If I Had Done It, Here's How

Remember when I promised this write-up during the account of my first RAGBRAI experience?

Probably not, so go back and refresh your memory (see part I and part II)

In any event, I wanted to figure out how successful I would have been had I needed to slap together some make-shift fenders to keep myself free of road grease and debris.

I grabbed the supplies I had accumulated and set to work.

I found it quite easy to cut-out fender patterns from the empty 24 pack, and using the scissors I had snatched from my friend's place, I was able to trim them to size. In no time at all, I had both the front and rear fenders in place:

Front Fender

Rear Fender

While the rear fender easily held itself connected to the rack via zip ties, I found the real challenge was fashioning front stays to give the fender some support. I found some small twigs and snapped them to size to gain some clearance between the tire and front fender, and the bread ties connected the sticks to the front eyelet. I punched the other end of the twig through the cardboard fender, and voila:

I tweaked the fit after a quick spin around the block, and once I was confident everything was secure, I really put the fenders to the test. It rained the day before so puddles abounded. I spent 10 minutes sloshing through every body of water I could find in south Minneapolis to see how well they would hold up. The gleaming white t-shirt I wore remained completely unspoiled, and the fenders were a little damp, but still held their form.

Altogether, it took me right at one hour from start to finish. Although it was a fun project, I hope I don't have to do this for RAGBRAI 2011. Speaking of which, the route gets announced this month, who's riding with me this year?