[quote=“Rusty Piton”]You can ride through the winter anywhere.
I don’t know if the langster is the bike to do it on though.
I think your best bet would be to pick up an old schwinn frame or something and throw a fixed wheel on it and a full set of fenders and at least 32s semi knobby.
200 dollar conversions make great winter bikes.[/quote]
I don’t do the semi knobby, but I do believe the fully fendered Schwinn conversion’s where it’s at for winter.
It’s like what they were built for.
I wonder how an adult trike would do for winter.
I’ve heard of a few mtl peeps who swear by narrow tires, not using the brakes and trusting their bike. How common is this?
The vast majority I see in qc is freddy mtb’s with studs.
I built my motobecane jury with winter in mind. Fenders, knobbies, plastic saddle, and a bmx brake is probably gonna work out well.
I did ran my mountain bike on snow days with good success, put studded tires on my CX bike last winter and am building up a conversion right now for the studded tires. Can’t beat studs, period. If there’s any kind of ice or packed snow I want nothing to do with 23s.
I rode my Fuji Track all last winter with only the addition of SKS Race Blades and it was do able. Full fenders would be nice. I had no real issues running 23s either. I toyed with the idea of throwing a brake on most of winter but, in the end, never felt the need. Milwaukee doesnt really plow their streets, we just salt the crap out of em. On my short (4mi) commute to and from work there is plenty of packed snow, slush, and ice. Im not sure what its like there though.
Maybe I’m retarded, but I have gone down at least 5 times riding on skinny tires. Never on knobbies though.
I’ve ridden throw the last 5 or 6 winters on a brakeless track bike with skinny tires. Not ideal, but my plans to build a winter bike never seem to happen.
Basically unless it snows or freezes early enough in the morning the major roads will be plowed and salted (not actually salt, some chemical that smells like vinegar, so less rust worries) by the time you are heading out. The bridges are always the last thing done, so you will have to walk it up them some mornings.
Really all you need, unless you want to go all cyclocross overkill, is a cheap clip on rear fender, a front brake and thicker tires.
I really can’t stand road salt; it corrodes the shit out of your shit, and doesn’t really improve conditions at all from a cyclist’s perspective.
Or anyones actually.
Road salt sucks.
Just plow.
it must be that time of the year, im breaking down my old frame to make it my winter beater… now if i can just get this siezed bb off!
NYC doesn’t really get snow anymore. Last winter we had 3 snow days and I think the max was about 6 inches. In Manhattan it basically immediately turns to slush. Really it’s more about what you wear while riding than what your bike is “wearing”. All you need is what Pat mentioned above, a clip on fender to keep your ass dry.
However, I’ll take a snow day over a below freezing and gusty day.
So i don’t need cross tires anymore?
Nope. That fad’s over. Full fenders are a necessity, though. I was riding behind a dude on a mountain bike with nothin’ but a clip on in the back for a bit tonight and got sprayed with the slop his stupid setup flung everywhere. It was real dumb.
I need to get full feners.
I braved last winter with a clip-on.
Never again.
full fenders are a must.
as far as knobbies go, i’ve ridden through snow on 25mm gatorskins and 35mm generic knobbies. On top of snow, I can lock up on my 25’s seated and skid for several meters, but if I do that on the knobbies, they dig right through the snow somehow and stop faster.
I love my micheline knobby cx tires. This’ll be my third winter on this pair.
We got our first real snow today!
So I almost fell about 3 times on my way to work this morning. Things on the major streets were fine, but there was a coat of ice on some side streets that was inescapable. Might have to consider some knobbies.
These look kinda cool:
