I'm in Iowa and having a Winter bike is a must especially if riding year round. Having a belt drive bike for Winter would be best to deal with all that salt, sand and crud on the roads but it all depends on your budget. I have a Jamis Commuter I that I bought on Ebay a couple of years ago from an older gentleman that was hardly ridden and made it my Winter bike. I have 700X38 Schwalbe studded tires, fenders and rack on it that gets ridden when the roads get bad. It's slow, bulky and heavy but I don't worry about it in case of crashes.