The New York Times is increasingly becoming a cycling blog, with their latest product test being of fenders. Like our own tests, they found the Planet Bike fenders tops and were less impressed with heavier wooden or metal fenders that lack a rim for water-abatement.
It’s pretty amazing that you can only get Americans to buy in on a practical item by adding some kind of fatal flaw. I’m pretty sure that’s what sells at least 90% of all cable locks, mini-pumps (only pump you need!), and low-end aero bars (to make your knobby tired MTB fast).
Am I the only one to notice a missing flap? Don’t know if John Mauro actually commutes sans flap and the Planet Bike miniflap ain’t gonna keep your bros from yelling at you.
That’s more driven by low margins — bike shops don’t make much on the bikes and on the accessories. When Civia launched, that was the complaint. An already margin-squeezed category shipped fully accessorized with less opportunity to upsell the buyer. Regarding flaws, fenders without flaps only protect the cyclist riding the bike and not the people they’re riding with. Why fenders don’t ship with flaps is a further mystery and Planet Bike’s “mini flap” isn’t it.
My concern is that the guy “took more than an hour to install” the VO fenders. How hard can it be?
Not so easy on that Redline presumably.