As summer winds down, the spectre of rain here in the bay area raises its moist head again. The weather forecast had a slight chance of sky water pencilled in for this morning, so that meant it was time to get the fenders back on The Stig.
There's a few notable changes to the mounting this year. I installed a small spacer washer down at the bottom bracket to hold the rear fender a little bit away from the seat tube, as I'd noticed that some grit had been getting in between the fender and the frame resulting in a bit of an unfortunate scuff.
I also added some helicopter tape on that area to protect it.
Just in case.
The other change I made was less a change of how I mounted the fenders and more a manipulation of the fenders themselves. The front fenders aren't too overly constrained, but on the rear there's a few more mounting points and so the fender tends to get curved into a slightly different shape than it was when it left the factory.
This results in the edges of the fender having some slight buckles and pulls in them, which reduces the clearance between the fender and the tire a little more than I'd like. I had ignored it on previous years to no ill effect, but this time I decided to get out my heat gun and warm up the plastic so I could massage it into shape, and I have to say the results were quite impressive. The buckles and pulls are gone and the fender edges are very even all the way around now.
So, given that, I think I can recommend the technique. Just be careful not to completely melt the fenders.
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