Planet Bike Freddy Fenders Cascadia for 29″ers
February 13th, 2007 by Guitar TedIf you like using your 29″er for more than just off roading, like I do, then you’ve probably wished for something to help keep the rain, spooge, and muck at bay. I tried using some standard Freddy Fender Hardcore fenders once on my Karate Monkey and found that I had to summon all my powers of cobble to accomplish the installation around the disc brake calipers. Even then I could only run about a 40mm tire before I exceeded the coverage limits of that model. Now all of those issues and more have been addressed by the new top of the line Cascadia model from Planet Bike
The Cascadia model comes in all the previous variations: Road, hybrid, and mountain bike, but now is offered in a special 29″er version that is wider and arced to fit the big wheels. Not only that, but a trick bolt and spacer arrangement help to clear the disc brake caliper so you can mount the fender stays in a “normal” posistion.
Other improvements across the Cascadia line up include new 130mm mud flaps which are double riveted to prevent them from pivoting out of posistion. The hardware is all stainless steel and pre-installed. This speeds up installation. It took me about 15 minutes to mount my set, as an example.
On my maiden voyage with the newly mounted fenders, I was finding lots of semi-slushy snow, which was packing up on the tires and would have easily been sticking to every part of my bike. The full coverage fenders were really appreciated, as they kept the snow build up to a minimum. On another ride, the temps had come up enough that the snow was really slushy and puddles were forming. The fenders really kept me clean and the mess on the bike to a minimum. The nice mounting hardware kept the fenders rattle free and they easily cleared my Bontrager 2.25 XR’s which was very cool.
I am a past Freddy Fender Hardcore user, so I am impressed with the upgrades to the Cascadia, most notably the mudflap. On my past fenders, these were shorter, but more importantly, only single riveted. It seemed as though I was constantly readjusting the posistion of the rear flap, as it was most vulnerable to getting knocked out of whack. No more worries with the double riveted Cascadia flap. Of course, it goes without saying that clearing the disc calipers in such an easy and clever way was most appreciated of all.
One thing that is going to be a challenge for alot of 29″er owners is the lack of eyelets on their steeds. You can get some rubber coated rack mounts from most local bike shops that might help you, but unfortunately, there isn’t an elegant solution for alot of 29 inch bikes out there. Then again, alot of 29″ers were never envisioned to be commuter bikes either! If you have eyelets, or a slender tubed steel frame, you just might find a way to summon your powers of cobble to get these on your bike. Otherwise, Planet Bike also offers a Flipper model that works with suspension forks and mounts the rear off the seatpost. They also offer a Grunge Board that mounts off the downtube. While these are not full coverage fenders, the offer options to 29″ers that don’t have a good way to mount the Cascadia fenders.
Finally, the only nit I have so far is the front fender upper mount that is a tab running off the top of the front fender and mounts to the hole drilled through the fork crown on my Karate Monkey fork. The Karate Monkey has a suspension corrected fork, and the tab needs to be longer to allow you to get the fender down nearer to the top of the tire. I cobbled a bracket to help me extend the fender down a bit, but having this as a standard option on the ATB model and the 29″er model would be a great idea.
Planet Bike Freddy Fenders Cascadia
are $49.99 MSRP and are available at most local bike shops.
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A set of these will be going on my XXIX for sure. I set it up with a mustache bar for backroad cumuting. Fenders & a big seat bag are the last two pieces of the puzzle. Thanks for the info.
I will totally throw these on my karate monkey for some all weather commuting.
Guitar Ted
What cranks are you running on this bike in the photo. I’m looking to get some cranks for my SS and I like the looks of the cranks in this photo.
Hi Guitar Ted,
Sweet looking setup. I was wondering what bars you have on there. The drops look shallower than a Midge bar, but perfect for what I was looking for. Thanks.
Rocket: They are vintage Cooks Brothers cranks. I dearly wish they were still made as they are the best looking aluminum cranks ever, in my opinion. You could get lucky and score a decent set off e-bay, but they are getting harder to come by in decent shape.
MArk: Ironically they are in fact Midge Bars. Probably the weird angle of the photo graph is throwing you off there. I would throw in with you on a set of these with even shallower drop and more extension on the drop portion. Oh well!
Thanks I thought that is what I was seeing.
Guitar Ted, why didn’t you show us your cobbled bracket? Now everyone will have a nit.
And how can you guys see the crank from that photo as to being sweet or not? Maybe you are looking different photos elsewhere.
I just got another Planet Bike fender and the hardware was more than deeply dissapointing compared to SKS standard stuff. After hearing all the spam about Planet Bike donating 25% of something to somewhere, I was expecting much better.
But I appreciate the article. That’s the fender I should have gotten, but all I see is tiny pictures and don’t know weight, size, bracket construction (which is the best on the Cascadia I found out AFTER I got disillusioned on another much less capable fender), nor hardware included. But I’m afraid to get another Planer Bike fender again. SKS will be the safest route for me even if they don’t have the dual sided stay rivets. Other lack-of-quality features in hardware are indicative of trouble down the line and are more important than a single feature, imo.
Good luck and I hope you have snow spikes in those tires for the black ice patches!
Guitar Ted, Thank you for your post! I have a Karatee Monkey and that “nit” you reference with the front fender has been driving me nuts - but your post validated my frustrations - - as I thought I was “intellectually missing something”. Would love to see (or hear of) what sort of extension you used.
Hey, I saw a picture of the Cascadia fender for the 29er on the Redline website but it doesn’t tell me which tires are compatible with the Cascadia 29er fender. I have Exiwolf 2.3 55/50 on my Monocog 29er, will the Cascadia fender work on my bike? Maybe i should have asked will the Cascadia 29er fender mount to my Monocog 29er? No, it’s not the flight model. Thank you and any suggestions will be much appreciated; I’m only using this bike for commuting to work and back.
thanks,
turtle
Lisa: I used a cut off portion of a rear rack mounting strap. You can usually pick up one of these at your local bike shop since the rear racks sold at most shops come with extra mounting straps and shops usually end up with lots of extras. Good news is that Planet Bike is making a running change to the Cascadia to address this fault.
turtle: I am not sure if your Redline comes with the little eyelets brazed onto the rear drop outs. If it does, then you will be able to mount these fenders. If not, then you will have a tougher go of it. What shops usually do with bikes that don’t have rack/fender mounts is use a rubber coated steel strap that wraps around your chainstay and provides a mounting point for a fender/rack.
Your Exi’s should clear just fine, but only just!
hey thanks, I sorta feel better knowing I’ll be able to fasten the fenders to the Redline. I shouldn’t worry because creative people have fashioned fenders and fittings to all manner of contraptions every since it all started; unfortunately, they forgot to add the creative and mechanical features when they put me together. Now I need to find one of those bike shops that service a lot of commuters. I know Portland would have a bunch, not sure about Seattle; I’ll keep ya posted.
thanks,
turtle
Thank you, Guitar Ted. Excellent, easy idea - and I needed one!
While I have you here…
I have a novice question: The bolts provided do not fit the eyelets on my Monkey. Are they intended/designed to be “forced”? Or should I simply purchase new bolts and locknuts? [I am glad I have read that others need to do so much tweaking, as I would otherwise have given up on this by now!]
Thank you for your help,
Lisa
Lisa: The bolts should work. They are a standard metric thread pitch. What’s probably going on is that you have paint or debris in the threaded holes. Usually a thread chaser tool is necessary to clean up the threads, but you can try one of two things first. One: clean out the dirt/debris/rust with a sharp pointed object like a dental pick. (Something that they use to clean teeth with) or you can try greasing your threads, and turning in the bolt some, back it off a quarter turn, turn it in some more, back it off a quarter turn, and so on until it’s through. If the bolt gets extremely difficult to turn, stop. Have a mechanic look at it, but I doubt it’ll come to that!
I bought a pair but found I didn’t have enough clearance between my IRC Notos rear tire and front derailleur, with Monkey Nuts, for the fender to work. I thought about hacking it off above the derailleur and attaching it to the seat tube, but thought better of it. Also, I’m having issues with v-brake clearance. I haven’t decided if I’ll keep’em and wait to get some disc brakes or just return them which sucks because I’ve gotten rained on 4 times in the past two weeks on my daily commute.