Titilating Tuesdays - SKS Commuter Fenders

Titillating Tuesdays shall be a regular installment of the Velox Cycles blog. To titillate, for those of you still caught up on the first three letters, is to excite or stimulate. What could be more exciting and stimulating than rad bicycle bits? Every Tuesday we'll pull out our soapbox and harp about a cool product, mechanical trick, trail, ride, or just about anything else bike-related that we think you should know about.

This week, we're spotlighting the SKS Commuter Fender set. They're made in Germany, and like most fenders these days are essentially a thin aluminum skeleton covered in plastic (polycarbonate). They claim to be unbreakable, but we're pretty sure a hammer would do the job. Under normal riding circumstances, however, you are not likely to break these suckers. Mounting hardware is sturdy with double stainless steel stays attached to the fender body with big, healthy looking rivets. They come in three different widths - fixie/road bike sized at 35mm wide, commuter/hybrid sized at 45mm, and mountain bike sized at 60mm. The smallest size is perfect for those who never run anything bigger than a 28c tire, medium great for 28c-40c, and large for anything up to a 2.3" mtb tire.

In terms of water-stopping performance, any decent fender set will do the job. The SKS Commuters fall into this rather boring and very wide category. They fall low enough up front to protect your feet, and wrap all the way around out back to prevent that oh-so-attractive ass smudge, as well as keeping the spray headed backwards towards your riding buddy to a minimum. Set them up so they sit close to your tires, without rubbing, and the only water you'll be feeling will be coming from the sky, not the road. That's the point, right?

It's this mounting hardware that set off our love affair with SKS fenders. In the amount of time it takes you to put on your hipster jeans in the morning (5-7 minutes, depending on how stretchy they are) you can mount up these fenders perfectly. They come with an allen key that is used to adjust the height of all stays - just loosen up the bolt and slide the fender wherever you like. Clamp the bolt back down and voila, your fenders are ready to rock and roll. They'll stay that way too - I haven't had to adjust the stays on mine in over a year.

We're of the opinion that any dedicated commuter should have fenders on their bike, even in Colorado. They add so little weight, so little wind resistance, and so much function that riding without them is just silly. Save your pants from the humiliation of the ass smudge - get some fenders.

The Velox Cycles Manifesto

Velox Cycles isn't a corporate bike shop. In fact, we're about as un-corporate as it gets. We don't have rows and rows of thousand dollar bikes, an entire wall dedicated to wheels that cost as much as a used car, flat screen TV's playing gnar-core mountain bike DVD's, or anything resembling a sales person. Our names are Brian and Caley, and we're the two mechanics. We're also the sales people. And the marketing department. Shipping and receiving too. Oh, and the janitorial squad. Multi-talented, you might say. Brian fixes cars and flies planes, and used to work on an ambulance. He has a three-legged dog named Cody. Caley is a pro mountain biker turned roadie, who just turned 21 but has been a mechanic for 8 years. We almost always know what we're talking about, but if we don't, we'll tell you. Or we'll make something up, just to see if you get the joke.

We believe that a bike shop should be a space to sit, drink a beer, and chat about all things pedal powered. Work on your own bike, bring your own music (yeah, we'll play it. Then mock you if it sucks), and learn from us as we learn about you.

We're the kind of shop that knows your bike's name but might forget yours. That's not our fault, really, because people all look pretty much the same but bikes rarely do. That weird eyebrow thing you have going on is a lot less noticeable to us than the '65 Bendix two speed hub you want rebuilt. Those things were cool. Your eyebrow, not so much.

If you want a shop that will carefully explain to you which bike you want based on the first two sentences out of your mouth (its this one, with the $2000 price tag), don't come to us. But if you want to come and talk about the things you look for in a bike, or how to turn your POS into the ride you've always known it could be, we're a good bet.

Bike shop customers are people. We’re people. We, the people, pledge to treat you, the person, like more than just a walking wallet. That is our promise.

The Shop

Photos from the shop: