Why have a winter bike ?

[MickeyBlueEyes]

What will having a winter bike do for you that your summer bike won't ? I keep toying with the idea of getting n+1 for commuting over the darker months but then I think about the supposed benefits and it stops me as I then don't see them as benefits.
I would clean a winter bike every Saturday, same as I do my current ride.
A winter would have guards on, as does my ride now.
I would run Conti GP4000s on a winter, same as now.
Through the last 2 winters no rain, wind, dirt or road salt has turned the current drivetrain or frame into a gloopy pile of gloop.....

What would a 'winter trainer' do for me ?

 

[biggs682]

give you a spare bike

 

[Andrew_P]

The enjoyment of buying a new bike, I would buy a better one and relegate the old one to winter duties

 

[Cuchilo]

I have the feeling its not about buying a winter bike . Its about buying a better bike for the summer and demoting your existing bike to a winter bike . I think its a weird thing that married people have to do to fool the wife .

 

[MontyVeda]

I couldn't do without my winter bike... especially in summer

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Gives you something different from the summer and autumn bikes

 

[vickster]

And don't forget the spring bikes, Christmas bike, Easter bike, summer solstice bike and public holiday bikes, Mr H

Just as well you don't live in France given how many religious holidays they have too

 

[Mattonsea]

MORE BIKES YEAAAH ...BIKES ..BIKES WOOOAH.

 

[MontyVeda]

And don't forget the spring bikes, Christmas bike, Easter bike, summer solstice bike and public holiday bikes, Mr H

Just as well you don't live in France given how many religious holidays they have too

would the Easter bike have a basket full of flowers, eggs and bunnies... or a basket rimmed with prickly thorns and be dragging a huge gt cross behind it?

 

[vickster]

I reckon lots of Simnel cake

 

[Boris Bajic]

None of my bikes has a mudguard or anything so prosaic and vicarly as a mudguard, so I suppose all my bikes are Summer Bikes...

But... If commuting any distance in foul weather, it is worth having a spare machine. There are mechanical issues that arise and may not be fun to sort out on a cold, winter evening when one is tired.

In the days of yore, racers often kept a winter trainer which was either fixed-gear or just an older race bike that would be less affected by grime, grit, salt, mud and crashes.

In the UK we have summer days in the winter and vice versa.

I keep only one bicycle, but I have a spare and a couple of stand-in spares for days when the spare is inappropriate.

 

[Milo]

I can't really afford to have more than one bike so own a tourer as it's the most adaptable I feel. Can still do light off road stuff yet it is nippy enough when on the road. Would love another proper road bike though.

 

[jowwy]

In a round about way its not really a winter or summer bike. Its more a wet/dry bike, when it rains you take the bike that has guards etc, when its dry you take the lightweight strippee down dry bike and if your mates are away you take out the 29er on the tracks and trails

Win win

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Why not? I was given a bike for winter use, might as well use it

 

[cyberknight]

I use my virtuoso for all year commuting as its less desirable than many of the bling in the bike sheds and better locked so i reckon its less likely to be stolen.It also runs 2300 drivetrain which is perfectly serviceable and is cheaper to replace than 10 speed etc and from what i have read tends to last a bit longer which is great as we know how the salt and muck eat drive trains over winter.
This means when i do jump on my nice bike it feels extra special as it is lighter to start with let alone the extra weight i lug about in my panniers all week.