Lets see your winter bike.

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Just a few observations of commuting so far this winter:

1. As I've mentioned before, I'm living in a new city as I pursue a degree in Physical Therapy. This is my first winter here, and man, I thought my previous city salted the roads a lot! My mind is just being blown by the amounts of salt used in this city. I'm finally starting to come around to seeing things us56456712's way. I expected to get at least a good few years out of my Heavy Duti winter build (at least a year until the aesthetics start to go, and a few years until the functionality starts to go), but at this rate I would be surprised if it lasts a year. If that's the way things are going to go then I see absolutely no point in putting any more money into a winter commuter than necessary (ie, go buy a Huffy from Wal-Mart). If I spring for one made of aluminum, maybe I'll fare that much better. For the time being, though, we'll see how my Heavy Duti holds up. I'm breaking in the studs tomorrow; pics of the bike should follow. From there I'll try to document how the bike holds up over the course of the winter.

Not sure what everyone else is getting, but this has been an atypically rough start to winter. We have received a startling amount of cold, snow, and ice for it only being November. It really makes me wonder what to expect from this winter, after the previous one broke all sorts of records. Granted, there have been some nice days where I could remember that winter can be fun ... but man, talk about mother nature giving us no time at all to transition.

Lastly, this winter is my first time winter biking properly equipped. Last winter I was riding on 26 x 1 3/8 tires because, well, that's what I had. But now I'm riding on some 26 x 2.125 Kenda Flames, and I have to say this - it's bizarre how moving up to wider tires has simultaneously made me want a fat tire bike more and less. On one hand, I feel like I've been able to get through dang near everything just fine - and I haven't even put the studded tires on yet. On the other hand, all I can think is this - "if just an extra 3/4 of an inch or so can suddenly make such a huge difference in how easily I can tackle winter, imagine what two or three extra inches would do! I would be unstoppable!". Which is exactly what the fat tire bike marketing guys want me to think :D.
 
MplsCoaster said:
We've already had a fair amount of snow and cold (a little early this year). Last night it dropped ~1.5" of powder. After getting my shoveling done I headed out on my winter bike. Modern aluminum frame but cantilever style and I can get knobby snow tires on it.
I built it a few years ago and it's holding up well.
http://ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/aluminum-winter-full-tilt-sunset.65550/

It was fun!
IMG_1216.jpg


Great thread!
Thanks for looking
Steve
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:D Months before joining the forum to start inquiring about how to build my very own winter cruiser I was lurking around here and came across your thread. You have no idea how much time I spent trying to find a Trek Classic after that :D.
 
I got a chance to break in my studded tires yesterday, so my winter bike is more or less complete now. I'm sure I'll change out a few things here and there, but here it goes:

29n9h0k.jpg


* 2013 Schwinn Heavy Duti frame + chainguard (courtesy of Ind_Chuckz).

* Old Schwinn one piece crankset.

* Overhaul-able Sunlite pedals (important when they are exposed to the elements so much)

* KMC rust-buster chain (eager to see how this fares through the winter ... I have now discovered that they also make a stainless steel chain)

* F&S Komet Super coaster brake hub & Shimano HB-RM40 front hub laced to SunRingle Ryno Lite alloy rims with Wheelsmith spokes/spoke nipples (also excited to see how these fare in the winter). Rear axle covers and brake arm clip (not visible in picture) courtesy of us56456712.

* Chrome Summit fenders (probably a really stupid idea ... but I'm gonna do it anyways).

* Other parts: Old Mongoose seatpost, old Messinger saddle w/ Oshkosh license plate), Sunlite stem w/ removable faceplate, old chrome handlebars off of a Mossberg bike)

Here's an up-close picture of the studs:

20gdztc.jpg


As promised, I'll try to document the bike's progress through the winter. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from before winter started because, well, winter started way too soon this year. But before winter started the bike was spotless. I applied generous coats of Turtle Wax to the bike before the season started. We've had about three (maybe four) weeks of snow here already, but only two weeks of ice (so in other words, two weeks of salt/sand on the roads). Here's what the underside of the bottom bracket looks like:

2i9oy8l.jpg


... and here's what the underside of the chrome fenders looks like:

r9ob5e.jpg


I don't intend to clean the bike until spring comes because I really won't have that kind of time (I'm lucky to find the time to clean the chain every week or two), but there is WAAAAAY more salt on the roads in this city than I've ever seen before, so we'll see how it goes.
 
Oh, one other thing - even though the price of the Schwalbe Marathon's really hurts (even with these lower-priced tires), all I can say is "WOW". I've always been of the mindset that the premium stuff available for bikes really isn't that much better than the average stuff - for the most part, how well my bike works is dependent on how hard I'm willing to work, not how much I'm willing to spend. So I basically only buy cheap Kenda's; I've never tried a more expensive tire. But even with the resistance from the studs, these babies FLY over the pavement. I think I'm going to get spoiled by these tires.
 
us56456712 said:
I used stainless #4 pan head screws for my first tires and that is expensive. Since then I use #8 pan head sheet metal screws in plain steel. The self tapping kind are more heavy duty at the ends. I think a box of 220 costs $5-6.00, perhaps less. I use used tires now. Studded as it is easy to pick out which knob you want to stud. I use around 100 studs/tire, much less than the 200 rear, 260 front I used on my first set. I plan to remove the tires after the studs wear off and put new studs in the other knobs to make a new pattern. I can do this perhaps 3 times, I'm hoping. I use super glue to hold the studs in and they don't move. I always used a liner made out of an old inner tube plus a heavy duty inner tube. For the pair I am using now I turned the tire inside out and put Gorilla Tape over the screw heads for a liner. Then I used a regular inner tube in the front tire and a heavy duty one in the rear. I never break them in. I try and avoid bare pavement and seek out hard packed snow and ice to ride on as this helps the steel studs last longer. I buy old junk cheap mountain bikes with good tires for around $15 and use some of the parts and the tires are spares or for studs. I think I have less then $20.00 in mine. They last one season as the spring has a lot of bare pavement and that eats them up. I only have 3 rides on my new lighter build tires but I want to see how they last before I go and put another tube for a liner in there.
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Thanks for all of the info. It might be a while until I try making my own, but I'm glad to have the information for when I do try it. I especially like the idea of re-using old studded tires ... where do you get them from? I would imagine alot of people simply throw out their old studded tires when the studs wear out.
 
Your advice might just be worth taking, then. We have the same conditions here - rough, bumpy ice. I feel like I should purposefully go towards the ice, because I'm just wearing out my studs by taking them on the pavement, but if there's a choice between ice and pavement, I'm taking the pavement. I'm still too new to having studs to have that much confidence in them. That said, there are certainly times where the ice can't be avoided, and the studs have amazed my by how easily they handle these circumstances. Flying downhill at 25 mph on ice still terrifies me, though.

I forget, do you wear ski goggles during winter biking? Do yours get fogged up? I've gotten pretty good at preventing the fog, and Cat Crap helps, but after 5 miles or so you just get so hot that there's no avoiding it - the goggles are going to fog up. I'm thinking of switching over to safety glasses, as they seem like they'd be easier to pull off of my face for a minute or two to let the fog evaporate.
 
For me it's not even about my eyes tearing up because of the cold ... I can deal with that. It's how dry my eyes get thanks to winter riding. After putting in 30 miles in 16 degrees last week my eyes were SO insanely dry; it felt like I was going through a nasty bout of allergies or something. I wore my goggles all week this week and couldn't feel better. Yeah they're a pain, but I guess that's the price you have to pay.

The thing that just kills me is hills, though. This city has some steep hills, and you get up them so slow (and with such effort) that you're not going fast enough to have enough wind going through the goggles to keep the fog out. And what's more, then you're suddenly on top of a hill, about to go down completely blind. It's quite a predicament :D.
 
mornview said:
For me it's not even about my eyes tearing up because of the cold ... I can deal with that. It's how dry my eyes get thanks to winter riding. After putting in 30 miles in 16 degrees last week my eyes were SO insanely dry; it felt like I was going through a nasty bout of allergies or something.
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I know about this but I don't ride as often as you do. I use drops once in a while but otherwise my regular glasses work pretty well. Used to have great prescription sun glasses (now gone) but my transition lens are doing okay. We get really bright sunshine sometimes after a new snow and snowblind is an understatement. 25mph on ice, even with studs, sound hairy, nice going daredevil.

It's been warmer here lately and some of the snow is gone The paths are relatively dry but have intermittent ice running across them. It was a perfect Mpls winter day yesterday at upper 20's, Full Sunshine, and light winds. Decided to not take the knobby tires off my aluminum winter bike but run my Triangle Roadmaster with the Michelin Country Rock tires. Put a different set of bars and stem on it and it was great! Got a 15 mile ride in to the lake chain and back.

Got up the hill in the background no problem, yeah!
IMG_1245.jpg


Rode on the ice along the edge of Lake Calhoun for about a mile. The ice fishermen nearby said about 6" thick :);). No wipeouts with no studs at a very slow and steady pace. Tires were speedy on the paths too.
IMG_1251.jpg


I tried to sell this bike for $100 at a swap meet last spring, now I'm really glad I didn't because it my revived "mild" winter bike.:)

Keep though pictures coming. Got any ride pics Mornview or anybody?

Thanks for looking
Steve
 
mornview said:
For me it's not even about my eyes tearing up because of the cold ... I can deal with that. It's how dry my eyes get thanks to winter riding. After putting in 30 miles in 16 degrees last week my eyes were SO insanely dry; it felt like I was going through a nasty bout of allergies or something. I wore my goggles all week this week and couldn't feel better. Yeah they're a pain, but I guess that's the price you have to pay.

The thing that just kills me is hills, though. This city has some steep hills, and you get up them so slow (and with such effort) that you're not going fast enough to have enough wind going through the goggles to keep the fog out. And what's more, then you're suddenly on top of a hill, about to go down completely blind. It's quite a predicament :D.
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Its also bad mountain biking in the late fall at night. I wear glasses and really need them for the trails. When I tried to be fitted for contacts they told me they can't fit my eyes. At the top of a hill you are blind and have to go down all fogged up. Fortunately it clears rapidly, until the next uphill. My old eyes are really dry, I have to use artificial tears all year round so I don't notice the winter drying from bike riding too much as it is bad all year.
 
us56456712 said:
Its also bad mountain biking in the late fall at night. I wear glasses and really need them for the trails. When I tried to be fitted for contacts they told me they can't fit my eyes. At the top of a hill you are blind and have to go down all fogged up. Fortunately it clears rapidly, until the next uphill. My old eyes are really dry, I have to use artificial tears all year round so I don't notice the winter drying from bike riding too much as it is bad all year.
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Are you deleting all you older posts here on the forums? It seems every time you get to 30 some messages all of a sudden you are back to single digits and your older post in threads are then gone. I am really confused about this.
 
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Nagant said:
Are you deleting all you older posts here on the forums? It seems every time you get to 30 some messages all of a sudden you are back to single digits and your older post in threads are then gone. I am really confused about this.
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I din't know anyone would notice. I don't want to load up the forum and deleting them would make more room?
 

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