Not to nitpick, but my engineering background compels me to explain that
when looking at fender/wheel dynamics, the trailing edge would be,
counterintuitively, the front edge of the fender, not the rear edge.
Aerodynamically, trailing edge refers to the rear of an object going
through a wind flow. So it's logical that the nose of a saddle is the
leading edge and the rear of the saddle is the trailing edge. But fenders
are different because of their relationship to the rotating wheels. If you
look at the fender of a bicycle in motion, the fender is actually moving in
the opposite direction of the wheel, RELATIVE to the wheel. Therefore, the
rear edge of the fender is the one that is moving toward the oncoming tire
tread, toward the "debris flow" that we worry about getting jammed up in
the fender, and therefore is the leading edge ("debris flow" is analogous
to wind flow in the aerodynamic definitions of leading/trailing edges-- it
enters at the rear, and [hopefully] bounces around and exits the front).
So rear fender edge = leading; front fender edge = trailing. Sorry for
the nitpick!
On Sunday, October 19, 2014 6:44:12 PM UTC-4, Jan Heine wrote:
>
> Most of the classic French randonneur machines had very *generous* fender
> clearances, and that, together with the wide, and thus stiff, fenders,
> seems to be the reason why there are no reports of fender accidents.
>
> Generally, more clearance is better. At some point, it doesn't look nice,
> and you get toe overlap problems, though... The idea is that small debris
> can be accelerated so much that it will collapse a fender - and you want it
> to go through the fender instead. Large stuff cannot pick up quite so much
> speed, and so it'll bang against the trailing edge of the fender, and then
> fall back onto the road.
>
> In most fender accidents I have seen, insufficient (too tight) clearances
> were at least a contributing factor. Generally speaking, metal fenders seem
> to be safer than plastic ones. Even the quick release of plastic fenders
> cannot prevent all accidents... Fender accidents are rare, but if they
> happen, they can be nasty.
>
> Jan Heine
> Editor
> Bicycle Quarterly
> www.bikequarterly.com
>
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