontbrakeweb1) and you will have your high res original in case you want to print a nice picture and you will have you pic file for screen/web.

[J. Hanley]

[/quote]
good quality brake springs do not lose spring tension in that manner and should not be an issue I hope with the choice of origin8 v-brakes.
[/quote]
The set of brakes I replaced were promax brakes, and they definately did loose some of their springyness over time. This set seems comparable in quality, and so I think they will too, especially since the springs seem super tense now. They'll probably be less so after a year or two, and then I'll swictch the orientation of the spacers and take slack out of the cable. The promax set worked fine that way for about nine years.
Regarding the computer stuff, huh? I'll look it over, but confidentially, I don't even own a computer, I'm posting this from my smart phone.

[Painkiller]

good quality brake springs do not lose spring tension in that manner and should not be an issue I hope with the choice of origin8 v-brakes.
[/quote]
The set of brakes I replaced were promax brakes, and they definately did loose some of their springyness over time. This set seems comparable in quality, and so I think they will too, especially since the springs seem super tense now. They'll probably be less so after a year or two, and then I'll swictch the orientation of the spacers and take slack out of the cable. The promax set worked fine that way for about nine years.
Regarding the computer stuff, huh? I'll look it over, but confidentially, I don't even own a computer, I'm posting this from my smart phone.
[/quote]
I have never experienced brake spring issues and readjustments like that. I normally go with Avid single digit 5 or higher on replacements or Shimano. I stay away from the type with plastic bezels for the spring tension screw adjuster. stick with all metal backs and good sleeve bearings.
As for your phone, find camera settings and lower your resolution a couple notches and try again with pics sometime and see if that helps.

[nfmisso]

I have had good experience with Origin 8, Shimano, Avid and Tektro linear pull brakes. Promax are not in the same league. It is all in the details. Ditto on the brake levers.