I loved Sheldon's answer, one from a man who's obviously worked in a bicycle shop during the boom of the 70's. At. A.R. Adams Cycle, we probably sent half the ten-speeds we sold out with those useless things. Nice bit of profit, probably cost the shop about ninety cents, sold for somewhere between three and five dollars.
Of course, the new ten-speed owner went away firmly convinced that he'd found the ideal solution for both staying dry and looking cool. An attitude that lasted about half a mile on the far side of Presque Isle State Park during a summer Lake Erie shower.
Those of use who worked there figured that the fenders were a secret code for showing which riders were dorks.
George R. "Syke" Paczolt
Montpelier, VA
> Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 14:35:46 -0400
> From: Sheldon Brown <CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com>
> To: marcus.e.helman@gm.com,
> classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: Re: [CR]shorty fenders?
> Message-ID: <p0623091bc08e79c881fa@[10.0.1.39]>
> Message: 1
>
> At 11:24 AM -0400 5/15/06, marcus.e.helman@gm.com
> wrote:
> >Two questions about shorty fenders:
> >
> >Do they work? I can see them keeping gunk out of
> the brakes, but not doing
> >much in terms of keeping the rest of the bike or
> rider clean.
> >
> >Under what circumstances were they used?
>
> They do protect the headset. Otherwise they're
> pretty useless.
>
> They were basically sold to gullible cyclists who
> would like to have
> their cake and eat it too...they want the protection
> of fenders, but
> like the look/lightness of a fenderless bike.
>
> Sheldon "Real Fenders Are Full Fenders" Brown
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