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Tip your hat to Lady Gwendolyn

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Much better than the shorty fenders IMO.
No question Eric - recovering my fenders was a project on its own. I had all the good hardware, including a ramped fork crown daruma wedge from Boulder cycles. The front fender took a pretty bad hit when my GP frame and fork closed on each other.
When I started on the International, I was thinking I would have to buy new fender blanks and start over - the front fender was S-shaped. I gradually worked it out, and was happy to be able to use these again.

What shorties actually do is keep road dirt out of brake crannies in dry conditions. They work really well for that.
They don't do a thing in the wet.

The wide stainless shorties actually weigh about the same as the full Honjos - and they're back on a high pegboard hook again.
Stashed on a high shelf in my closet, though, are these gorgeous Bluemels alloy shorties. They have a striking blue foil Bluemels logo on each, and are only good for max 28mm tires.
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a last update on the International.
After a bit of straightening (front) from the wreck, and a lot of cleaning, installed my old Honjo fenders and got them in final adjustment. Was surprised to find the wheelbase and fork offset was slightly longer on this bike than on the old GP. Had to buy new U-stays to cut them a bit longer. Because the brake bridge is lower on the International, had to replace my rear bridge mount with the actual Honjo rear part - before, I had used the Honjo front L-bracket on the GP rear because of its tall brake bridge.
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Ben's cycle is the source for all things Honjo...
his prices are pretty high, especially on complete pre-drilled fender sets, but having all the small hardware available in one place, you don't mind being nickel-and-dimed.
Jitensha is still the place for undrilled fender blanks, and their prices are better, but it's a little tougher getting their attention.

Was out on the bike on New Year's Day with the Sunday-morning group. Only 3 of us showed up, but we had a great ride. Howard was snowed-in somewhere in CO.
Last week, with good weather, managed to break 100 mi for the week.
Yesterday morning again managed to join the crack-of-dawn downtown ride. Twenty of us this time, and it was my first time to see Howard since the wreck. Saw Tad there for the first time since our messy Christmas-break ride.
Yesterday was a great fender ride - we were socked in with low ceiling and riding through a fine mist.
Managed to get home before the real rain started.
I tried to edit this morning's post, but looks like the option has evaporated. Wanted to show some of the nice details about the Honjo mounting hardware, and some tricks that help solve problems.

This is the front stay mount to the fork dropout bosses using R-clips. With the front rack stays also mounted there, had to use long M5s, but the point to show is mounting the R-clip up instead of down. This allows you to be generous on trim on your fender stays without interfering with your wheel axle nuts or quick release skewers
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The second thing, without having a rear rack cluttering up the rear dropout fender bosses, I can use the nifty Honjo daruma fender stay mounts.
These hold the aluminum stays really solid with a 2.5 mm set screw. (Couldn't use these up front because of the long M5s needed for fender plus rack stays - the threaded stud on these is only 8 mm). They have a rubber washer, which compresses as you tighten the daruma into the dropout boss, but they don't have to be very tight because the fender stay prevents the daruma from rotating (I still put star washers and half nuts on the inside).
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And if you want to mount full fenders on a bike with no dropout bosses, Honjo makes a fender stay daruma mount just for that.

Vibration damping - use leather or rubber washers anywhere you can to keep your fenders from rattling (here on fender stay darumas)
Here's the source for the best leather washers - Ron at Acorn bags
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Quick view of the rear brake bridge L-bracket. The nice thing about buying fender blanks instead of a pre-drilled kit is that you get to put all the holes exactly where you need them.
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One last tip. With these long full coverage fenders, a fork crown mount and fender stays alone just isn't enough. The long cantilevered flap over the front wheel can buffet at speed, and if you're going fast and it hits its natural frequency, the fender could strike your tire and flip you.
This is replacing one of the front rack diving board bolts with a precisely measured long M5 (this one is 30 mm). Inside the fender is a star washer and half nut. Above the fender is a leather washer, flat washer, nut and half nut, and below the rack diving board is a lock washer and nut.
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ps - a great source for piecemeal metric fasteners is Mr. Metric. I've even found French M7 nylok nuts there.

One more detail on these - tire wipers mounted on the wrong end. Jan Heine flipped when he saw this, but they're perfectly safe. They're thin brass wire with thin tygon tubing joints. If they do get flipped inside your fender, they'll conform to whatever shape they need, and your wheels will keep rolling. Simply reshape them.
A lot of people like mud flaps, but these long fenders don't really need them. The tire wipers in this position keep sticks, rocks and chert from entering your fenders. They also scrape mud and keep your fenders from plugging with it. Not for mud riding, but to keep riding in intermittent mud. Ask Tad, they work great.

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My buddy is running my old 36mm Honjo set on his Schwinn with 28mm tires, and without these tire wipers. On a gravel road, his sounds like a popcorn machine, while mine are completely silent because all the pebbles are rejected before they can get inside the fender.
 
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saladshooter on another forum page asked how to properly center fenders.
Since I've had a lot of luck with the French style, decided to expound for him.
The front half of each fender should have two hard points - centering is just how well you drill those holes.
The front fender should be attached at the fork (daruma or L-bracket, but either is hung by front brake bolt), and preferably somewhere forward such as a front rack (another way to do this is an L-bracket on each side front/back of the fork).
Front end of the rear fender attaches to the chainstay bridge (fender boss or P-clamp), and to the rear brake bridge with an L-bracket.

All that's left are the fender stays, attached to the fenders with darumas, and with some kind of clip at the dropout bosses. Each one has adjustments that are really critical, and tend to fight each other.

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First steps all done with the wheel removed.
The one that most people get wrong is the position of the fender stay in the fender darumas. You initially slide the darumas up the stay and then attach darumas thorugh the symmetric holes you drilled in the fender. The stay should pivot mostly freely, with the forward ends of the stays wider than the dropout bosses.
The starting point should give you about equal space on each side between the dropout bosses and fender stays. If you don't have that, your fender won't be even close to centered in the rear. When you have it in the ballpark, hand-tight the darumas and install the fender stays in the dropout bosses with their clips.
Now it's time for the tuning.

Wheel goes back on, and it's going to look funky and not centered. Start by adjusting the length of the stays by sliding them in the clips at the dropout bosses.
Remember when you tighten your dropout clip bolts, one stay will torsion up, and the other torsion down. Counter this manually, or otherwise when you go for a ride, it will happen by itself and the fenders will relax off center. To counter the tightening torsion, push the right-side stay down and pull the left side stay up.

More importantly, now is time to center the stay in the fender darumas. (Check the photo above) E.g., if you fender is too close to the tire on the left at the daruma height and above, you need to drive the fender darumas to the left along the stay. I use a sharp felt tip pen and mark the stays right at the daruma. Then I take a spanish cedar block and jeweler's hammer, and drive each daruma until those marks disappear under the darumas. Now readjust centering at the bottom of the fenders by adjusting the stay length at the dropout bosses (and remember to counter the torsion.
After you like it, remove the wheel and tighten everything.

After all this, it will probably relax off-center anyway on your first ride. It's ok, remove the wheel and do the fender daruma centering and stay-length centering again (you may find yourself doing this a few times over the life of the fenders).


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District champ today
1st Place Match - Erin McAlpin (San Antonio Johnson) 34-3 won by fall over Reagan Aldersea (Schertz Clemens) 19-5 (Fall 3:21)
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Region next week and State the following
 
"How's she doing today?"
"Hungry"
"Did you feed her?"
"She's eating wrestlers."


I've never seen a girls wrestling match before of this nature except as a kid on
tv.
She's fast and strong. I saw the video several
times. To the untrained eye like myself, it looks
like from the start your champ got on top fast.
Did you play this sport? Thanks for sharing.
Hope you can sleep better with your rib condition.
 
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I've never seen a girls wrestling match before of this nature except as a kid on
tv.
She's fast and strong. I saw the video several
times. To the untrained eye like myself, it looks
like from the start your champ got on top fast.
Did you play this sport? Thanks for sharing.
Hope you can sleep better with your rib condition.
I'm doing great, bro.
I never wrestled - it's all my daughter. Her edge is she likes the training like some people like fishing or cycling etc.
I'm a big fan of the team, though, and all the parents are fans of each other's kids - we have a lot of fun.
My daughter took region champ today - Two other region champs from her school, and 2 more state qualifiers - on to State next weekend.

And yes, my daughter has an explosion that most wrestlers want but rarely achieve. The combination of speed and strength at the same time didn't just happen, it was years of condition training followed by several years of skills training - as I said, she loves the training.
For the whole year, my daughter has only lost 3 matches, for 2 tournaments that were not 1st place (including 30-60 schools at once).
Condition, drive, focus, skills all coming together at the same time for two days every week - I remain amazed and really enjoy it.

6A 128 - Erin McAlpin (38-3) placed 1st and scored 28.00 team points.
Champ. Round 1 - Erin McAlpin (San Antonio Johnson) 38-3 won by fall over Alicia Winters (Killeen Ellison) 4-11 (Fall 0:44)
Quarterfinal - Erin McAlpin (San Antonio Johnson) 38-3 won by fall over Elizabeth Ochoa (La Joya) 29-12 (Fall 2:00)
Semifinal - Erin McAlpin (San Antonio Johnson) 38-3 won in the ultimate tie breaker over Serena Cervantes (McAllen) 30-4 (UTB 4-3)
1st Place Match - Erin McAlpin (San Antonio Johnson) 38-3 won by injury default over Nancy Becerra (Juarez Lincoln) 29-2 (Inj. 3:34)


The semi-final tie-breaker this morning went 7 rounds. Even the "pro" parents who raised their kids from little wrestlers didn't know the rule, but by the 7th round, simply holding the other wrestler for 30 seconds was 2 points. (Not easy to do, and a lot more dynamic than it sounds, but a pretty good test of who's dominating the match.)
I don't think the last girl was really injured, but was waving her hand to cry uncle to the refs every time she was about to get pinned. I think she just quit under the onslaught...I think it was mostly hurt feelings.

Something about wrestling kids and parents. For the most part, they're the best people you would ever want to be associated with. The training time the kids put in is mind-boggling. My daughter is National Honor Society (as most of these kids), her top district competitor is going to West Point this fall, and we all tend to be very good friends and good sports on and off the mat.
They don't have time to be bad kids.

Here are the girls we're sending to State, two region champs and a runner up, and their 3rd season as team-mates.
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