Forward facing dropouts and mudguards. Always a pain?

[Ugo51]

Hello everyone,

let's see if my English allows me to express my question.
In a bike with forward facing dropouts, is it always a problem taking the rear wheel on and off because it would interfere with the mudguards?
On a modern bike, the wheel comes off with a downward motion.
In a vintage bike, one has to push the wheel forward to clear the dropouts, and unless the mudguard is fitted in a way to leave a lot of room from the tire...the only solution is to deflate the tire every time.
Am I making sense?
Maybe I could alleviate the problem by using spacers in the dropouts? I used to have them in the old Peugeot. I always wondered what they were for...

All this because I am considering buying a new frame to make a commuter, but the thought of having to deflate the tire in order to take the wheel off irks me (I'm lazy, I know)

 

[non-fixie]

Yes, you are making sense. I very much recognize the problem..

If you have enough room, i.e. long enough chain stays, there's this solution from Velo Orange, called the "thingy", I believe. It allows the front part of the mudguard to move forward by compressing the spring, which will allow the wheel to move further forward.



EDIT: it is called the Spring Thing.

Another solution is to leave enough room between tyre and mudguard. This wheel will pop out without a problem:

 

[Jonny69]

As I understand it, in the olden days almost all bikes had rearward-facing dropouts. The forward-facing ones came about so that you could get the wheel in and out with mudguards on! If it's tight or too tight, it's more down to the fact that you have well-fitting or close-fitting mudguards.

 

[non-fixie]

(...) If it's tight or too tight, it's more down to the fact that you have well-fitting or close-fitting mudguards.

... and - like me - you're vain and feel that on some bikes a nice tight 'fender line' is important.

On a more serious note: if you want to fit mudguards on a racing machine you'll have to be prepared to have to let some air out of the tyre before you can remove the rear wheel. Not a biggie, IME, as in most cases the tyre is already flat.

However, you do need to remember to not pump up the tyre before refitting the wheel. Tried that, didn't work.

I bought this Van Tuyl frame partly because it has mudguard eyelets, thinking it would make a nice winter bike. As it turned out the frame is too short for any normal mudguards to fit. I had to resort to these fag paper thin aluminium strips. The forward end of the rear 'guard is actually taped to the seat tube, as I couldn't get it to work otherwise.

And the tyres are 25mm Vittorias, which in real life measure not much wider than 23mm: