Many bike accessories and examples of safety gear are absolute necessities. Think of helmets, which every rider should wear (all the time) or bike headlights or tail lights, which are necessities for commuters who sometimes get stuck on the road after dark (or who leave before sunrise).

After a few iterations, we can come to accessories (or add-ons, as it were) such as bike fenders. You might reasonably wonder what these accessories really offer and if they’re completely necessary.