...look forward to seening all the changes to the nomad loads of pic's please...
You have only to ask, jags!
This post is bound to raise a bit of controversy on aesthetic grounds, if nothing else.
In anticipation of rain and winter use, I have modified and repurposed an SKS P55 rear mudguard for use on the front of my Nomad. I still have the "shorty" for summertime use in good weather, but if past experience holds true here, I may well be keeping the "long-board" design as my default.
Over years of careful observation, I have found the common front mudguard really doesn't do a very good job keeping me dry when riding in the wet. They commonly end at about 90°/12 o'clock, and this is not the best design for use in foul weather. Especially when a treaded tire is used, the water clinging to it is still moving forward and out of these short mudguards at pretty high velocity and gets flung forward...just in time for me to run into it. As a result, my headlight gets splashed with mud and dirt, and a lot of the wet stuff catches me between my knees and thighs and the bike gets filthy with dirty water, most of which is blown back from the top of the short front mudguard.
I looked at photos and illustrations of French constructeurs' bikes from the Grand Era of touring in the years before and after World War II and again in the 1950s and 1960s; Herse and Singer are the most prominent examples. Nearly every constructeur's bike was fitted with generous front mudguards that curved well forward, over the crown of the tire. When viewed from the right side, they terminated about 1 o'clock to 2 o'clock, depending on the type of brakes used -- brazed-on centerpulls or cantilevers. It was common for the front of the mudguard to terminate at the same height as the brakes. In no case did the mudguard extend as far as the front of the tire; this to prevent damage if the tire contacted a wall. For some examples, see:
http://janheine.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/which-bike-to-ride/http://janheine.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/windyridgefarewell.jpghttp://janheine.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/gburainier.jpg <-- A more recent recreation by Grand Bois
Andre will quickly recognize this as something Utopia Velo do as well, but with less extension:
http://www.utopia-velo.de/relaunch/index.a4dHaving pondered this for some time, I decided to do the same on one of my older lighter touring/randonneur bikes some years ago (see:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4523.0;attach=11924;image ) -- combined with a generous mud flap -- and the results exceeded all my hopes. I could ride through heavy rain and puddles and stay much drier. The results were even more marked when I rode with a companion who had conventional "shorty" mudguards -- she got soaked, while I ended the ride dry and happy. My panniers stayed much cleaner and drier as well, and so did the bike itself.
The extended mudguard contains the water till it loses volume and velocity, and then directs it downward, where it naturally drains and is further carried in a downward trajectory by the spinning tire. Specialized employed a similar front mudguard on their early Globe city bikes for the same reasons. These things really work well for commuting and touring in the rain, when you just have to keep going regardless of the weather. I can't claim a marked aerodynamic advantage, but the leading edge no longer faces directly into the wind, and the weight penalty is a couple ounces.
I wanted the same ground clearance and stay placement as the original short front mudguard, so I removed 4.24in/10.8cm total from the *rear* of the rear mudguard, using the end of the short front mudguard as a template and rough-cut the new contour with scissors about 1cm longer than I needed. I then sanded it to the final contour using a disc sander and a high-speed die-grinder fitted with a 1.5cm sanding drum. The results turned out well. The upper bridge from the original rear stayed riveted in place, and the lower bridge was reloacted further up to match the shorty. The bridge from another front mudguard was salvaged and riveted in place at the front with alu backing plates to distribute stress, and a fresh set of stays for all bridges were supplied by PlanetBike, who kindly make spare parts available at modest cost and postage-free:
http://ecom1.planetbike.com/smallparts.html I especially like their draw-bolts, which are equipped with 10mm stainless nylock nuts instead of the usual 8mm nuts that can vibrate loose. See:
http://ecom1.planetbike.com/7006_7.htmlI needed to fill a few holes in the mudguard, and did so using some plugs cut from the leftover end. I used a leather punch to regularize the unwanted hole, then filled it with the same-size plug, dropped in from the outside and secured with beta-cyanoacrylate gel. See:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4725.msg23673#msg23673 The hole in the top of the mudguard is temporarily plugged with a rubber socket-head bolt cover, but will soon be filled with a proper plug that will support my Playmobil raven mudguard mascot (see:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4523.msg22087#msg22087 ). The Cyo headlight is test-fitted in the photo below, so the power leads are simply draped over the steerer-mounted bottle cages; all will be installed properly in time.
The front of the extended mudguard is supported with short single stays held by longer 6mm buttonhead stainless socket-head (allen) bolts on the front-outside corners of the Thorn Low-Loader MkV pannier racks. The mudguards are held securely; vibration is what really kills plastic and plastic-alu-laminate mudguards over time.
The sharp-eyed among you will see I also used heat-shink tubing to blackout the mudguard stays. I think this looks is more consistent with the stealthy matte-black paint on the Nomad. Aesthetics count for something, so I matched the angle of the mudguard struts with the Low-Loader braces so they would look like a natural extension. Their lateral bracing angles keep the mudguard end from vibrating, even on rough roads.
So, there you have it -- a Nomad Mk2 with an extended front mudguard. The appearance is an acquired taste but in this case, it works so well that function trumps fashion for me. Now I am used to it, I have come to see beauty in the design and look forward to keeping the bike cleaner and myself drier when the Fall and Winter rains hit. Besides, it reminds me of my father's Indian motorcycle mudguards, back in the day (second photo, 71 years ago). For those who don't like it...I'll bet it takes your mind off the high-mounted brake levers, tipped handlebars, and T-bar mounted Rohloff shifter!
Best,
Dan.
