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Comment by giardini

1 day ago

And WTF is it about mud guards now?

When i was young all bicycles came with mud guard (then called "fenders") front and rear. Now they seem to be anathema.

Every bike I rode w/o fenders put a stripe of mud up my back!

I just got a new bike for my son (he's going to secondary school and needs a better bike), and was surprised to see how many kids' bikes came without fenders. What's up with that? Who wants a serious bike without fenders?

Of course most bikes still come with fenders, but that's also a major limitation for this device: you've got to remove your rear fender. Maybe this device acts somewhat as a fender, but the site says you can't use it in heavy rain, exactly when you need that fender the most.

Being cynical I would say it is yet another way to upsell.

Here in Germany if you want to get a cheaper bicycle, other than flea markets, usually they make you mount the pedals yourself, doesn't have fenders, lights might also be missing, depending on the offer.

  • Oddly in the UK pedals are a legally required to be included with any new bike sold. Well, technically it's pedal reflectors that are required, but they obviously need pedals to mount to.

  • Are you looking at performance road bikes? Fenders and lights are removed for weight savings, and for pedals there are multiple clip-in systems, you are supposed to install the pedals that match your chosen system.

    If, however, they are doing that for commuter bikes...

    • Regular city bikes.

      This is the approach if you go offers on regular supermarkets that also sell bicycles.

      Personally I am never going to give more than 400 euros tops, for a new bicycle, it is either that or not much beyond 100 euros at a flea market.

      Getting the bicycle stolen or worse, revenge damage when they fail to steal it, is not worth more than that.

      9 replies →