Expresso Rear Fender

It seems that pointed rear fenders became my trademark. Not that I don’t like round fenders, short or long. We fabricate a lot of them, too. But my most recent bikes “Dreamliner” & “High Octane” had pointed fenders that were “imposed” by their themes. Since these 2 bikes are well known, everybody’s thinking: pointed fender = Cyril Huze.

     

When I think of “Expresso” it’s difficult for me to imagine something else than a sharp fender matching our already fabricated pointed swingarm. So, I guess that when the bike will be finished, I am going to reinforce my stereotype. It’s Ok with me because my next project is going to be very, very different. I like change. The boys too.

Anyone showing a bike with a pointed fender will tell you the same thing. Everybody, and I repeat everybody, is going to check: 1- if the pointe is centered on the tire 2- Move the fender right and left to see if the fender is strong enough to not vibrate. No way you can cheat with this kind of fender: 1- symmetry must be perfect 2- fender need to be “boxed” not to vibrate and crack the paint.

Before starting fabricating any fender, the most important step, the one conditioning success or failure, is to mock up the bike the way it’s going to ride: with 2 wheels aligned and perfectly centered in the frame. For the rear fender, we must mock up the bike with an engine (fake or not), a primary, a transmission, a rear wheel perfectly centered in the frame, and a belt adjusted at the right tension. Usually it’s the step of bike building when things begin to get scratched. Tape being less expensive than chrome, we tape, tape, and tape again all what is called chrome & polished aluminum. I recommend you do the same. You can trust us about this one.

     

First, we estimate what is the position of the wheel to be centered in the frame. For this, we mark the center of the 250 mm tire. Then, we run a thin blue (for visibility) painter masking tape along the frame backbone to the center of the tire. Any slight bend, and you know that the wheel is off center, and or turning right or left. When our eyes tell us we are close to the truth (for now it’s only an estimation), we lock the wheel in place and cut a right spacer.

Because we are going to use a drive side pulley rotor by RC Components (where pulley is also the rotor), we bolt it on the wheel, wrap the belt around the pulley, find the right tension of the belt, and lock the wheel in place. We measure the distance from the swingarm pivot to the center of the rear axle. Of course, distance must be the same for both sides (don’t rely on the position of the axle in right and left slot of the swingarm, because some frames can have these slots incorrectly machined and not the same size on both sides). On the left side, we measure the spacing to the pulley/rotor and from the pulley rotor to the wheel. We cut 2 spacers and install again the wheel with its brake drive system. (Later a custom pulley spacer will replace the spacer from pulley to wheel). We reinstall the wheel and pulley brake system, adjust again the belt tension, and measure again the distance from swingarm pivot to rear axle center, on right & left side. Our wheel seems centered. We check again running 2 steel plates on each side on the tire going forward. After being sure that these 2 plates run parallel, using vertical plates against the frame, we measure the distance to the frame, right and left side.

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