Winter bike.
- Thread starter gavroche
- Start date
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Punkawallah
Über Member
The ‘fun’ bike is mainly used in summer, the ‘utility’ bike mainly in winter, with cross overs in between. Am I doing this wrong?
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
Only two? You don't own enough bikes!. At the very least you should have a good utility that is treated with care, and a winter beater you just don't worry about.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I keep mine well cleaned and properly maintained and don't suffer these issues.
The bike I commuted on in weathers, 365 days a year for 9 years is still with me and still looks like its just come out of an open packet. While in daily use it didn't require chains, cassettes or brakes in mileage terms any quicker than any of my other bikes.
A bike only suffers accelerated wear and cosmetic issues in winter conditions if the rider lets it be so.
The bike I commuted on in weathers, 365 days a year for 9 years is still with me and still looks like its just come out of an open packet. While in daily use it didn't require chains, cassettes or brakes in mileage terms any quicker than any of my other bikes.
A bike only suffers accelerated wear and cosmetic issues in winter conditions if the rider lets it be so.
Sittingduck
Legendary Member
- Location
- Somewhere flat
Not this year. The ex 'A' bike is demoted to turbo hack and the 'B' bike was upgraded to Di2 and will continue to be the main bike for all seasons. I may invest in a Ti Gravel bike for winter road riding and well, gravel?! I dusted off the MTB last week and took it out for the first time in well over a year. I have now a demoted turbo hack that needs to become a project or skip fodder and an ex 'A' road bike frame that needs carbon frame repair first then may get re build as summer/road race/flash bike 
Complicated this cycling lark...
point of (dis)interest: I refitted the race blade XL's onto the 'once B now A' main Di2 bike and will keep these on until indigestion from Easter eggs has faded. Or until the front one that rubs p*sses me off enough that it ends up in a bush. Make of that what you will.
point of (dis)interest #2: I am doing mostly indoor riding at the moment but have started to do a cpl of rides per week outdoors. Dunno if I will carry on all winter, not as young as I look these days and certainly not as hardcore. I have NOT fitted mudguards to the turbo bike...
Complicated this cycling lark...point of (dis)interest: I refitted the race blade XL's onto the 'once B now A' main Di2 bike and will keep these on until indigestion from Easter eggs has faded. Or until the front one that rubs p*sses me off enough that it ends up in a bush. Make of that what you will.
point of (dis)interest #2: I am doing mostly indoor riding at the moment but have started to do a cpl of rides per week outdoors. Dunno if I will carry on all winter, not as young as I look these days and certainly not as hardcore. I have NOT fitted mudguards to the turbo bike...
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I put mudguards back on the Trek the other day. I'll put them on the other road bike in the next week or two probably. I don't have a "Winter" bike but I do prepare them for poor weather.
I tend to disagree on that point. In winter when the roads are being salted heavily and I'm commuting then the wear rate on my commuter is much higher than the summer. I still keep it as clean as I can (hose it down when necessary etc) but the bad road conditions simply raise the wear rate of chains in particular. If I could clean the bike properly then it might mitigate that somewhat, but it's not practical to give a bike a thorough wash at the end of each day let alone each way fo the commute. One particularly bad January I wore through a chain in less than a month.
I tend to disagree on that point. In winter when the roads are being salted heavily and I'm commuting then the wear rate on my commuter is much higher than the summer. I still keep it as clean as I can (hose it down when necessary etc) but the bad road conditions simply raise the wear rate of chains in particular. If I could clean the bike properly then it might mitigate that somewhat, but it's not practical to give a bike a thorough wash at the end of each day let alone each way fo the commute. One particularly bad January I wore through a chain in less than a month.
cougie uk
Guru
You definitely get more wear and tear on cruddy days than a nice dry day. Even if you wash it as soon as you get in - you've still done 10s of miles with gritty pads,chains etc etc.
Also it can be very slippy in winter - if it is I'd rather be sliding my cheap bike than an expensive one. Black ice is a bugger.
What is the point in multiple bikes if you don't have multiple uses ? I don't want all my bikes to be similar.
Also it can be very slippy in winter - if it is I'd rather be sliding my cheap bike than an expensive one. Black ice is a bugger.
What is the point in multiple bikes if you don't have multiple uses ? I don't want all my bikes to be similar.
Most of my commutes have been on the winter bike as of late, not that it's much different in spec than my summer bike (both carbon and 105, although the winter bike has R7000 and summer bike has 5800). However, it is a gravel bike with disc brakes and better tyres for winter commuting. The only thing my winter bike is currently missing are some mudguards, which I'm picking up from a friend this weekend. I'm not worried about bits deteriorating, I give my bikes a good wipe down if they're dirty, and clean the components if they're grubby on a regular basis. The summer bike might come out if we've had a decent sunny, dry stretch of weather, but will probably be relegated to turbo duties (along with the TT) until spring.
Outside of actual racing where one hopes "to podium" , UK bikes should be equipped for all of the normal weather we get. That means bolt-on eyelets and clearance for mudguards giving riders the option to fix rather than bodge them on. There should be no need to specify a season, it is just " a bicycle". If riders want a fair weather finest ride, they should refer to it as their "Summer Bicycle"
That assumes that everyone uses their bike for transportation or enjoys riding in poor conditions. My Trek is mostly used for utility riding - but even that I took the mudguards off this summer as I prefer the appearance of an unencumbered bike and I knew I wouldn't be riding in inclement weather often.
That being said I did get a thoroughly wet arse and feet on Monday when riding to get my booster and flu vaccine, prompting me to put the mudguards back on.
Having the option to fit proper mudguards and choosing to fit them are two different things.
Other things include having no method of properly attaching mudguards and wanting to fit them.
cyberknight
As long as I breathe, I attack.
- Location
- Land of confusion
commuter has disks and mudgaurds and clearance for 30s which i sue all year around , summer bike will stay out a while longer if the roads are dry but if its wet roads the winter bike comes out for club rides
True enough. Both my current bikes have proper mudguard attachments (Trek Domane ALR and Kinesis Racelight) as well as the mudguards themselves and this was on my essential criteria list, along with a threaded BB. That being said, my next bike is likely to be a carbon race bike with likely no mudguard fitting, just for nice weather riding, two very nice bikes for winter should see me through
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
Not all of us have multiple bikes
