Winter cruiser recommendations

[mornview]

Hello all,

I'm planning on building a cruiser to get me through another brutal Wisconsin winter, and I am just looking for some advice. I want to get as wide of studded tires as possible (we ran 26 x 1.75 Schwalbe Marathon Winter's on my wife's bike just fine last winter, but the wider the better as far as I'm concerned).

What I'm trying to decide is whether I'll be able to get by with a middleweight frame or if I'll need a heaveyweight frame. I'm looking to run 26 x 2.00/2.10 studded tires (with fenders).

I'd prefer to go with a middle weight frame, but besides tire clearance issues, I know most vintage Schwinn middleweights came with 26 x 1 3/4 rims. I'd like to avoid having to build a new wheelset, so I think I'll need to either seek a non-Schwinn middleweight or go with a heaveyweight.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[B607]

I salute you for being a hardcore biker that rides in the winter. I have a winter cruiser, it's called a Lazy Boy recliner. Gary

 

[Bicycle808]

Finding studded s7 tires will be difficult. You could make your own but ppl seem to have mixed results with DIY studded tires.

If your preference is for 2"+ rubber and fenders, why go "middleweight"? The "weight", as far as that naming system goes, has more to do with the wheels/tires than it does the frame. Generally, balloon tires can be fit into mw frames pretty easily, but shoe-horning balloon fenders in along with them is harder. All of it fits easily in a balloon frame.
FWIW, I've been riding the past 3 comparatively mild NJ winters on a Worksman INB with fenders, fat franks, hub-generator lighting, a front drum and a coaster rear and it's been great. Only been a few days where I wish I had studded rubber, but I imagine Wisconsin has tougher conditions.

 

[jerrykr]

wow, what a great thread. can't believe you guys do this! My Fat Tire Bike will likely never see a snowflake. Ha! Loved the end of the video, hope you were not hurt!

 

[Bicycle808]

Awesome video, us56456712. I think I'd be down to ride that trail, but I'd be squeezing brakes and staying a lot slower than you did. Dang, looked like fun, but my annoying self-preservation instincts would've likely taken over; I'd have ridden it at 8mph.

 

[Bicycle808]

Awesome. And you made it to 68 anyway. I'm a pretty cautious guy; bet I won't make it far past 40.

 

[jerrykr]

It is a blast and I think about getting a real fat tire bike but I am 68 and figure I don't have that many years of riding remaining and so I would not get a return on my investment so I will stick with home built cheap beater cruisers. I haven't learned much about self preservation yet. Once went off of an olympic sized ski jump on cross country skis (bad result). Recently I fell multiple times off the ladder on my roof when building my garage and got right back up, my wife says I have a defective fear gene. Dah!

I'm getting real close to your age, and got my Fat Bike just because I wanted to, and I'll be flipping enough bikes to pay for it anyway. Ladders and ski jumps are out of the question for me!

 

[Bicycle808]

I agree tat factory-made studded tires are world's better than DIY studded tires, at least from what I've seen. (Maybe dome clever DIYer has come up with an awesome method, but I haven't seen it yet.) However, I've never seen s7/571mm studded tires, so running studded tires on a Schwinn middleweight with OE wheels will require DIY studs or no studs, unfortunately.

I've never felt comfortable in snow/ice without a front brake, but in most stops/deceleration situations under icy conditions, I use the front very little or not at all. I don't tend to grab the front until the rear is already in-use. My Sturmey-Archer x-fdd survived a few salty winters now; both the brake and the generator work just fine. However, I am kinda fastidious about keeping it cleaned after any salty rides, and I try to keep things lubed/tuned/clean as often as possible when conditions are salty. Fasteners and chains often need to be replaced after a winter's worth of riding, and the situation where my tail-light bolts to my rear fender got really crusty, but I freed it up. Incidentally, the tail-light started acting up this spring, and I suspect that salty meltwater might've been the culprit. I just replaced it with an identical unit, and I'm hoping Ican crack the old one open and see if I can fix it. It's one of these:

Busch & Muller 4D Lite Plus

 

[mornview]

It's funny how I got started on this; my wife and I got married last year. I'm pursuing a degree in physical therapy, so we won't have a whole lot of money for the next few years. Rather than buy a second vehicle that we can't really afford/don't really want, I volunteered to start commuting by bike - knowing full well what that meant when wintertime rolled around. However, as winter began, she started to see what I was really in for and told me there was no way she was going to let me do this alone - so now we both ended up winter bikers! And we wouldn't have traded it for the world - it was a blast.

Despite all my efforst, I never really found a winter beater I was happy with, so I (stupidly) just continued to use my beloved Concord New Yorker (a lightweight (26 x 1 3/8 tires) diamond-frame cruiser - so studded tires weren't an option for me). We managed to find a Westpoint cruiser for her and threw some 26 x 1.75 studded tires on it:

The odd part is, we went into winter with fundamentally the same bikes (steel frame, roughly the same age (there really is almost no info on either bike but they're probably late 70's/early 80's), put in the same regimine of coating the frame with wax, rode nearly the same amount as each other in the areas of town ... but hers came out no worse for wear, wheareas I went through a chain, my axle is so rusted that I can't overhaul the hub without getting rust into the hub, and my spokes are corroded. I can't figure that one out.

But yeah, I think studded tires make all the difference. I fell three times last winter (minor falls) and had to play it super safe. She was able to bike like a crazy person and never once felt like she was in danger of slipping. And thus, I am here trying to put together a similar bike for myself.

 

[mornview]

Finding studded s7 tires will be difficult. You could make your own but ppl seem to have mixed results with DIY studded tires.

If your preference is for 2"+ rubber and fenders, why go "middleweight"? The "weight", as far as that naming system goes, has more to do with the wheels/tires than it does the frame. Generally, balloon tires can be fit into mw frames pretty easily, but shoe-horning balloon fenders in along with them is harder. All of it fits easily in a balloon frame.
FWIW, I've been riding the past 3 comparatively mild NJ winters on a Worksman INB with fenders, fat franks, hub-generator lighting, a front drum and a coaster rear and it's been great. Only been a few days where I wish I had studded rubber, but I imagine Wisconsin has tougher conditions.

Ah, I didn't articulate it very much in my original post, but this is pretty much the reason I'm having this dilemma.

Old middleweights seem to be pretty common in the CL scene where I live. Heavyweights/balloon frames, however, seem to always carry a hefty price tag because of their value as a collector's item. I'd rather not spend much on something I'm going to corrode with salt (and moreover it just kills the bike enthusiast inside me to see a beautiful, historic bike being chewed up). So certainly I'd prefer to go heavyweight ... but cost is an issue. Can anyone recommend any balloon-frame bikes that typically go for cheap on the CL/Ebay scene? Cosmetics are not important, function is.

I've mostly been limiting my searches to vintage cruisers because a. from experience they are far superior and b. most newer bikes are going for higher prices on CL/Ebay, regardless of their actual value compared to their vintage counterparts. But I guess I wouldn't turn down the right modern cruiser ... I just can't bring myself to buy the Huffy Cranbrook, though .

And I've heard the argument that aluminum is superior in winter conditions - I can believe it, but my wife's steel bike made it through the winter like a breeze, and aluminum (from my experience) tends to go for a much higher price tag, so for the time being I'll probably stick with steel.

[Side note: I apologize if I am mis-using the terms "middleweight" and "heavyweight" - are these terms exclusively used to describe Schwinn bikes? I was under the impression that they could be used to describe vintage cruisers from all manufacturers).

 

[mornview]

us56456712, my hat goes off to you. I know that the U.P. gets hit with a worse winter than we do (which is saying something). I was I was as mechanically inclined as you are; I'd probably be a lot better prepared for the winter. For the time being I'll settle for putting studded tires on a cheap used bike .

 

[Bicycle808]

Middleweight and heavyweight/balloon aren't exclusive to Schwinns, but the s7 issue is a Schwinn thing... clearances for mw frames/forks vary wildly by model and manufacturer. Some will fit a 2"+ tire with a fender easily; others won't without a struggle and/or modifications.

Best bet for a cheap balloon tire bike, in my opinion, is to hit up RRB member ind-chuckz for a Schwinn Heavy Duti or Worksman frame. He sells the framesets cheap, often with other bits included. You can build'm cheap, too.... a pretty good option if you want a vintage-style bike but you don't care if it's really vintage or not.
http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/worksman-inb-frame-fork-for-sale.84267/

He often has the Schwinn HD framesets available, too....

 

[B607]

This is a really good thread, but I'm sure glad it's summer. Gary

 

[Bicycle808]

This is a really good thread, but I'm sure glad it's summer. Gary

Hahaaaaaaaa. I was thinking the same thing, although I've been arriving at work a bit too sweaty lately....

 

[Bicycle808]

Possibly helpful link:

http://thickbikes.com/blog/2011/01/how-to-spike-a-tire-step-1/
Be sure to click the link at the bottom for step #2.... there's 4 steps total in the tutorial.

 

[mikeeebikey]

I have to also commend you for riding snow man!

My best d.y.I. studs, were really small sheet metal screws, that had a backing plate, ground the points, then lined the tire with another cut down tire. HEAVY!
But, I used them on tuff wheels, no rusty spokes. Again, heavy.

Have you considered an aluminum m.t.b. frame, modified to run coaster? It takes a plate style dropout that has enough area to slot.

Good spokes have more stainless, and don't oxidize as fast.
Chains last longer if you get nickel plated, or chrome.

 

[Bicycle808]

http://www.treefortbikes.com/produc...1-and-8.html?gclid=CL72kt_j-74CFVFp7Aod2l4AAQ

Stainless chains are out there, too.

 

[mornview]

Middleweight and heavyweight/balloon aren't exclusive to Schwinns, but the s7 issue is a Schwinn thing... clearances for mw frames/forks vary wildly by model and manufacturer. Some will fit a 2"+ tire with a fender easily; others won't without a struggle and/or modifications.

Best bet for a cheap balloon tire bike, in my opinion, is to hit up RRB member ind-chuckz for a Schwinn Heavy Duti or Worksman frame. He sells the framesets cheap, often with other bits included. You can build'm cheap, too.... a pretty good option if you want a vintage-style bike but you don't care if it's really vintage or not.
http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/worksman-inb-frame-fork-for-sale.84267/

He often has the Schwinn HD framesets available, too....

Thanks for putting me up on the Worksman and Schwinn HD's ... I wasn't aware of either of them; both look like pretty solid modern options.

And thanks to the link for the d.i.y. studded tires. This is definitely the route I want to go down the road ...

 

[mornview]

Hahaaaaaaaa. I was thinking the same thing, although I've been arriving at work a bit too sweaty lately....

For sure.

This past winter was the first winter for my wife and I as bike commuters, and of course it had to be the coldest winter on record in decades. Plenty of days with -40F wind chills. That said, as it is starting to even approach 80 degrees with maximum humidity ... we kinda want winter back again.

 

[mornview]

I have definitely considered the MTB approach. In fact, I bought an early 90's Specialized HardRock with horizontal dropouts and built it up as a single speed with a coaster brake. Today I plan on putting it back together into it's original shape as it's just not going to work out. I really can't figure it out; I just can't get comfortable on the bike. I don't understand the differences in geometry between diffirent bike styles very well, but it must be something about MTB geometry. I put it next to some of my diamond-frame English 3-speed-style cruisers and it looks identical (I even put cruiser handlebars on the MTB), but it does not feel anything like them - yet it has the same seat tube length, standover height, top tube length, etc. Since getting back into biking all I have owned is cruisers and that just seems to be all that I am comfortable riding.

In the end I think it'll all work out, though, because I have found a very promising balloon tire Rollfast on CL. Thanks for all the help guys!