Fender Hardware Hacks

By Scott

Loyal readers will recall a post I wrote last June about multiple uses of fender stays. We thought with spring rapidly approaching, that perhaps it was time to share some more little "hacks" and ideas of how to use fender hardware to spruce up your bike/clean up the overall look of your bike.

Matt, from our local Bike Doctor, recently came by on his new custom, all-road bike made by local builder, Brackish Cycles. His ride is pretty darn modern with thru-axles, hydraulic disc brakes, dropper post, dropped seatstays, and carbon fork. He cleverly decided on using several fender eyelet bolts as cable/hose guides for various external routing. I think it's a pretty slick alternative to clamps.

Igor helped him out with mounting a front fender on his carbon fork to keep the spray off him and his drivetrain. Why only a front? Because Matt is a self-proclaimed (and I quote) "selfish cyclist". This bike is specifically designed for speed; and since there isn't much room in the back, Matt opted to use one of those plastic ass-savers as a way to keep the grit and grime off his backside. When working on the fender, Matt noticed our long leather mud flaps. It was a bit longer than the ass saver he was using, so he used one of those and a long rack strut underneath to support it and voila: a more stylish and hearty ass saver, that blends in well with the finish of his new bike.

When running dynamo lighting, the routing of the wires is something that can look, well, ungainly. With a custom fork, you can always have a hole drilled at the top and bottom to run the cable through, but for those of us running stock forks, how does one keep the cables nice and neat, without having to use zip ties? R-clips of course! Screw these into the fork eyelets and run the cables through them to keep everything nice and neat. Here is Igor's setup on his Polyvalent.

Finally, we have P-clamps. Such a simple and versatile item. We used them a few years back as a way to attach a wine crate to a Porteur rack.

Does anyone have any non fender uses for fender hardware that they'd like to share? Drop us a line in the comments and we'll share your knowledge with the world.