I belong to the old school. I call them mudguards (and not fenders) because that is exactly what they do, guard you and the bike against mud on a rainy day.
Mezda's new bike came with a pair of unbranded plastic mudguards. Ritabrata had installed the rear one but found the front one fouled against the tyre. I had a feeling I should be able to fix it. So I brought it home and to cut a very long story short - I fitted it successfully today.
Mezda came to my house with the bike and together we did the job over about an hour and a half. The stays were a little too long. And these are not adjustable stays like my SKS had. This is just one piece of a stay that runs from this side to that around the mudguard. It was longer than it should be by about 3 inches on either side.
So what I did was to bend it like a bow and then fitted it. The precise amount of bend was calculated through eye estimation and a bit of trial and error after that. I did the basic bending by holding and pressing the stay over the wooden railing of our stair case. After that I had to do some fine tuning by hand. After a lot of trial and error it finally allowed the wheel to move freely. Oh what a relief when that finally happened.
Mezda went for a short spin near our house. Found it wasn't fouling. And then he rode home without a problem. It's a distance of 5 kms (or perhaps 3.5 if you take the short cut through Mahavirtala). Hopefully the issue is solved once and for all.
The tools needed for the job were these - Allen keys of 4 and 5 mm size, wrenches in size 9 and 10. The fender and the carrier (I do not call them racks) are perhaps the only two items in a cycle that require nuts.
Incidentally I also had to adjust the pad fitment of the front brake. It was sitting on the tyre itself. This happened possibly because we had to turn the bike over a few times and also take the front wheel off and the manipulation one has to do with the brake - it's a linear pull rim brake. I once again noted the pathetic quality of the materials vis--a-vis my bike. I know this is an unfair comparison but I cannot help it. These cheap things work but working on them is very frustrating and difficult.
Such small jobs done successfully give me a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
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