Three hours? Or less? Oh Steve, shame, shame. I do it, and my jobs usually require going back and undoing something, I did hastily and wrongly, then doing it different and right a second time, and I swear it takes me no more than an hour for a pair of them, Honjo, VO, or Berthoud.
Perhaps it's because I install them on fixed gears? Maybe I'm just very, very good? On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > > On Thu, 2009-05-28 at 08:05 -0700, b hamon wrote: > > > > > > > Last batch of VO fenders I saw were not pre-drilled. How much of a > > hassle IS it to drill your own fenders? Seriously. Is it an > > all-day-at-home affair? > > > > It shouldn't be. You are a competent wrench, I am an all-thumbs hack. > You have a proper place to work and I'll bet it even has good lighting, > and I'll bet you have metric hardware, too. (The first set I did, I > wasted hours trying to find metric fasteners. Home Despot? Forget > about it! Those big joints have absolutely nothing that's metric.) > > The last set I installed, 58mm Honjos on my Saluki, came close to being > an all-day job, but I was swapping out Oursons and replacing them with > Hetres, removing a set of stainless 50mm Berthouds for later use on > another bike, and I had to surgically alter the fender in order to get > it to fit. You won't have to do that. > > I usually do this sort of thing outdoors in bright daylight, but that > last time it was a dark, rainy day and I had to work in a dimly lighted > basement. I must have lost an hour simply to dropping nuts and washers, > searching futilely for them, then having to find replacements. > > Usually (I've done 3 sets, so based on my large experience base...) it > takes 3 hours or less. > > It is fiddly. Whether it's a hassle or an exercise in zen-like patient > plodding is up to you. You have to temporarily hang the fender, mark > one spot, drill it, then install again. Mark the next place, remove the > fender, drill, install. Mark the next spots. Repeat. If you try to do > it all at once, you end up with holes that don't line up. It takes > patience, and I find it can't be hurried. Relax, go with the flow, and > it becomes more satisfying than frustrating. > > It gets a little tricky under the fork crown. Depending on the specific > bike, you may need a rubber spacer between the fender and the fork crown > (e.g., the Kogswell P/R was designed for a 1 cm rubber spacer at the > crown). > > Also, it makes a difference whether you're going to use brackets > (similar to what SKS uses) or whether the bike has fittings for fenders > in the right places. My Saluki has a threaded vertical fitting under > the brake bridge. At the fork crown I used a Berthoud "daruma bolt" > that hung off the front rack tang; with sidepull brakes it would hang > off the brake mounting bolt. > > On some bikes you need to create an angled flat spot directly under the > fork crown so that the fender will snuggle up at the correct angle. You > hammer that in with the handle of a hammer. The Honjos on my Velo > Orange came with that angled flat spot already created. > > Another thing that makes a big difference is whether the bridges are in > the right places. I've been lucky that with my bikes everything's all > been in exactly the right place. I didn't have to fashion any kind of > spacer for the chainstay bridge. I've seen an Atlantis that needed the > full length of a wine cork as a spacer in that location, because the > bridge was so very far forward compared to where the fender wanted it to > be. > > You SHOULD do this. It would be a very useful skill for you > professionally. There aren't many bike shops that know the first thing > about installing fenders like this. and after all, you live in one of > the most fender-rich places in the country. > > Here http://www.flickr.com/photos/97916...@n00/sets/72157617915097787/ > are some photos of the Saluki, mostly concentrating on the fenders. > > > > > -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM Professional Resumes. Contact resumespecialt...@gmail.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
