Bike fenders from water bottles and clothes hangers

This instructable will show you how to make fenders for your bike using plastic water bottles, clothes hangers (for structure), and twist ties.

I've seen stores sell mud shields for mountain bikes, but I've never seen any full fenders for sale, so I decided to make my own. Since I live near Portland, Oregon (which has a large and thriving bike community, but also lots of rainy weather) i hope that my new fenders will encourage me to ride more in the rain.

Step 1 Materials and tools needed

This project took me 4-5 hours. The materials and tools I used are:

Materials:
- 6 water bottles. I used 500ml. (2 to make the front fender, 4 to make the rear fender)
- 4 wire clothes hangers
- Several wire twist ties or zip ties.  (I used 6 paper-coated wire twist ties and 7 longer plastic-coated twist ties.

Tools:
- scissors
- needlenose pliers
- wire cutters
- one-hole punch
- ruler (optional)

Comments

[rowerwet]

I did something like this once for a bike only I used 2" wide strips of vinyl siding from scrap left over, this worked well as the vinyl tends to want to stay flat and not rub.

[laughingcoyote]

Seems you could glue or cement the pieces together with some fancy glue available nowadays once it is put together. It should make it more rigid as well as waterproof. Might even be able to then remove the hangers.

[IW5 Industries]

i would spraypaint it the color of the bike, and great idea btw!

[rimar2000]

Very good idea. I think you can dispense the last tho bottle halves of the rear fender, without losing efficiency

[namatuzzi]

I originally thought about leaving a few segments off the front and rear fenders, but I had already cut the bottles and I had extra room on the clother-hanger frames, so I decided to opt for more coverage rather than less.

[rimar2000]

HAHAHAHA!!! That isn't a good reason for do it. It is not even a reason. But (and you do not tell anyone, it's a secret) I very often fall into the same trap.

[vegatek]

Good Instructable, easy to follow and full of details.. Recycled bottles look good. My only concern are the coat hangers. If they do not provide enough rigidity, the bottom end of the fender might catch onto the tire and as a result might be pulled all the way into the tight spot between the tire and frame/front fork. Please let us know how the testing goes - I hope everything will be OK

[namatuzzi]

For a few test rides, different parts of the fenders were rubbing on the tires, but nothing ever got sucked into the wheels. The worst that I've seen is that the 2 arms of the front fender sort of bounce back and forth off the sidewalls of the front tire. I guess if you have very knobby tires, then there's a greater chance something could get sucked in, but I still think that's unlikely.

[xenobiologista]

Very economical idea, fenders are SO expensive. Re PKM's suggestion for a less angled look - maybe use 2 liter soda bottles instead of the ribbed 500mL mineral water ones? Since they're bigger, they could probably be cut into thirds instead of halves lengthwise.

[PKM]

For a slightly less "industrial" angly look and a more uniform curve, could you soften the bottle halves with a hairdryer and slightly bend them for one smooth arc? I rody my GT to work in the snow today, bike and self were covered in horrible brown road slush after ten minutes. If this weather continues I think I will make a set. Anything that makes the bike look less attractive for stealing will also be a plus :)