> Mark. Remove. Drill. Reinstall. Mark the next. That sums it up. I don't find it tedious, but it ain't fast. Think of it as meditation and you'll be all right. And the Winter 2011 BQ article *is* excellent. I found the bit on how to massage the fender line especially helpful (bend the fender edges apart to decrease fender radius, push edges together to increase radius).
I have had very little trouble with 2.5 VO alu fender installations (installed on two bikes, then moved one set to a third bike), but all three bikes had fender mounts on the brake bridge facing the hub. On the first one I didn't quite drill the bolt hole in the center and had to ovalize slightly. Take the BQ advice, use a punch or nail to mark the spot, start drilling with a small bit (2-3mm) and work your way up to 5mm. Next time I will drill the 3mm hole from the inside of the fender, but drill the final 5mm hole from the outside. That way you minimize the chance of slipping for the initial hole, but get the burr from the big hole on the inside of the fender where it doesn't show. Gernot On Sep 17, 5:27 am, Steve Palincsar <palin...@his.com> wrote: > On Fri, 2011-09-16 at 15:07 -0700, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > Kelly, thank you, thank you, thank you for the honesty of your post. > > As both an amateur mechanic and amateur woodworker I have been > > repeatedly snookered by "expert" instructions that lulled me into > > thinking something would be straightforward and doable, only to be > > reduced to speaking anglo-saxon. Last night I installed a pair of the > > tektro canti brakes and discoverd that the instructions failed to > > mention that only a mutant with four hands would find this straight > > forward. > > > I have bikes with plastic, aluminum, and steel fenders but I wouldn't > > ever again install fenders without both rereading the instructions and > > remembering that it will be a PIA. > > Actually, installing Honjo fenders is pretty straightforward - there's > nothing really 'clever' or 'complex' about it - but it's slow and can't > be hurried. Reading the instructions about 20 times for a week or two > ahead of time, and working on visualizing what goes on helps. > Understanding on a deep-down level that it simply cannot be hurried or > sped up helps the most. > > One. Step. At. A. Time. First install. Mark. Remove. Drill. > Reinstall. Mark the next. Remove. Drill. Reinstall. Mark. Remove. > Drill. Reinstall. Breathe. > > Once you get your mind wrapped around the pace - the process as a whole, > but especially the pace - it's not really much of a pain in the a$$. At > least, not until your hand cramps and you drop the parts to the draw > bolt in the grass and can't find them again. It helps a lot to spread > some cloth under where you're working, because your hand is almost > certainly going to cramp and you almost certainly are going to > drop /something/. > > The instructions on the VO and Jitensha web sites are pretty good. So, > too, are the articles published in BQ. -- 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.