Fenders that will work for swapping between 650b and 700c wheels

Question

History

I'm a bike commuter that rides 23 miles round trip. I usually quit once the winter weather gets bad, but I'd like to move towards commuting year round. In addition, I've been wanting to give gravel riding a try.

Since I don't want to do either of these things on my "nice" bike. I found a 2014 Diamondback Haanjo Comp that was essentially brand new. My thought was this would be great for both goals - a cheap bike I can get dirty and snowy but still a nice ride.

I want to run studded tires for winter commuting because the ice gets crazy here. My LBS had a cheap set of wheels I picked up so I could easily swap wheels for the right conditions. The kicker is, the new wheels are 650b while the stock wheels are 700c. Not a big deal, I prefer 650b for gravel riding anyway. So the plan is to put studded tires on the 700c and some GravelKing SKs on the 650b. The final piece of the puzzle is fenders.

Question

Assuming I'm swapping back and forth between 700c and 650b wheels...

• Is there a certain brand of fenders that would better accommodate swapping?
• Should I install them differently to help with swapping?
• How big should they be?

I'm planning on putting 38mm studded tires on the 700c wheels and 43mm tires on the 650b wheels, but I haven't bought any tires yet.

Answer 1

Great idea - smaller 650B wheels with winter tyres will be easier to swap than swapping tyres on your only set of wheels.

As long as your fenders / mudguards are wide enough to cover your wider tyre, and large enough to not touch your larger tyre, then they'll work fine for the smaller and narrower tyre.

Note that we consider specific brand recommendations to be off topic. Most Cycling shops have the well-reputed brands who will have suitable models. If your guards are rated for CX tyres with ~43mm tyres in 700c (ie, etrto size 622 wheels) then it will work fine for smaller wheels, but with a little more gap.

Another option is to get two sets of clip-on fenders and change them at the same time you swap wheels. Though this could get tiring quicky.