Tequila Joe

This is the best solution for me; the Marathon Winters are on a IGH commuter that I ride +95% of the time through the winter and on the rare occasion when the roads get really ugly, I ride my winter beater with Nokian Extremes. I use to ride the Nokians full time, but I with a 20 mile commute each way, pushing those Nokians were exhausting. The Marathon Winters seem to have only slightly more rolling resistance than my summer commuter tires
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Scheherezade 

I've used Marathon Winter 700X35mm tires successfully for the past two winters in St. Cloud. This will be my first winter commuting in Minneapolis proper. The tires were great for 95% of winter conditions. In the other 5% (heavy snowfall, potato mashed side roads), nobody is terribly successful on the commute. If it slows a bike down, it slows down a car. You can get more aggressive tires for a few days, but it's not really necessary. However, if you live in a rural area, or have a long commute, I could see the benefit.

PaulRivers

Lots of people use a Shimano Alfine hub in the winter and it works great. You hub will *not* "stop functioning" - I've ridden mine in some pretty cold stuff. When it gets real cold, the hub does seem to move a little less freely, and perhaps have some more drag (though it continues to work fine). I've read about people replacing the grease with oil for winter riding, though oil works poorly in the summer (it leaks out). However, that's an efficiency thing, not a "keep it working" thing. And my regular road bike with a derailler gets slower as it gets colder to (I lose about 1 mph between 70 degrees and 40 degrees, I'm not sure the reason but it's consistent and other people have said the same thing).

Arcanum

It's my understanding that the grease lubricating parts stiffens up. It just gets worse as you drop below freezing. Tolerances also start getting smaller as things get colder, which could conceivably result in more friction.

PaulRivers

Sure, just saying it's not unique to an IGH.

And that there's nothing to worry about with an IGH not working or freezing up in the winter, the concern is more on the level of it just being less efficient.

irclean

Thanks for that info about the Alfine, PaulRivers, it's nice to hear from someone who has some first-hand experience. Since you're in Minneapolis I'd imagine that our winters are quite similar... even though I live further South than you do (London, Ontario, Canada). Isn't geography wonderful?

Tequila Joe

I've commuted with my Afine IGH in temps as low as -20C (~-10F) and havn't noticed any increased resistance or experienced any "freezing up" and I'm running the original lubricant that came with the hub.

PaulRivers

lol, that's interesting - did your city also do an absolutely terrible job plowing the streets this winter? Ours did...I did a lot more recreational winter biking than commuting because of it. :-( Wasn't as much a matter of "could I get my bike to handle it" as it was "did I want to handle it"...

BA Commuter

I'm a satisfied Nokian Hakka-chalupa W106 (26 x 1.75 on my MB) customer. Most of the time I'm concerned with black ice and a light dusting. If it's super deep, I'm working from home and singing that classic tune - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

ItsJustMe

You certainly don't ride my route. I have 4 miles of gravel road, and a lot of the winter the top quarter inch or so is muck in the places where the sun hits, and frozen solid where it's in the shade. So you go from feeling like you're riding through molasses to glare ice every 30 feet or so, and the bike gets incredibly filthy in the first 200 feet. I've put a brand new chain on my bike and at the end of one ride, if I don't clean the chain and relube, the next morning the chain doesn't even bend anymore.

irclean

LOL @ Hakka-chalupa!

My city does an admirable job, but if we get tons of snow day after day they stick to the main arteries, and side streets suffer.

It's no wonder you don't find the Marathon Winters adequate! I applaud your tenacity. I'm hopeful that my new belt-drive bike will make my chain woes a thing of the past.

ItsJustMe

I've thought about belt drive in the past, but given the amount of crap that I wallow through some days, and the amount of ice that I've had frozen all over my drivetrain sometimes, I'm afraid that the water will get picked up by the belt, then when it hits the cold metal of the sprocket (or are those called cogs in belt drive systems?) that it would instantly freeze, and within a mile or so I'd have so much ice built up on the cog that it would either stop engaging the belt, or get so expanded that it broke the belt.

tjspiel

I haven't seen a consistent answer on whether the Gates belt drive systems used on bikes have the "mud ports" or not. They're supposed to deal with the situation you're describing. Belt drives are used for snowmobiles and ATVs too so a good design should be fine.

ItsJustMe

'course the other problem with belt drive is that you're never going to find an inexpensive bike with one, because they require a custom frame to get the belt on, and that immediately makes it a niche market. You're not gonna find even a $600 bike with belt drive. My current bike was only $300 new, though admittedly it's about $500 worth as it currently stands; the original wheels were crap and it has two cross wheels on it now worth about $100 each. I'm interested in belt drives but it's not worth going from a $500 bike to a $1300 bike to me.

tjspiel

Yeah, that's very true. But there's over a half dozen models with belt drive available now and hopefully more in the future. I'm guessing you'll see them for well under $1000 within 3 years.

irclean

Actually it's now 90 different models built by 24 different manufacturers (many of the overseas). It hardly seems a niche market anymore but rather a coming trend.

Don't worry, ItsJustMe, I will report back here with my experience regarding the belt drive and winter cycling. BTW I think the belt would be forced off of the cog long before it broke; after all I managed to shear off the 3 tangs on my aluminum cog while hammering the pedals, and all of the torque that I created was transferred through the belt. BTW my replacement part is covered under warranty and the new cogs are made from steel.

It's true that belt drive doesn't come cheaply; my bike was $1299 before tax, and that was almost $150 less than retail. Of course my bike also has an Alfine hub which retails for more than $200 plus many other quality components. GT makes a 3-speed belt-driven bike called the Aerostream, and a SS called the Windstream; either can be had for around $500. Like most new technology, I expect the prices will come down as the market becomes inundated with belt-driven bicycles.