Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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11/21/2010: "Would a Fender Offend Her?"
Really, would a fender offend her? By "her" in this context I of course mean your two-wheeled sweetie, and I ask because of an email I received from my good friend Bill this morning.In it he mentioned that since it had rained last night, and there was standing water everywhere, he and his wife Jeannette--both lifelong cyclists--wouldn't be able to ride their bikes to church this morning.
Ballona Creek bike path after last night's rain
They both grew up in the roadie days, of course. They ride race bikes without fenders...without even fittings for fenders.
Well, I ride a race bike too, but it's a race bike from the '60s, when pretty much all bikes came with fender braze-ons.
So, as the clouds rolled away and a pure and golden light flooded across the gleaming and still very wet roadways, I was riding...and they were stuck in a car in Venice Boulevard traffic. (I was headed to my own "church": the Bridge at Playa del Rey.)
Really, fenders...they aren't that bad. Mine even weigh less than a pound in total, bolts, struts, and all.
And they grant me freedom...freedom to ride all the time.
I took my rain cape along in a pannier, too, just in case. But (I am wary of our autumn weather's carpiciousness), I'd put on sunblock as well. The sunblock got a good workout. As did the fenders.
As did I, on a beautiful freshly-washed Sunday in LA!
