nbreitholtz

Hello, I ride a cyclocross to work all year except when winter hits. I've been afraid of ruining my components in the salt. Is this true or do some of you ride your good bike year round?

Also, I am thinking of buying a flea market old bianchi folding bike, 20" tires. My reasoning is that its 20 bucks, low so stable, has fenders and a rack already for my stuff.

I commute about 12 miles round trip. Only a few hills, nothing to hard. Advice please?

modernjess

I ride my cross check year round with a set of studded tires and in IGH in the winter. It's my commuter/town bike so I have a set up for both seasons. I also have a Moonlander now so I'll be rocking that in this winter too. All of my bikes are good bikes, and I'm not afraid to take them out. I take care of them and they work great.

I don't know where you live or how severe your winter weather can be, but I would be cautious about running a "cheap" bike in the winter with suspicious parts, only because it's the worst time to deal with mechanical failures out on the road for obvious reasons. IMHO it's preferable in all seasons to have reliable equipment. That doesn't have to mean expensive, but checked, solid, and well cared for to avoid winter breakdowns. YMMV of course.

tsl

Part of it depends on what you call winter. Winter in Houston is different than winter in Minneapolis.

Part of it depends on if you also use a car.

Part of it depends on if you consider your bike art or a tool.

A typical winter here means at least a little snow every day from mid-December to mid-March. I don't own a car and the last time I took the bus to work was one day in July 2006. Although they live in my living room and have to be kept cleaner than most other people's bikes, my bikes are tools.

I ride my primary commuter, a 2006 Trek Portland, in all seasons and all conditions.



It's essentially a CX bike with a little bit of touring bike DNA. For winter I put on the Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 snow tires (in 35mm), wider fenders to cover the wider tires, and swap my cassette from a 12-23 to a 12-27, and ride.

In six winters, the only thing other than typical wear items I've had to deal with was corrosion in the disc brake calipers. After cleaning them up, I reassembled with a lot of anti-sieze, and haven't had to touch them in three winters.

Plan on replacing your chain and recabling in the spring. If you have rim brakes, switch to KoolStop salmons, and keep a couple of extra sets in stock. Keep an eye on the brake track of your rims, and have at it. Before winter, grease (or use anti-seize on) all the screws and fasteners on the bike. Those are things you'll need to do no matter what bike you ride through winter, unless your plan is to have one you simply junk in the spring.

The primary disadvantage I see to the folding bike you're looking at is that there aren't very many studded stow tires made in 20 inch--although that may not be an issue for you.

The primary advantages I see to riding my best bike through the winter is that when the conditions get dicey, I'm already on a bike that I'm intimately familiar with, that I know exactly how it handles and responds, and I don't have to keep a separate stock of spare parts.

Rhodabike

How much snow do you get where you live? Small folding bike wheels could be a pain coming out of ruts and drifts. An old rigid frame mountain bike would probably suit your needs quite adequately. If you don't have any steep hills, consider using a single freewheel or an internally geared hub to avoid a derailleur becoming frozen in one position with ice buildup. I've ridden my Alfine geared bike in temperatures down to -28ºC with no shifting problems, even through drifting snow.
E.T.A.: cleaning your bike regularly should prevent any corrosion problems. Probably best not to do it with a high-pressure spray like these guys, though.

ThermionicScott 

$15 rigid mountain bike from craigslist. Spend the rest of you budget on studded tires and you're done. Boom.

nbreitholtz

THanks guys, Ill stick with my cross check for the winter then and keep it clean. I live northwest of chicago, winters vary. Usually not too bad. Are studded tires necessary? Or will cx suffice?

tsl

Again, it depends.

In my experience living on the shore of a Great Lake, you can probably get by without studs if you also have other means of transport. If you can wait until the salt works and all the ice is melted away, you can even ride with road slicks in the winter. I've done that too--only one of my four bikes will fit studs. I can ride in fresh snow--up to an inch or so of lake-effect--with road slicks.

How are your bike-handling skills? Remember that on a two-wheeled vehicle, studs are not about traction to get going. They're not about keeping you from skidding as you brake. They're all about managing sideslip. When your bike slides sideways out from under you, how do you react? When your bike is stuck in a rut, will you try to ride it out? Bunny-hop it out? Or stop and lift it out? With studs, choices one and two are viable. Without, choice three is your best bet.

How good is your local DPW at salting away all the ice? Around here, four and six-lanes are salted to death. But the neighborhood branch library I work at is on a two-lane residential street. That can go a long time without seeing salt.

But for me, studs are cheap insurance. I don't have health insurance if I fall and break something. I also can't afford to be out of work for weeks while a broken bone heals. My studded tires were $65 each, and I've got seven winters on them, with the eighth coming up soon. I expect to get over a dozen winters out of them. That brings their cost down to $10 per year for the pair. Even if I had to buy new ones every year, it's still cheaper than a hospital stay and recovery.

Closed Office

I've never used studded tires and don't expect to. With practice I got comfortable riding across glare ice, slowly and carefully.

I do thump into the pavement about once a winter when the ice is hidden under snow that hasn't been cleared. This has always been at slow speeds under difficult conditions and has never caused more than minor damage.

I get a bit more wear and tear on the bike in the winter, but not enough to make me switch bikes.

acidfast7

could you tell me about the fenders (mud/snowguards) you're running?

i am looking at some SKS Bluemels (B65/T26) for my MTB (2010 Cube acid).

https://www.sks-germany.com/?l=en&a=p...01430&BLUEMELS (thing the B65/T26)

I have 160mm discs on the front/rear and a Rock Shox Dart 3 on the front. I'm running 26x2.25/57-559 Schwalbe Smart Sams front and back. Also, I seem that I have threaded holes for a rack on the back (on the rear triangle and down by the wheel axle) so I think that I should be able to get the rear fender on easily, but what about around the Dart 3 in the front? I doesn't have any mounting points, not even above the wheel

What would you recommend for the front?

fietsbob

FWIW, I have a Koga Miyata WTR 04 edition. It has a front Suspension fork.
they drilled and tapped part of the lower casting, which is offset ahead of the Stanchion tubes
and the Spring/suspension Mechanism ..

You would likely use a spacer, and a longer bolt on the left side to clear the disc caliper .

top of the mudguard, 'L' bracket a bolt is screwed thru the arch.


In an ices up every once in a while place , I have 26x1.9 Nokian studded tires.
they are a secure road connection when the Iced sidewalks are hard to walk on.

Mount and Ground W Nokian, now in their 20th year , and still have all the studs in them. ..

tsl

Sorry, I've never owned an MTB, so I have no clue as to which fenders are appropriate.

acidfast7

I guess my DART 3 is a POS without any of those attachment points. the nicer touring suspension forks seem to have the threaded holes for racks and fender, but not my low-end junk. i also don't have a hole in the arch

I guess it's time to get creative with attachment to the arch and around the lower casting. any suggestions not requiring drilling?

CharlieFree

You should be fine on the CX. I ride a road bike in the summer so I have an old rigid mountain bike that I single-speeded for winter. Easy to maintain and cheap parts to replace. I use studded tires for insurance too, though a lot of the time it's overkill. Slower than regular tires but I just figure it's good exercise.

Also check out the Winter Forum for lots of good tips; lots of these questions have been addressed in the past.