Joe King wrote:
>A track bike has no mudguards or fenders as you call them. A
>fender [sic] is a guitar that a rock star plays or something you place in
>front of a real fire.
Here in the U.S., most of the roads are paved, so there is no longer any mud to guard against, at least for road cyclists. ;-)
U.S./British English usage began to diverge a couple of hundred years ago. Technical terms for parts of devices invented since that time, such as automobiles (motorcars) and bicycles are frequently different on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
This is normal and natural. To imply that the usage common on the other side of The Pond is "incorrect" or "ignorant" is insular and narrow-minded.
Sheldon "Bilingual In English" Brown
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| Two countries, divided by a common language. |
| -- George Bernard Shaw |
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