Home > Bike Types > Commuter

First Look: Ride Classy With Handsome Cycles’ Mud Butler Fenders

8 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

Handsome-Fenders-Mounted Handsome Cycles is a Minneapolis, MN based bicycle company, born out of the Alt, a landmark bicycle shop for the local cycling culture. In business for over 5 years now, they are starting to venture out into their own components, starting with the Mud Butler fenders. Matte black was introduced about a year ago, and they are adding in polished silver now.

The fenders have already been picked up by BTI, as well as sold by Handsome direct and through their nationwide network of dealers. Through one of these channels, you should be able to find them in your local bike shop, or get them right from the company.

We paid a visit to Handsome Cycles to see the new fenders, and pick up a set for long-term testing. Take a look inside for our first impressions…

Handsome-Mud-Butler-4

It is quite easy for a set of fenders to look unruly. Keeping the attachment methods and struts in check is a challenge, but pays off by easing installation and improving appearance. At first impression, the Handsome Mud Butlers vastly improve on the majority of fenders out there simply by looking classy and clean. The pressed-in faux hammered look helps add a nice touch, but the simplicity of the hardware and struts is where the Mud Butlers shine above the competition. At 45mm wide, the fenders are intended for a tire around 35mm in width, although I set up the test bike with studded 38c tires, and there were no clearance problems.

Handsome-Fork-Crown-Mount  Handsome-Mud-Butler-2

Mounting is super easy. Each fender has one strut set, and those struts are one-piece, really simplifying the amount of parts. The front fender has the crown mounting tab pre-installed, and the rear has the chainstay bridge mounting hole pre-drilled. The bracket to attach the strut assembly to the fenders has cork washers, to allow the washer to compress, and prevent future rattles. The only cutting required was to the length of the struts once they were sized up, and that was easily accomplished with a large side-cutters and a few quick hits of a file.

Handsome-Mud-Butler-Fender

One of the most unique features of the Mud Butlers is the rubber coated frame attachment. On a metal fender, this can be one of the main sources of rattling, so they took a common approach for tools and rack hardware, and dipped it in a PVC flexible plastic coating. It also made this piece nice and easy to work with during installation, making no worries of slicing hands open when bending it into place.

Handsome-Mud-Butler-Complete-Weight  Mud-Butler-Weight-1

The fenders are pretty light overall, at just 577 grams for the full kit, including a few grams of packaging. Not bad for a set of metal fenders, where a typical plastic set of 45mm fenders would weigh around 500 grams, and other metal fenders might be 700 grams plus.  That is no doubt helped by the primary fender part being made of aluminum instead of stainless, although aluminum is becoming more common for fenders.

Mud-Butler-1

Overall, the fenders installed simply, required almost no “adjustment by hammer”, and look sleek and clean. The most important aspect of a fender is they keep you clean, and on our first few test rides, they performed flawlessly, keeping the Minnesota slush snow at bay. For $65, they feel like a solid buy, especially considering a competing brand is selling an almost identical product for $67, although without Handsome’s unique features such as the rubber-coated bracket.

beautyshot_4454.154559

The Mud Butlers are currently available for sale in polished silver or matte black. Handsome is working on their e-commerce site right now, so they say the best way to get a set is to just pick up the phone and give them a call. We will be putting these fenders through the hard testing of a Minnesota winter, and will report back with a long term test.

Handsome

Handsome has said their business is gaining traction with local bike shops around the country, with 90% of their sales going through that channel. They have recently closed their own retail space in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis (now the Chrome Hub), and have gone to a warehouse that better suits what they have become. If you want to see the product, they have been running pop-up stores with other similar brands, last month in San Francisco, and on Black Friday at MartinPatrick3 in Minneapolis.

www.handsomecycles.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Brian
Brian
9 years ago

These look like the Velo Orange new Noir fenders. Some of the details don’t look quite as nice but hard to tell in these photos.

Velo
Velo
9 years ago

> 577 grams for the full kit, including a few grams of packaging

Can you weigh it without the packaging, please?

jason
jason
9 years ago

Watch out for curbs with that front fender! I prefer fenders that include flexible mud flaps.

Chris L
Chris L
9 years ago

@Jason:

I’ve hopped plenty of fenders with my Honjo fenders which are just as long. Never been a problem.

Dolan Halbrook
9 years ago

If anything, that rear fender looks a tiny bit short, but at least it’s long enough to attach a mud flap without rubbing.

GoldenGopher
GoldenGopher
9 years ago

That’s a nice Rawland you have there.

Rider X
9 years ago

@Jason – Long fenders rule in bad weather, especially with extra long mudflaps. Have some long stainless fenders with long leather mudflaps. The bottom of the mud flap is about an inch or two off the ground, keeps the bike very clean even along long muddy dirt roads.

I hope curbs, ride rough roads. Never had problems, the fenders are tucked reasonably close to the tire. You would have to roll off the curb exceedingly slow to ever catch them.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.