Rene Herse has a page on Requirements for good fender installation <https://www.renehersecycles.com/requirements-for-good-fender-installation/>. Seems very thoughtful. Jan recommends an absolute minimum clearance of 20 mm between the tire and any bridges and the fork crown. And *30 mm as an ideal*. Velo Orange states that a 10mm vertical clearance is OK but, for safety reasons, I would be skeptical V-O does recommend a lateral clearance of 10mm to 12mm <https://velo-orange.com/pages/choosing-fenders> (with an absolute minimum of 8mm. That's helpful. Both these vendors sell only metal fenders.
Rivendell takes a different stance, preferring plastic fenders by SKS/Esge/Blumels. One advantage is the the safety release for front fenders that many come with. These release if anything tries to jam the front fender. In addition, they carry Portland Design Works safety tabs for attaching to metal fender stays, and also spare clips for SKS. All of the above have recommendations as to which width fender for which width tire. G.A.Jett On Mon, Dec 22, 2025 at 3:12 PM Eamon Nordquist <[email protected]> wrote: > It's highly recommended to have quite a bit of room between fenders and > tires. Trying to squeeze the biggest tire you can physically cram under a > fender can be dangerous. It becomes too easy for a piece of road debris to > get caught between the tire and the fender. I've gone over the bars from an > accordioned front fender before - piece of branch got caught and pulled > into the fender. It's scary and can happen terrifyingly fast. I like 1.5 > to 2 cm of clearance ideally. Rivendell suggests up to a 38 with fenders, > and 43 without. If you want bigger, maybe a Roadini is not the right bike? > > Eamon > Seattle > On Saturday, December 20, 2025 at 5:10:25 PM UTC-8 [email protected] wrote: > >> I’m looking to get some wider RH tires for my 2025 Roadini. I have the >> SKS fenders on now with 39-40 (measured) tires and still seem to have quite >> a bit of room. If RH sold 42s, I’d get those but they don’t. It’s either 38 >> or 44. So I’m thinking the 44s might actually work but I’m wondering if >> anyone has tried this? My rims are Velocity Quill which are quite wide at >> 24.5 so it could actually measure to 45. Oh, I’m talking about smooth tires >> by the way. I will carefully measure before I buy, but it’s always nice to >> hear others’ experiences. Thanks > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2da8d68e-9c0f-45e3-aa39-3cda3fd664ffn%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2da8d68e-9c0f-45e3-aa39-3cda3fd664ffn%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CAMHQv6Xk30C_AmGwUo1gKoTrB0y%3Dg%3DW70m9f0x-2EoLPH3Sf9g%40mail.gmail.com.
