What's with Winter Bike/Summer Bike

guttertrash

Forgive my ignorance on this, but being new to road cycling i think i can be let off...

What is the reason for having winter and summer bikes? Are the winter bikes generally more robust/heavy, so that when the summer comes around you can use a lighter/faster bike?

I have a Specialized Secteur Sport at the moment, so If i buy another bike in a year or so, I expect the Secteur would become the 'winter' bike?

Tell me if i'm being a twit on this

Manchester Black Cat

I think it's more to do with the damage that your bike gets in winter. All the salt water, grit and gunk on your components so you have another bike that you don't mind getting a bit damaged and leave your racing bike for the summer

hopper1

My winter bike is a Ti frame, with full mudguards. It's low maintenance, for riding in the rain and whatever sh!t gets picked up from the road.
The summer bike is carbon fibre, can't fit mudguards, and would surely melt if it got damp!
Any excuse for more bikes...

John.T

The winter bike is where you wear out all the bits you removed from the best one when you upgraded. Usually has mudguards and as MBC says you are not so worried about it getting a bit sorted into.

acidstrato

as above, its just an excuse to upgrade your 'summer' bike and not get it dirty

Buckled_Rims

As has been said. Some nice carbon framed bikes don't have the facility to put full mud guards on, also with so much salt on the roads it's very corrosive to metal bits.

Put it this way, if you paid £500 for a set of wheels would you want then to get salted?

The estimated damage winter can do to a good expensive bike, you might as well get a so called "winter" bike and store to good un for dry days. Winter bikes can be anything you want, but some prefer special bikes like the Tifosi winter bike.

Not Another Hill

My 1987 Raleigh with down tube shifters was free from a friend in my club. Full 'guards; nice springy steel frame; 7 speed cassette; Tiagra chainset. Cheap as chips.

When the road is caked in salt, grime, snow, mud etc, the last thing you want to take out is your nice carbon framed race bike to get gradually destroyed by the aforementioned corrosives (unless, of course, you can devote 2 hours to cleaning your bike after every ride..which I can't.)

Seanos

I used my winter bike all winter and gave it a quick clean after (nearly :oops: ) every ride. and none of the components seem to have died from a salt overdose or worn any more than they would have done during normal use.

Having said that, I just find it really convenient to have a cheap bike set up for winter (mudguards, lights, training wheels and Durano Plus tyres). It means I don't have to ruin the lines on my speed machine by turning it into a tourer and don't have to worry about hitting a few potholes or taking a flyer on some ice.

Hopefully I can persuade her indoors that the winter has in fact killed my winter bike and it needs to be retired to full time turbo duty, so I can build up a new one.

hopper1

John.T wrote:

The winter bike is where you wear out all the bits you removed from the best one when you upgraded. Usually has mudguards and as MBC says you are not so worried about it getting a bit sorted into.

Unless you couldn't wait for upgraded parts, so just stumped up for a 'new' winter 'hack'!

Gav888

My summer bike is an expensive carbon bike, the winter bike is a cheap alu bike that I dont mind using when the weather is horrible. The cost of replacing bits on my summer bike would be ALOT more than my winter bike, for example the wheels on my summer bike cost more than my complete winter bike....

Monty Dog

In my experience, better quality groupsets are more resistant to abuse and winter than cheap ones - far better to pass on your 'best bike' bits to your trainer than buy cheap parts - I much prefer the rolling upgrade on the best bike than shelling out on the winter trainers - over the years I've managed to build-up 6 bikes via this route.