Motorized bicycle front fender dangers

It WAS a beautiful Schiwn Cruiser. My buddy was riding home and he said he was only cruising around 20-25mph and the fender tab that attaches to the forks near the brakes snapped off. Before he relized he was on the ground. I'm glad he wore his helmet that day. I've noticed on my bike that speeds over 32mph my front fender vibrates like a S.O.B. Also I know (just like everything else in the world) some factorys don't build bikes like they use to.

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2 & 3 AFTER

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Key word is WAS.

Hope the rider faired better than the bike.

I used JB Weld where all fender tabs were on my bikes.- front and rear.

Did you noticed that the front tire locked up so bad that it bent the forks?

I'm banged up but for a different reason. But my friend snapped his collarbone and broke 3 ribs. I saw him today @ the races and he's pretty banged up.

Definitely "more fragile" but they cause less damage to whatever they hit.

I had over 500 miles on both the bikes I built before I sold them and ALMOST no fender problems. I just removed them and went over the places where the fender brace connected to the fenders. I "reset" the rivets and coated the whole brace/fender union with JB Weld.

The one problem I did have was one of the rear fenders cracked where I cut it for clearance for the drive chain.

That was my fault.

I use hardware store L brackets on all of my bikes with fenders. All you have to do is drill out the original rivets, lose the cheap peice of tin the comes from the factory, replace with the L bracket, the holes should line up with the rivet holes and I bolt it together with 1/4" machine screws, lock washers and Loc-tite on the threads. I also cut one hole off of the side that bolts up to the bike. I haven't had any problems with any of the fenders that I've done this way...Kelly

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I'm racin' Spitfire, turnin', poppin' wheelies, burnin' evil chasin' pop,pop, pop,pop,pop.... (The Pixies-Tony's theme)

great tip. i love my fenders and don't want to loose them.

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Hi Gang, I had wanted to comment here, but things have been very rough here.

Ok, no here's the drill, IF your bike has ANY part that shakes like a wet dog, STUDY that part, and determine what action will reduce, or even stop the vibration.

I have seen several of these types of bikes damaged in exactly the same manner as this one, and ALL of the riders were pretty banged up in the process.

Believe it or not, the very first such front-wheel fender fiasco I have seen was none other than Steve Miller, of SpitFire, probably 6-7 years ago, in his case it was a fender brace, cracked at the point where it went fromn the stamped shape, to flat, and, as it let go, it skewered the front wheel, and he was end-over!

4 years later Carl at about 73 years old, on the very first of Grube's 4-strokes, had a brace give way, skewering the wheel, lauching him over the bars, took 3-4 months before he could ride again, the bike was toast, kit was OK.

WallyWorld sold some cheap Huffy's, I forget the model, and I saw somewhat less than 5 of those turn into catapults.

The bike in the picture COULD have been saved IF, as Noogoodnic says, the L-bracket were replaced AND that a second front brace were added.

I will NEVER do a motorbicycle with only one true brace on the front fender.

Mike

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